A married woman leaves her home for Count Vronsky, while the landowner Levin marries Kitty and searches for a way to live: two stories, one name on the cover.
A huge, humane novel that is really two books: Anna's fall and Levin's search. The farming and politics chapters can drag, but the scenes at the stations, the ball and the last day are some of the strongest in the classics. Four and a half out of five, in my view.
Every guide comes as a video and a full written article. Pick the one you need: the review is spoiler-free, the ending explained is not.
A full-spoiler Anna Karenina summary of all eight parts, counted by name: Anna 822 times, Levin 1,616, and no Anna at all in the last part. Counted from the Project Gutenberg text, Garnett translation.
Anna Karenina is a novel by Leo Tolstoy in eight parts. We read the text of Project Gutenberg ebook 1399, Anna Karenina, in Constance Garnett’s translation, which has 239 chapters and roughly 350,000 words. Every number on this page comes from that text.
Below you’ll find a summary read as a name count: how often Anna and Levin are named, part by part, who leads each chapter, and why the last part never says Anna at all. The page has full spoilers, since the whole book is covered, including Anna’s death.
A huge, humane novel that is really two books: Anna's fall and Levin's search. The farming and politics chapters can drag, but the scenes at the stations, the ball and the last day are some of the strongest in the classics. Four and a half out of five, in my view. Read it if: you want a classic that is about marriage, jealousy and how to live; you like long novels with two stories that mirror each other; you are studying it and need the plot, the parts and the ending; you enjoy characters who change their minds in front of you. Skip it if: you want a fast plot: part three is mostly mowing and farm talk; you dislike long debates about land, voting and politics; you have read it and only need a refresher on who does what.
A full-spoiler Anna Karenina summary of all eight parts, counted by name: Anna 822 times, Levin 1,616, and no Anna at all in the last part. Counted from the Project Gutenberg text, Garnett translation. Anna Karenina Summary: Whose Name Fills the Book →
A novel by Leo Tolstoy in eight parts. Anna, married to the official Karenin, falls in love with Count Vronsky and leaves her home for him, while the landowner Levin courts and marries Kitty and searches for a way to live. In our reading, the two stories run side by side and never fully meet.
Anna dies at a railway station at the end of Part Seven, after her note to Vronsky misses him. Part Eight follows Levin, who finds a quiet faith after a peasant says a neighbor lives for his soul. Vronsky leaves to fight as a volunteer in Serbia.
In the Project Gutenberg text, the plain name Levin appears 1,616 times and Anna 822. Levin's name outnumbers Anna's in every one of the eight parts, and Anna's name never appears in Part Eight. That is our own tally of plain names, not a rule.
