Anna Karenina

In 1872, the mistress of a neighbouring landowner threw herself under a train at a station near Tolstoy's home. This event provided Tolstoy with the inspiration he needed to compose what many believe to be the greatest novel ever written.

In writing Anna Karenina, he moved away from the vast historical sweep of War and Peace to portray, with extraordinary understanding, the story of an aristocratic woman who brings ruin upon herself. Anna's tragedy is interwoven with not only the courtship and marriage of Kitty and Levin but also the lives of many other characters. Rich in incident and powerful in characterisation, the novel also expresses Tolstoy's own moral vision.

"The correct way of putting the question is the artist's duty," Chekhov once insisted, and Anna Karenina was the work he chose to make his point. It solves no problem, but it is deeply satisfying because all the questions are put correctly.

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