Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Description

The story centers on an extramarital affair between Anna and a dashing cavalry officer Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky on one hand and between Dolly Oblonskaya and her husband, Stiva, on the other hand. Dolly’s husband is having an affair with governess; while Anna, the wife of the St. Petersburg government official Karenin, strays away and starts living with Vronsky. Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin, twenty years Anna’s senior, refuses to give divorce to Anna. Anna meets with social disgrace and is spurned for her wayward ways. The social circles of Saint Petersburg compel the young lovers to live in seclusion. And the plot further unravels the complexity in the relationship between the various couples, their ideologies, faith, belief, ambition and moral and social compulsions.

Anna Karenina beguiles and intrigues its readers and keeps them filled with a mixture of emotions and an insatiable urge to be a part of the world that unfolds the twists and turns of intertwined human lives. The novel depicts a world full of surprises and fascinates through its changing human sentiments and thoughts. The characters are memorable and palpably human. The outward manifestations of social disapproval that is evident at that age is still to be experienced even if in lesser degrees. Thus, the plot remains inexplicably topical. Anna meets with a tragic fate in the end. In her desperation, she throws herself under a train and dies.

Anna Karenina encourages us to see and accept the truth. It teaches us to read what lies beneath the garb of a composed self, to delve deeper to understand people better. This novel belongs to the genre of literary realism, and we can classify it to be one of the best examples of this literary genre. The novel is a true and accurate depiction of each individual playing their part in the story and mirrors the social reality accurately. It adheres to all the primary characteristics of literary realism.