Leo Tolstoy's most personal novel, Anna Karenina scrutinizes fundamental ethical
and theological questions through the tragic story of its eponymous heroine. An
na is desperately pursuing a good, "moral" life, standing for honesty and sincer
ity. Passion drives her to adultery, and this flies in the face of the corrupt R
ussian bourgeoisie.
Meanwhile, the aristocrat Konstantin Levin is struggling
to reconcile reason with passion, espousing a Christian anarchism that Tolstoy h
imself believed in.