Anna Karenina (film tie-in) - Softcover

Tolstoy, Leo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141391898 ISBN 13: 9780141391892

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2012

Synopsis

Leo Tolstoy's tragic Russian love story Anna Karenina is now the subject of a major new film adaptation from director Joe Wright (Atonement, Pride and Prejudice). Starring Keira Knightley (A Dangerous Method) as Anna Karenina, Jude Law (Sherlock Holmes) as her husband Alexei, Aaron Johnson (Nowhere Boy) as Count Vronsky, and also starring Matthew McFadyen, Andrea Riseborough and Kelly Macdonald, this dazzling production of Anna Karenina has been adapted for the screen by legendary playwright Tom Stoppard. This Penguin Classics edition is translated by award-winning duo Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.

Anna Karenina seems to have everything - beauty, wealth, popularity and an adored son. But she feels that her life is empty until the moment she encounters the impetuous officer Count Vronsky. Their subsequent affair scandalizes society and family alike, and soon brings jealousy and bitterness in its wake. Contrasting with this tale of love and self-destruction is the vividly observed story of Konstantin Levin, a man striving to find contentment and meaning to his life - and also a self-portrait of Tolstoy himself.

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) spent his youth in wasteful idleness until 1851, when he travelled to the Caucasus and joined the army, fighting in the Crimean war. After marrying in 1862, Tolstoy settled down, managing his estates and writing two of his best-known novels, War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1878). A Confession (1879-82) marked a spiritual crisis in his life, and in 1901 he was excommunicated by the Russian Holy Synod.

'William Faulkner, it's said, was once asked to name the three best novels ever. He replied: "Anna Karenina, Anna Karenina, Anna Karenina." If you don't recall why, rush to buy a fine new translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky'
Boyd Tonkin, Independent

About this title

Product Description:

Anna Karenina seems to have everything beauty, wealth, popularity and an adored son. But she feels that her life is empty until the mome she encounters the impetuous officer Count Vronsky. Their subsequent affair scandalizes society and family alike, and soon brings jealousy and bitterness in its wake, leading to Anna's downfall. Set against a backdrop of Russian high society, this tragic story of love.

Review:

The new and brilliantly witty translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky is a must (Lisa Appignanesi Independent, Books of the Year)

Pevear and Volokhonsky are at once scrupulous translators and vivid stylists of English, and their superb rendering allows us, as perhaps never before, to grasp the palpability of Tolstoy's "characters, acts, situations" (James Wood New Yorker)

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0141391898
• ISBN 13: 9780141391892
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 848