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Anna Karenina (Vintage Classic Russians Series)

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Anna Karenina (Vintage Classic Russians Series)

By: Leo Tolstoy
Narrated by: Tamaryn Payne
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

TRANSLATED BY LOUISE AND AYLMER MAUDE

Anna is a beautiful, intelligent woman whose passionate affair with the dashing Count Vronsky leads her to ruin. But her story is also about a search for meaning, and by twinning it with that of Levin, an awkward idealist whose happy marriage and domestic trials form the backdrop for a similar quest, Tolstoy creates a rich and complex masterpiece that has captured the imagination of readers for decades.

The Vintage Classic Russians Series: Published for the 100th anniversary of the 1917 Russian Revolution, these are must-have, beautifully designed editions of six epic masterpieces that have survived controversy, censorship and suppression to influence decades of thought and artistic expression.

(P) Penguin Audio 2020

 Classics Russia

Critic reviews

One of the greatest love stories in world literature (Vladimir Nabokov)
Tolstoy's historical and human sweep is breathtaking. His vision, humanity and his knowledge that love and pain are at the heart of life is the most important of all the profound truths revealed in this great novel (Jonathan Dimbleby)
In Anna Karenina, Tolstoy got totally inside the mind of a woman who is prepared to lose everything for the sake of man and who is so much in love that she commits suicide. I don't like her as a woman, but I think it is a brilliant portrait, unequalled in literature (Amanda Craig)
I've read and re-read this novel and every time I find another layer in the story (Philippa Gregory)
I first read Anna Karenina 20 years ago when travelling across the Peruvian desert on a long bus journey, and it has stayed with me ever since (Hugh Thomson)
Anyone who has read Anna Karenina will be aware of its extraordinary power as an epic psychological tale of a woman who gives up her husband and son for the sake of an affair with a handsome army officer. It has humour but, as with all of Tolstoy's works, it is completely without sentimentality
I just love this classic romance about a married mother who succumbs to an unsuitable lover and becomes pregnant by him, which of course results in all sorts of pressures and heartache. The best love story ever told (Kay Burley)
Probably one of the greatest novelistic treatments of the torments of love
All stars
Most relevant
really lost interest in the book quite early on, it's simply too long for my tastes

good story but soooo long

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A genuinely enjoyable book that I recommend though the last hour and a bit dragged

Very good narration

It was a relief to read and to now be over

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This is the Maude translation which I read along with this audiobook after giving up on the Constance Garnett translation.

I'm glad to have had the company of Tamaryn Payne's beautiful voice bringing one of my new favourite novels to life.

The inner dialogue of characters is so important in Anna Karenina and Tamaryn Payne seemed to capture every emotion and struggle that they each went through.

The only aspect she falters on slightly is her narration of male characters, which sounded slightly humorous to my ear, especially when there are two or three male characters having a conversation, I found myself laughing on a few occasions. Though it should be said that Oblonsky and Levin are quite funny and endearing characters, and I never at any point found the performance irritating. All the female characters she narrates perfectly and you feel attached to every aspect of their humanity and their fates.

I would highly recommend this audiobook.

Wonderful novel, beautifully performed

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