Anna Karenina (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Leo Tolstoy (Author), Richard Pevear (Translator), Larissa Volokhonsky (Translator)

Book Description

Release date: November 1, 2001

"Anna Karenina" tells of the doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing officer, Count Vronsky. Tragedy unfolds as Anna rejects her passionless marriage and must endure the hypocrisies of society. Set against a vast and richly textured canvas of nineteenth-century Russia, the novel's seven major characters create a dynamic imbalance, playing out the contrasts of city and country life and all the variations on love and family happiness. While previous versions have softened the robust, and sometimes shocking, quality of Tolstoy's writing, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky have produced a translation true to his powerful voice. This award-winning team's authoritative edition also includes an illuminating introduction and explanatory notes. Beautiful, vigorous, and eminently readable, this "Anna Karenina" will be the definitive text for generations to come.
"Pevear and Volokhonsky are at once scrupulous translators and vivid stylists of English, and their superb rendering allows us, as perhaps never before, to grasp the palpability of Tolstoy's 'characters, acts, situations.'" (James Wood, "The New Yorker")

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) wrote two of Russia's greatest novels, War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877), as well as many short stories and essays.

Product Details

• Paperback: 864 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books; Deluxe edition (November 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142000272
• ISBN-13: 978-0142000274
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #886,411 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) wrote two of the great novels of the nineteenth century, War and Peace and Anna Karenina.

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#20 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Classics

#55 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Historical

#61 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Historical

#20 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Classics

#55 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Historical

#61 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Historical

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

111 of 120 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars MY LIFE CHANGED April 14, 2002

By MOVIE MAVEN

Format:Paperback

In my sophomore year of college, I was assigned ANNA KARENINA to be read in one week. ONE WEEK! Somehow I did it and it changed my life. I came back to the Tolstoy novel in the summer between my sophomore and junior years and then again in grad school. I just finished reading it for the fourth time.

Everything you've heard and read about ANNA KARENINA is true. It is one of the finest, subtlest, most exciting, most romantic, truest, most daring, charming, witty and altogether moving experiences anyone can have. And you don't have to slog through pages and chapters to find the truth and beauty. It's right there from the first, famous sentence: "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

This new translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky is wonderful and deserves your attention even if you already have a favorite version of the book. Pevear and Volokhonsky are considered "the premiere translators of Russian literature into English of our day." Working, as I do, in the Theatre, I hope they take on some of Turgenev's plays.

Anyone who believes in the power of Art, especially Literature, must buy and read this book. I promise it can change your life. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

47 of 51 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Where's the style, Pevear and Volokhonsky? June 6, 2005

By Luke

Format:Paperback

Tolstoy, the most straightforward of Russian prose writers, have a deceptive style. Nabokov calls him the greatest of Russian writers, but concedes that his prose may be a little awkward at times, deliberately, as was his wont. Tolstoy's somewhat dogged muscular style can be lost in many translators, and from what one can read from the lastest Pevear and Volokhonsky, so much is lost that one wonders why the duo have made the translation at all. Moscow Times calls P and V's Dostoevsky's "better than their Tolstoy"; judging by this translation, one would have to agree.

The best that one can say about P and V's translation of Anna Karenina is that it is very smooth. But one wonders whether Tolstoy is that sleek and smooth in his original rendition. P and V's version suffers from odd lexical choices of diction which confuses rather than clarifies Tolstoy's novel. For instance, on the very first page, Oblonsky's body is rendered "full and well-tended". Mystifying... until one turns to the Maudes, who translates it as "plump, well-kept", making Oblonsky at least more than a potted plant. A few sentences later, Oblonsky is descibed as an "amorous man, who did not feel amorous with his wife". The Maudes have it better: "an amorous man...who was not in love with his wife" . In comparison with the Maudes and Garnett, weird lexical choices abound. This is not to say that either of them are perfect, but they do bring a more macro-view to translation than P-and-V, who seems to be translating out of context all the time.

In short, I am disappointed by Pevear and Volokhonsky's translation. I kept feeling while reading their version that Tolstoy is this great writer who is handicapped by his translators.... Although none of the substitutes are perfect, I recently skipped from P-and-V over to a revised Garnett, and felt closer to Tolstoy's intents. Read more ›

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Anna, sweet Anna March 11, 2005

By E. A Solinas HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." That line opens and sets the tone of "Anna Karenina," a tangled and tragic tale of nineteenth century Russia. Tolstoy's story of lovers and family is interlaced with razor-sharp social commentary and odd moments that are almost transcendent. In other words, this is a masterpiece.

When Stepan Oblonsky has an affair with the governess, his wife says that she's leaving him, and now the family is about to disintegrate. Stepan's sister Anna arrives to smooth over their marital problems, and consoles his wife Dolly until she agrees to stay. But on the train there, she met the outspoken Countess Vronsky, and the countess's dashing son, who is semi-engaged to Dolly's sister Kitty.

Anna and Vronsky start to fall in love -- despite the fact that Anna has been married for ten years, to a wealthy husband she doesn't care about, and has a young son. Even so, Anna rejects her loveless marriage and becomes the center of scandal and public hypocrisy, and even becomes pregnany by Vronsky. As she prepares to jump ship and get a divorce, Anna becomes a victim of her own passions...

