Anna Karenina

A new revised and abridged translation of Leo Tolstoy's novel, Anna Karenina. Considered one of the greatest novels ever written, Tolstoy's classic reflected its times, but is still relevant today, exploring love, family, and the meaning of life. Many eager and willing readers are intimidated by the sheer volume of the novel. Russian novels also labor under a set of names, surname, patronymic, family name and then any number of nicknames, that all confuse, distract or mislead English speaking readers. This translated edition of Anna Karenina has been revised and abridged by Thomas Beyer so that readers may more easily follow the story and themes of the original, without sacrificing the “essential Tolstoy.” It aims to preserve Tolstoy’s voice as captured a century ago by Constance Garnett, but eliminate many of the obstacles to better comprehension. The original Russian text was consulted to replace or restore words and passages to make sense to a twenty-first century reader. Thomas Beyer is the C.V. Starr Professor Emeritus of Russian at Middlebury College in Vermont where he has been reading and teaching Tolstoy for the past forty five years.

Anna Karenina has captivated readers since it appearance 150 years ago. As long as there are keen, enthusiastic readers, the novel will endure. My hope is that this abridged version makes it accessible to even more generations.