Anna Karenina

[ an-uhkuh-ren-uh-nuh; Russian ah-nuhkuh-rye-nyi-nuh ]

noun
  1. a novel (1875–76) by Leo Tolstoy.

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How to use Anna Karenina in a sentence

  • Turgenev was surely a greater artist than Tolstoi, but Anna Karenina is a veritable piece of life.

    Essays on Modern Novelists | William Lyon Phelps
  • After your departure, he writes, I read Anna Karenina once more.

  • While he was writing "Anna Karenina," my father set great store by his opinion and valued his critical instinct very highly.

  • And the same necessity we see in “Anna Karenina;” here again Tolstoy's materials are not persons but groups.

  • And I say: what are all his vapourings and fatidical croonings on the tripod of pseudo-prophecy as compared to Anna Karenina?

    Ivory Apes and Peacocks | James Huneker

Cultural definitions for Anna Karenina

Anna Karenina

[ (an-uh kuh-ren-uh-nuh) ]


(1873–1876) A novel by Leo Tolstoy; the title character enters a tragic adulterous affair and commits suicide by throwing herself under a train.

Notes for Anna Karenina

Anna Karenina begins with the famous sentence “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.