Anna Karenina, a tragic romance, is Russian author Leo Tolstoy's sixth novel.

The central theme explored in Anna Karenina is the conflict to be true to one's self against the expectations of society and family.

Anna Karenina would be happiest with Count Vronsky, her lover, but is held to her marriage by her husband Alexei Karenin's unwillingness to grant her a divorce. Karenin, though he does nothing to prevent the lovers from being together, is influenced by his place in society and the advice of a spiritualist. When Anna and Vronsky flee to Europe, they cannot find friends who will accept them, and so return to Russia. Vronsky is nearly driven to suicide out of shame when Anna's husband forgives him for the affair. When Vronsky's passion cools, Anna's desperation drives her to make her own tragic choice.

Conflicting relationships in Anna Karenina mirror the tensions in a changing 19th Century Russian society as the land-owning aristocracy is confronted by the growing influence of liberal Western thinking.Spark Notes: Anna Karenina themes

• • Mahalo's Guide to Leo Tolstoy
• Wikipedia: Leo Tolstoy
• Books and Writers: Leo Tolstoy Biography
• Wikiquote: Leo Tolstoy
• Barnes & Noble: Meet the Writers: Leo Tolstoy

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• YouTube: Anna Karenina Trailer (1997 Film) (Time: 02:15)

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• YouTube: Florida Grand Opera presents Anna Karenina (Time: 01:54)

• <related>Leo Tolstoy; Fyodor Dostoevsky; Vladimir Nabokov; James Joyce; Virginia Woolf; William Faulkner; War and Peace; Oprah Winfrey</related>