Anna Karénina

The story of Anna Karenina, like that of Madame Bovary, is the most famous tale of adultery in literature. The protagonist—married to the high-ranking official Karenin—falls in love with the dashing military officer Vronsky; their tumultuous affair forms the heart of a novel that is far more than a polished tragedy of a fall from grace. It is a meticulous and delicate portrait of a specific time and place—a vivisection of a society where the happiness of some exists alongside the misery of others.