Anna Karenina

«Anna Karenina» — the best novel about a woman, written in the 19th century. The idea of a «novel of modern life» came to L. N. Tolstoy as early as 1870. «Last night he told me, — noted Sofia Andreyevna Tolstaya in her diary on February 24, 1870, — that he had imagined a type of woman, married, from high society, but having lost herself.» The first chapters of «Anna Karenina» were published in 1875 in the magazine «Russian Herald»: Tolstoy decided to present them for public judgment even before the completion of the manuscript as a whole. The publication of the novel continued for three years. The success exceeded all expectations. As one of Tolstoy's contemporaries wrote, «each chapter of 'Anna Karenina' raised the whole society in an uproar, and there was no end to conversations, raptures, gossip, and disputes, as if it were a matter of a question personally close to each one.» According to F. M. Dostoevsky, «Anna Karenina» amazed readers «not only with the ordinariness of its content but also with the enormous psychological development of the human soul, terrifying depth, and strength.»
The novel is published with illustrations by the outstanding Russian artist of the 20th century Alexander Samokhvalov; the edition includes an article by Professor of St. Petersburg State University Andrey Stepanov.