Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina

The literary controversy that seems to survive from generation to generation and from one language to another is the question of the relative merit of "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina". Tolstoy, however, was a realist, so his incredibly detailed slice-of-life portrait of his own class has shifted from an absolutely up-to-the-moment page-turner into a historical novel--difficult to grasp without adequate background knowledge. The reason "Anna Karenina" is still read--and will remain readable--are the characters. Vivid, indelibly drawn human beings, with lives, cares, and hearts as real as our own