num_pages: 962
description: Anna Karenina is the tragedy of married aristocrat and socialite Anna Karenina and her affair with the affluent Count Vronsky. The story starts when she arrives in the midst of a family broken up by her brother's unbridled womanizing—something that prefigures her own later situation, though with less tolerance for her by others. A bachelor, Vronsky is willing to marry her if she would agree to leave her husband Karenin, a government official, but she is vulnerable to the pressures of Russian social norms, her own insecurities and Karenin's indecision. Although Vronsky eventually takes Anna to Europe where they can be together, they have trouble making friends. Back in Russia, she is shunned, becoming further isolated and anxious, while Vronsky pursues his social life. Despite Vronsky's reassurances she grows increasingly possessive and paranoid about his imagined infidelity, fears losing control. A parallel story within the novel is of Levin, a country landowner who desires to marry Kitty, sister to Dolly and sister-in-law to Anna's brother Oblonsky. Levin has to propose twice before Kitty accepts. The novel details Levin's difficulties managing his estate, his eventual marriage, and personal issues, until the birth of Levin's first child.
language: English
title: Anna Karenina with a Full-Length Sparknotes Reader's Companion
titlecomplete: Anna Karenina with a Full-Length Sparknotes Reader's Companion
characters: Princess Ekaterina "Kitty" Aleksandrovna Shcherbatskaya, Konstantin "Kostya" Dmitrievitch Levin, Anna Arkadyevna Karenina, Count Aleksei Kirillovich Vronsky, Prince Stepan "Stiva" Arkadyevitch Oblonsky
genres: Classics, Historical, Russia, Novels, Russian Literature, Romance, Historical Fiction, Literature, 19th Century, Fiction
ratings_count: 819279
places: Russia
awards: awardedAt: 1325404800000
name: Premio literatura rusa en España, awardedAt: 1325404800000
name: Read Russia Prize
category: Classic Russian Literature for Victor Gallego Ballestero
publisher: SpellBinders