About this audiobook
Anna Karenina's love for the officer Alexei Vronsky brings her into conflict with the expectations of her marriage and the judgement of high society. Her desire for a life shaped by her own feelings is inseparable from painful questions about duty, her relationship with her son and the cost of defying convention. Leo Tolstoy follows these tensions through the changing emotional lives of his characters.
Alongside Anna's story, Konstantin Levin searches for meaning in work, country life and his relationship with Kitty Shcherbatskaya. The two strands offer different perspectives on love and family, while revealing how private choices are shaped by the society around them. Affection, jealousy and uncertainty unsettle even apparently secure relationships.
Set against the varied social world of nineteenth-century Russia, the novel combines intimate psychological observation with broader questions about belonging and responsibility. It will appeal to readers who value complex relationships and stories that resist simple judgements about happiness or the right way to live.
