Leo Tolstoy’s novel featuring the landowner Konstantin Levin as a central character is Anna Karenina.
Levin is one of the novel’s two main narrative figures, alongside Anna Karenina. His storyline follows his efforts to find meaning through work, family life, social relationships, and religious belief. Tolstoy partly based Levin on his own experiences and ideas, making the character especially important for understanding the author’s intellectual development.
Levin’s name is sometimes written as Lyovin or Levin in English translations because Russian transliteration varies. He is not Anna’s husband; Anna is married to Alexei Karenin and has a relationship with Count Vronsky. Levin’s courtship and marriage to Kitty Shcherbatskaya form a major parallel storyline to Anna’s tragic experience.
Anna Karenina was first serialized in The Russian Messenger beginning in 1875 and published as a complete book in 1878. Its interwoven plots contrast private happiness, social expectations, and the pressures placed on women and men in nineteenth-century Russian society.