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Anna Karenina

by Leo Tolstoy

"Anna Karenina" is Leo Tolstoy's sweeping novel of nineteenth-century Russian society, first serialized in the periodical The Russian Messenger between 1875 and 1877 and published in complete book form in 1878. It follows… more

First published 1878 · 964 pages · English

29 quotes ★ 4.11 (955,743) Classics

Quotes from the Book

All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
If you look for perfection, you'll never be content.
I think... if it is true that there are as many minds as there are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts.
He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.
Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.
Spring is the time of plans and projects.
Is it really possible to tell someone else what one feels?
Rummaging in our souls, we often dig up something that ought to have lain there unnoticed.
Be bad, but at least don't be a liar, a deceiver!
Love. The reason I dislike that word is that it means too much for me, far more than you can understand." - Anna Karenina {Anna Karenina}
I've always loved you, and when you love someone, you love the whole person, just as he or she is, and not as you would like them to be.
All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.
Anything is better than lies and deceit!
I always loved you, and if one loves anyone, one loves the whole person, just as they are and not as one would like them to be. -Dolly
Sometimes she did not know what she feared, what she desired: whether she feared or desired what had been or what would be, and precisely what she desired, she did not know.
All the girls in the world were divided into two classes: one class included all the girls in the world except her, and they had all the usual human feelings and were very ordinary girls; while the other class -herself alone- had no weaknesses and was superior to all humanity.
it's much better to do good in a way that no one knows anything about it.
They've got no idea what happiness is, they don't know that without this love there is no happiness or unhappiness for us--there is no life.
If you love me as you say you do,' she whispered, 'make it so that I am at peace.
But I'm glad you'll see me as I am. Above all, I wouldn't want people to think that I want to prove anything. I don't want to prove anything, I just want to live; to cause no evil to anyone but myself. I have that right, haven't I?
It's hard to love a woman and do anything.
But the law of loving others could not be discovered by reason, because it is unreasonable.
I often think that men don't understand what is noble and what is ignorant, though they always talk about it.
He soon felt that the fulfillment of his desires gave him only one grain of the mountain of happiness he had expected. This fulfillment showed him the eternal error men make in imagining that their happiness depends on the realization of their desires.
He was afraid of defiling the love which filled his soul.
Something magical has happened to me: like a dream when one feels frightened and creepy, and suddenly wakes up to the knowledge that no such terrors exist. I have wakened up.
Not one word, not one gesture of yours shall I, could I, ever forget...
Whatever our fate is or may be, we have made it and do not complain of it." - Vronksy {Anna Karenina}
I'm like a starving man who has been given food. Maybe he's cold, and his clothes are torn, and he's ashamed, but he's not unhappy.

Did you know?

  • The novel was first serialized in the journal The Russian Messenger from 1875 to 1877 before appearing in complete book form in 1878.
  • It opens with one of the most famous first lines in literature: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
  • The novel carries the epigraph "Vengeance is mine, and I will repay," adapted from the Bible.
  • Tolstoy set the story against the sweeping social reforms of Emperor Alexander II's era, including emancipation and the spread of railroads.
  • The character Konstantin Levin is often read as a partly autobiographical figure reflecting Tolstoy's own spiritual questions.
  • The novel has been adapted many times for film, television, ballet, opera, and the stage.

About Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Russian writer widely regarded as one of the greatest novelists of all time, best known for "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina." In later life he became an influential moral and religious thinker whose ideas on nonviolence shaped later figures such as Gandhi.

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About the book

"Anna Karenina" is Leo Tolstoy's sweeping novel of nineteenth-century Russian society, first serialized in the periodical The Russian Messenger between 1875 and 1877 and published in complete book form in 1878. It follows Anna, a married Saint Petersburg socialite whose passionate affair with the cavalry officer Count Vronsky scandalizes her aristocratic world and carries tragic consequences. Running parallel to Anna's story is that of the landowner Konstantin Levin, whose courtship of Kitty Shcherbatskaya and search for meaning offer a contrasting vision of love, marriage, and faith.

Tolstoy weaves these two narratives against the backdrop of an Imperial Russia in rapid transformation, examining marriage and fidelity, family and hypocrisy, desire and social judgment, and the tension between urban high society and rural life on the land. Rather than pronouncing a verdict on his characters, Tolstoy invites the reader to watch rather than judge, giving the novel its famous epigraph, "Vengeance is mine, and I will repay."

Widely regarded as one of the greatest works of world literature, "Anna Karenina" is celebrated for its psychological depth and its panoramic portrait of a society reshaped by reform, emancipation, and industrial change. Its opening line and its central figures have become touchstones of the novel form, and the book has inspired numerous stage, ballet, opera, film, and television adaptations across more than a century.

Key characters

  • Anna Arkadyevna KareninaA married Saint Petersburg socialite whose affair drives the novel
  • Count Alexei VronskyThe cavalry officer who becomes Anna's lover
  • Konstantin LevinA landowner whose parallel story explores love and faith
  • Princess Kitty ShcherbatskayaA young woman who ultimately marries Levin
  • Alexei Alexandrovich KareninAnna's husband, a senior government statesman
  • Stiva OblonskyAnna's genial, unfaithful brother
  • Dolly OblonskyStiva's long-suffering wife and Kitty's sister

Book details

First published
1878
Length
964 pages
Reading time
58 hours
Goodreads rating
4.11 (956k ratings)
First line
“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

Movie & TV adaptations

  • IMDb
    Anna Karenina 1935

    American film starring Greta Garbo as Anna

  • IMDb
    Anna Karenina 1948

    British film starring Vivien Leigh

  • IMDb
    Anna Karenina 1997

    Film starring Sophie Marceau

  • IMDb
    Anna Karenina 2012

    Joe Wright film starring Keira Knightley

If you liked this, read…

  1. 1
    War and PeaceTolstoy's other epic panorama of Russian society
  2. 2
    Madame BovaryFlaubert's tragedy of a married woman's adulterous longing
  3. 3
    MiddlemarchGeorge Eliot's expansive study of marriage and provincial society

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