Anna Karenina

Helen Edmundson's celebrated and 'exemplary adaptation' (The Times) of Leo Tolstoy's enduring classic is a vibrant and deeply moving meditation on the nature of love.

Anna is beautiful and admired but empty - until a chance meeting throws her into emotional turmoil and a scandalous affair. Contrasting with this tale of destructive love is the story of Levin, an idealistic man striving to find meaning in life - and a self-portrait of Tolstoy himself.

Originally produced by Shared Experience, winning the Time Out Award for Outstanding Theatrical Event of 1992. This edition was published alongside a revival of the play at the Arcola Theatre, London, in 2011.

'Theatre this engrossing is rare' - Time Out

'The aim is not to report the novel but to recreate it as a piece of theatre... a dramatisation which is symbolically accurate as well as theatrically compelling' - Guardian

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Anna Karenina

Helen Edmundson's celebrated and 'exemplary adaptation' (The Times) of Leo Tolstoy's enduring classic is a vibrant and deeply moving meditation on the nature of love.

Anna is beautiful and admired but empty - until a chance meeting throws her into emotional turmoil and a scandalous affair. Contrasting with this tale of destructive love is the story of Levin, an idealistic man striving to find meaning in life - and a self-portrait of Tolstoy himself.

Originally produced by Shared Experience, winning the Time Out Award for Outstanding Theatrical Event of 1992. This edition was published alongside a revival of the play at the Arcola Theatre, London, in 2011.

'Theatre this engrossing is rare' - Time Out

'The aim is not to report the novel but to recreate it as a piece of theatre... a dramatisation which is symbolically accurate as well as theatrically compelling' - Guardian

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Anna Karenina
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Anna Karenina

Anna Karenina

Overview

Helen Edmundson's celebrated and 'exemplary adaptation' (The Times) of Leo Tolstoy's enduring classic is a vibrant and deeply moving meditation on the nature of love.

Anna is beautiful and admired but empty - until a chance meeting throws her into emotional turmoil and a scandalous affair. Contrasting with this tale of destructive love is the story of Levin, an idealistic man striving to find meaning in life - and a self-portrait of Tolstoy himself.

Originally produced by Shared Experience, winning the Time Out Award for Outstanding Theatrical Event of 1992. This edition was published alongside a revival of the play at the Arcola Theatre, London, in 2011.

'Theatre this engrossing is rare' - Time Out

'The aim is not to report the novel but to recreate it as a piece of theatre... a dramatisation which is symbolically accurate as well as theatrically compelling' - Guardian

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781780013541
Publisher: Hern, Nick Books
Publication date: 04/07/2016
Series: NHB Modern Plays
Sold by: Bookwire
Format: eBook
Pages: 104
File size: 164 KB
Age Range: 12 Years

About the Author

About The Author

Tolstoy was born in 1828 into an aristocratic Russian family. Widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest novelists, he also became a noted rationalist philosopher and wrote plays, essays and prose. He spent his childhood between his birthplace of Yasnaya Polyana, Central Russia, and Moscow, and was brought up mainly by his aunt after the death of both his parents a few years apart. Always a reluctant student, he became disillusioned with his university studies and, after a spell in Moscow accruing considerable gambling debts, joined an artillery unit in 1851. He completed his first novel, Childhood (part of an autobiographical trilogy along with Boyhood and Youth), in 1852, and finally gained the critical acclaim he sought when it was published in the Sovremennik. His masterpieces War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877) are noted for their epic sweep and realistic depiction of nineteenth-century Russian life. In the 1880s, he began writing more philosophical works, including A Confession and What I Believe, which was banned in 1884. His last novel, Resurrection, was published in 1899, although a short novel was published after his death in 1910.

Date of Birth:

September 9, 1828

Date of Death:

November 20, 1910

Place of Birth:

Tula Province, Russia

Place of Death:

Astapovo, Russia

Education:

Privately educated by French and German tutors; attended the University of Kazan, 1844-47

Read an Excerpt

All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
(Continues…)


Excerpted from "Anna Karenina"
by .
Copyright © 2014 Leo Tolstoy.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Note on the Text and Translation
Select Bibliography
A Chronology of Leo Tolstoy
Principal Characters and Guide to Pronunciation
ANNA KARENINA
Explanatory Notes

What People are Saying About This

Caryl Emerson Caryl Emerson

"Tolstoy did not wish to please; he wished to correct, instruct, inspire, persuade.  And as Marian Schwartz notes, he “wholly intended to bend language to his will.”  In her astonishing new translation, she takes seriously Tolstoy’s disgust with smooth Russian literary style, setting a new standard in English for accuracy to Tolstoyan repetition, sentence density and balance, stripped-down vocabulary and enhanced moral weight. A rough, powerful, unromantic Anna that wakes the reader up and rings true."—Caryl Emerson, Princeton University

Caryl Emerson

"Tolstoy did not wish to please; he wished to correct, instruct, inspire, persuade.  And as Marian Schwartz notes, he “wholly intended to bend language to his will.”  In her astonishing new translation, she takes seriously Tolstoy’s disgust with smooth Russian literary style, setting a new standard in English for accuracy to Tolstoyan repetition, sentence density and balance, stripped-down vocabulary and enhanced moral weight. A rough, powerful, unromantic Anna that wakes the reader up and rings true."—Caryl Emerson, Princeton University

Reading Group Guide

1. When Anna Karenina was published, critics accused Tolstoy of writing a novel with too many characters, too complex a story line, and too many details. Henry James called Tolstoy's works "baggy monsters." In response, Tolstoy wrote of Anna Karenina "I am very proud of its architecture-its vaults are joined so that one cannot even notice where the keystone is." What do you make of Tolstoy's use of detail? Does it make for a more "realistic" novel?

2. The first line of Anna Karenina, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, " can be interpreted a number of ways. What do you think Tolstoy means by this?

3. In your opinion, how well does Tolstoy, as a male writer, capture the perspectives of his female characters? Do you think Anna Karenina is the most appropriate title for the book? Is Tolstoy more critical of Anna for her adultery than he is of Oblonsky or of Vronsky?

4. What role does religion play in the novel? Compare Levin's spiritual state of mind at the beginning and the end of the novel. What parallels can you draw between Levin's search for happiness and Anna's descent into despair?

5. Why is it significant that Karenina lives in St. Petersburg, Oblonsky in Moscow, and Levin in the country? How are Moscow and St. Petersburg described by Tolstoy? What conclusions can you draw about the value assigned to place in the novel?

6. What are the different kinds of love that Anna, Vronsky, Levin, Kitty, Stiva, and Dolly seek? How do their desires change throughout the novel?

7. How do the ideals of love and marriage come into conflict inAnna Karenina? Using examples from the novel, what qualities do you think seem to make for a successful marriage? According to Tolstoy, is it more important to find love at all costs or to uphold the sanctity of marriage, even if it is a loveless one?

8. Ultimately, do you think Anna Karenina is a tragic novel or a hopeful one?

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