Anna Karenina

Publisher Marketing: Anna Karenina (sometimes Anglicised as Anna Karenin) is a novel by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, published in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Messenger. Tolstoy clashed with its editor Mikhail Katkov over issues that arose in the final installment; therefore, the novel's first complete appearance was in book form. Widely regarded as a pinnacle in realist fiction, Tolstoy considered Anna Karenina his first true novel, when he came to consider War and Peace to be more than a novel. The character of Anna was likely inspired, in part, by Maria Hartung (Russian spelling Maria Gartung, 1832-1919), the elder daughter of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. Soon after meeting her at dinner, Tolstoy began reading Pushkin's prose and once had a fleeting daydream of a bare exquisite aristocratic elbow, which proved to be the first intimation of Anna's character. Although Russian critics dismissed the novel on its publication as a trifling romance of high life, Fyodor Dostoevsky declared it to be flawless as a work of art. His opinion was shared by Vladimir Nabokov, who especially admired the flawless magic of Tolstoy's style, and by William Faulkner, who described the novel as the best ever written. The novel is currently enjoying popularity as demonstrated by a recent poll of 125 contemporary authors by J. Peder Zane, published in 2007 in The Top Ten, which declared that Anna Karenina is the greatest novel ever written. Review Citations: Kliatt 07/01/2007 pg. 55 (EAN 9780792747024, Compact Disc) Criticas 06/01/2007 (EAN 9781933499246, Compact Disc) Kliatt 11/01/2005 pg. 36 (EAN 9781556857546, Analog Audio Cassette) Ingram Advance 11/01/2005 pg. 92 (EAN 9781596091832, Paperback) Commonweal 06/20/2003 pg. 22 (EAN 9780140440416, Paperback) New Yorker (The) 02/05/2001 pg. 82 (EAN 9780670894789, Hardcover) Kirkus Reviews 02/15/2001 pg. 213 (EAN 9780670894789, Hardcover) Library Journal 02/15/2001 pg. 203 (EAN 9780670894789, Hardcover) Wilson Fiction Catalog 01/01/2000 pg. 647 (EAN 9780679600794, Hardcover) Wilson Fiction Catalog 01/01/2010 pg. 919 (EAN 9780679600794, Hardcover) Wilson Senior High Core Col 01/01/2011 pg. 1073 (EAN 9780679410003, Hardcover) Newsweek 02/04/2008 pg. 9 (EAN 9780075536321, Hardcover) Newsweek 07/21/2008 pg. 16 (EAN 9780075536321, Hardcover) Newsweek 08/11/2008 pg. 12 (EAN 9780075536321, Hardcover) New York Times Book Review 12/28/2014 pg. 1 (EAN 9780199232086, Hardcover) New York Times Book Review 12/28/2014 pg. 1 (EAN 9780300203943, Hardcover) Audio File 04/01/2013 pg. 41 (EAN 9781470837402, Compact Disc) Entertainment Weekly 07/05/2013 pg. 94 (EAN 9780345803924, Paperback) School Library Journal 08/01/1999 (EAN 9780553525595, Analog Audio Cassette) Audio File 12/01/2010 pg. 58 (EAN 9789626341308, Compact Disc) Contributor Bio:  Tolstoy, Leo Nikolayevich Nikolai Tolstoy is a highly recognized and acclaimed historian and biographer. He was the sole beneficiary of his stepfather's will and is one of the trustees of O'Brian's estate.