Anna Karenina Summary and Complete Study Guide

Society shuns Anna but welcomes Vronsky. She becomes paranoid and jealous, convinced Vronsky will leave her. She can't see her son, she's addicted to morphine, she's spiraling. After a fight with Vronsky, Anna throws herself under a train. Vronsky is devastated and joins a military campaign essentially seeking death. Karenin raises both his son and Anna's daughter by Vronsky. Levin finds peace in faith and family. Tolstoy's message? Passion without stability destroys. Society punishes women for the same behavior it forgives in men. Choosing authentic feeling over social expectations can cost everything. But also, Levin's story shows that quiet love, faith, and purpose can bring happiness. It famously opens: "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." It questions whether romantic love is worth the cost and critiques aristocratic hypocrisy while showing that some societal structures are inescapable.

Published 1877 in serial form, often ranked alongside War and Peace as Tolstoy's masterpiece. William Faulkner called it the best novel ever written. The opening line about happy and unhappy families is one of literature's most quoted. Tolstoy wrote it while experiencing his own spiritual crisis, which shows in Levin's searching. The book influenced how novels depict adultery—Anna is sympathetic despite her affair because Tolstoy shows the complexity. Society's double standards for men and women are critiqued sharply. Every translation is debated because Tolstoy's Russian is so specific. Oprah picked it for her book club, introducing it to readers who wouldn't otherwise tackle 800 pages of 19th-century Russian aristocracy. It remains timelessly relevant for its honest portrayal of how passion, duty, and social expectations collide.