As in " War and Peace " , the social framework (approximately 150 characters) is here also extensive and carefully investigated. The issues discussed, illustrated by the case of the main characters, demonstrated by their destiny, have a different character, less social, more individual, more philosophically nuanced : the meaning and purpose of life, the moral conditions of marriage and family life, the relationship between life and death , between love and happiness. The writer's views also extend over a vast social field, including intellectuals, merchants, peasants , etc. In the foreground, however, remains the world of the nobility, within which, with emphasized moralizing tendencies, Tolstoy aims to highlight the corruption of the worldly world, of the city aristocracy, which is opposed, in a vivid contrast, by the simple, honest, pure life of the rural nobility, represented by the Levin family.

In 1873 , Tolstoy began work on his next large-scale novel, inspired in part by events at a neighboring estate, where a nobleman's rejected mistress committed suicide by throwing herself in front of a train. This subject, against the background of re-reading Pushkin 's poems to his children, inspired him to write about a truly unhappy family.

 

The success of the 1935 film adaptation of Tolstoy's novel made Greta Garbo the image of Anna Karenina, known throughout the world.

After several months, upon completion of the manuscript , instead of presenting the book in its final form, Tolstoy decided to develop and elaborate the text even further. After correcting and sending this copy to print, he decided to edit and develop the text once more. Tolstoy's style was always like this. Each new idea seemed to him more brilliant than the previous one, and he had to go back to the text and correct it. However, when the final form of this novel describing the tragic history of a family came to print, almost half of the text was cut, and printing delays were inevitable. In 1877 , the novel was finally published in its entirety.

"All happy families are alike, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Thus begins the novel, meticulously written and edited, reflecting the author's perception of love and tragedy.

The rebellious Anna Karenina gives free rein to her passion for a dashing officer, Count Vronsky, and leaves her loveless home to throw herself into the arms of a passionate but doomed love. She thus sacrifices her child and submits to the condemnation of Moscow high society. Anna's tragic story is interwoven and contrasted with the idyll and marriage between Constantin Levin and Kitty Shcerbatkaia, very similar to that between Tolstoy and his wife. Seeking the truth, Levin expresses his views on contemporary society, politics and religion, which are often taken as the author's own. ^[2]