Anna Karenina, Tolstoy's timeless tragedy, revisited in 10 frames

Indian Express

28-06-2025

'All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.' More than a century after its publication, Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina remains eerily relevant. Its themes of love, family, betrayal, infidelity, and the weight of social judgment feel not only timeless, but urgent. In our hyperconnected world, where curated lives are on constant display and social media serves as judge, jury, and executioner, the novel's emotional landscape feels eerily familiar.
This installment of Lit in 10 tells the tragic story of Anna Karenina in 10 frames. Scroll down for an illustrated summary of one of the greatest works in Russian literature. We also recommend that you sometime read the novel in its original.
Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, a novel of epic length and scope, is less a story than an entire world rendered with extraordinary nuance. Rather than sermonising, Tolstoy observes—with a dispassionate precision that only heightens the emotional weight of his characters' inner lives. Love, loss, and the soul's quiet yearnings lie at the heart of this enduring classic.
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The novel opens in 19th century Russia. Anna Arkadyevna Karenina, travels from St Petersburg to Moscow to reconcile her brother, Prince Stepan "Stiva" Oblonsky, with his wife, Darya "Dolly" Alexandrovna, after his infidelity. At the train station, Anna meets Count Alexei Vronsky, a cavalry officer. Vronsky is courting Dolly's younger sister, Ekaterina "Kitty" Shcherbatskaya. Parallely, Konstantin Levin, a landowner and friend of Stiva, proposes to Kitty but is rejected. Kitty is infatuated with Vronsky, but he has his eyes set on Anna, a married woman with a son.
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Anna returns to St Petersburg. Kitty, realising Vronsky was never serious about her, falls ill from emotional distress. Vronsky follows Anna to St Petersburg and aggressively pursues her. Anna is married to Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin, a senior government official, but nonetheless begins an affair with Vronsky. Their public interactions are cause for gossip. Karenin notices a tension in their relationship, but prioritises his career and social image over confronting the issue directly.
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Anna becomes pregnant with Vronsky's child. During a horse race in which Vronsky falls and Anna's distress all but confirms the rumours. Karenin confronts Anna, who confesses. Karenin demands that she maintain appearances. After a traumatic childbirth, which nearly kills Anna, Vronsky attempts to shoot himself. Karenin unexpectedly forgives Anna and offers to raise her illegitimate daughter as his own. However, Anna interprets his forgiveness as weakness and leaves him to live with Vronsky, abandoning her son.
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Anna and Vronsky leave Russia and live in Italy temporarily. Anna gives birth to a daughter, Annie. Their relationship deteriorates due to social isolation and differing expectations. They return to Russia, settling on Vronsky's estate. Anna is shunned from society and cannot obtain a divorce as Karenin refuses to oblige. She becomes increasingly dependent on Vronsky's affections, which begin to fade. Their social isolation and lack of legal recognition contribute to Anna's mental instability.
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After Kitty's rejection, Levin returns to his country estate. He immerses himself in agriculture and contemplates faith, mortality, and the peasantry's role in society. Kitty undergoes emotional and physical recovery at a German spa. She and Levin meet again through mutual connections. Kitty now values Levin's sincerity. Levin proposes again, and Kitty accepts. They marry and lead a relatively stable domestic life, contrasting the instability of Anna and Vronsky's relationship.
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Anna, cut off from her son and rejected by society, becomes increasingly anxious and dependent on laudanum, an opioid. Her behavior becomes increasingly erratic. Vronsky becomes frustrated and spends more time away. Anna suspects him of infidelity and feels abandoned. She visits her son in secret, bringing her into conflict with Karenin. Without a formal divorce, she remains socially ostracised. Her fear of losing Vronsky intensifies her dependence on him.
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Anna and Vronsky frequently quarrel. Vronsky, now politically ambitious, seeks to re-enter society and begins spending time in public without her. Anna accuses him of infidelity, and he distances himself further. Anna writes a desperate letter to Vronsky, then travels alone by train. She interprets his delayed response as rejection.
Convinced of total abandonment and societal ruin, she acts impulsively. At a train station in Moscow, Anna throws herself under an oncoming train. It is the same station where she first met Vronsky. Her extreme step is a result of accumulated emotional distress, social alienation, and the breakdown of her relationship. She leaves behind a daughter, an estranged son, and an unfinished life. Her death causes a public sensation but has little long-term consequences for the men involved. She is buried without religious rites due to the circumstances.
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Vronsky is devastated by Anna's suicide. He relinquishes custody of their daughter to Karenin and leaves Russia to volunteer for military service in the Balkans. His decision to join the war is interpreted as his guilt and lack of purpose following Anna's death. He becomes disillusioned. Karenin remains a distant and passive figure, having lost both his wife and his public dignity.
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Levin and Kitty adjust to married life, and are eventually blessed with a son. Levin goes through inner turmoil regarding faith and meaning. While going through the motions of peasant life and reflecting on mortality, he undergoes a spiritual awakening. He embraces a form of Christian faith rooted in ethical action and humility rather than doctrine. His transformation concludes the novel.
In 19th-century Russia, Anna's fate is shaped by a society that punishes female desire with merciless consistency—then as now. Her transformation from socialite to outcast is portrayed with aching clarity, absent of overt condemnation. Her affair with Count Vronsky, imagined as liberation, gradually reveals itself to be subject to the same disillusionments as any domestic bond. Her longing to be truly seen, to be loved without condition, remains deeply resonant.
Yet it is Levin—Tolstoy's philosophical alter ego—who provides the novel's soul. His introspections on faith, mortality, and the quiet dignity of rural life read like a search for meaning amid the noise of modernity. His journey contrasts Anna's, offering not resolution but reflection.
(Lit in 10 is a creative series that condenses literary classics into 10 key moments with illustrated frames. It offers an interpretive summary and is not a substitute for reading the original work.)