Which 1878 Leo Tolstoy novel follows the tragic life of Anna Karenina?

Anna Karenina is the 1878 Leo Tolstoy novel that follows Anna’s tragic life.

The novel was first published in serial form from 1875 to 1877, with its complete book edition appearing in 1878. Its central plot concerns Anna Karenina, a married aristocratic woman whose relationship with Count Vronsky leads to social isolation and personal crisis.

Alongside Anna’s story, Tolstoy develops the courtship and marriage of Konstantin Levin and Kitty Shcherbatskaya. Their experiences provide a contrasting exploration of family, work, rural life, faith, and moral responsibility. The novel therefore has two major interwoven narratives rather than being only a romance.

Anna Karenina opens with one of literature’s best-known lines about families. Its setting is mainly nineteenth-century Russian society, especially Saint Petersburg, Moscow, and the countryside. The title character is not based on a single documented historical woman.