That isn't the entire story, actually -- Tolstoy weaves in other plots, about disintegrating families, new marriages, and the melancholy Levin's constant search for God, truth, and goodness. Despite the grim storyline about adultery, and the social commentary, there's an almost transcendent quality to some of Tolstoy's writing. It's the most optimistic tragic book I've ever read.

For some reason, Tolstoy called this his "first novel," even though he had already written some before that. Perhaps it's because "Anna Karenina" tackles so many questions and themes, and does so without ever dropping the ball.... No wonder it's so long and imposing -- Tolstoy covered a lot of ground in here.

And while "Anna Karenina" was not the first book he wrote, it is probably the deepest and most moving. Tolstoy steeps the book in social commentary, and his personal philosophies. It's also one of those books that takes a very long time to move itself forward -- Tolstoy's writing is slow and ponderous, with a lot of serious discussion about religion and relationships. But his intense, slightly rough writing is worth it.

In some tragic books, you get the feeling that the author really despises his characters, and doesn't really care what happens to them. Tolstoy never gives you that feeling -- no matter how annoying his characters are, they always have something interesting or endearing. No caricatures at all -- even Anna's irritating, arrogant brother is given some quirks to make him seem real.

Oddly enough, the most moving character here is not Anna, but Konstantin Levin -- the tortured, passionate landowner is so earnest that it's difficult not to care about him. Apparently he was Tolstoy's alter ego, which explains his depth. But Anna and Vronsky are strong leads, a passionate pair who are both selfish and seductive, but never boring.

A beautiful look at living right vs. living wrong, "Anna Karenina" is a truly magnificent book. This book is undoubtedly Tolstoy's opus, and a stunning look at human nature. Read more ›

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Ultimate Family Novel April 3, 2002

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

When most people think of Tolstoy, they no doubt think of "Anna Karenina." So do I, and even though "Anna Karenina" isn't my favorite Tolstoy book (I preferred the exquisite and perfect novella, "The Death of Ivan Illych" instead), I will admit that "Anna Karenina" is definitely Tolstoy's most psychologically revealing and most complex work.

Set against the Russia of the 1870s, this book, like so many great Russian novels, could almost be read as a history lesson as well as a novel. There are passages on war, passages on peace and passages on the meaning of the "true Russian soul." And, perhaps in this book more than in any other ("Resuurection" may be the one exception), does Tolstoy share his own feelings with his readers by incorporating them into the feelings of his characters. The character of Levin, more than any other, mirrors the character of Tolstoy, himself. By the book's end, Levin, like Tolstoy, is a man who lives for God. And, for Levin, as for Tolstoy, this discovery of God, and the evocation of the spiritual side of his nature over the rational and intellectual side, gives a new serenity to life.

At its heart, of course, "Anna Karenina" is a novel of love and especially, of the love that exists within families. It is about love that works (Levin and Kitty) and it is also about love that fails to work (Vronsky and Anna).

Whether conventional (Levin and Kitty) or unconventional (Vronsky and Anna), functional or dysfunctional, Tolstoy's families are families in flux. The characters change and the relationships involved must change their dynamics as well if they are to survive. Love, something that is never easy, is severely tested and tried in "Anna Karenina." Some loves pass the tests, others do not....

I have often thought that Tolstoy would have made a great film director as well as a great novelist. He excels at subtle gestures: a squeeze of the hand, a glance of the eye, a failure to turn around and face one's accuser. These details and so many more are brilliantly portrayed in "Anna Karenina" and form much of the book's greatness.

This is a book with everything: riches, poverty, sickness, death, weddings, urban society and the peace of the country, togetherness and separation, joy and loss, love, betrayal and forgiveness.

This translation by husband and wife team, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky is, in my opinion, far superior to the "old" translations of Louise and Aylmer Maude or Constance Garnett. The Maudes, to be sure, were friends and devotees of Tolstoy, but their Victorian prose can often sound "stilted" and forced. True, the Maudes present a more literal translation than do Pevear and Volokhonsky and they remain true to Russian grammar and sentence construction. Pevear and Volokhonsky have sacrificed the Russian grammar of Tolstoy in favor of English grammar and clarity of thought. I think, in this case, at least, it was a wonderful choice.

They have also chosen to keep the Russian names of the characters, rather than Anglicizing them, something else I very much prefer. In this translation, "Matvei" remains "Matvei." In older translations, he became, maddeningly, "Matthew." In today's cosmopolitan world, I think most of us, and certainly those who are going to choose to read a book as sophisticated as "Anna Karenina" are familiar enough with Russian names to stick to the original. Substituting the English equivalent simply sounds silly.

The notes that accompany this translation are far, far superior to the notes in the older translations, but here I do have a complaint. Why on earth did the publisher choose to put them at the end of the book rather than as footnotes? I found myself flipping to the back of the book time and again, when it would have been so much more convenient and helpful to simply look at the bottom of the page. The publisher did choose to place the translations of the French and German phrases at the bottom of the page, so why not the explanatory notes as well?

Overall, however, I love this translation and find it far superior to any other I have read. "Anna Karenina" is a complex novel encompassing all the mysteries of relationships. One requires enough concentration just reading the book without stumbling through an awkward translation as well. "Anna Karenina" is a wonderful book; this new translation has made it far more accessible and enjoyable. I hope it will be enjoyed by many more readers in the years to come. Read more ›