Leo Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina contains eight parts.
The eight-part structure follows several connected families and social circles in nineteenth-century Russia. Anna’s relationship with Count Vronsky forms the novel’s most famous tragic plot, while Konstantin Levin’s agricultural experiments, marriage, and religious questioning provide a substantial parallel narrative.
The parts are not simply divisions of Anna’s story. They move between Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the countryside, contrasting urban society with rural life. Tolstoy uses these shifts to examine marriage, parenthood, work, politics, religion, and the pressures placed on women and men by aristocratic society.
Some editions also include an introduction, notes, or appendices, which can make the physical book appear to have additional sections. Those editorial materials are not part of Tolstoy’s original eight-part narrative. The novel’s eighth part is especially important because it broadens the perspective beyond the main domestic story and addresses the wider political climate.