Leo Tolstoy - Anna Karenina 2013 (this edition), 1873-1877 (first publication). Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, revised and edited with introduction by John Bayley. London: Penguin Classics. 838 pp.

I found myself thinking of this as a systematic tour of human emotions and relationships, a kind of microscopical study of humanity and a natural partner to the vast historical (macroecological?) scope of War and Peace. Together you could say they pretty much cover the entire shooting match.

Tolstoy seemed to me to make a point of rehabilitating Vronsky during the 4 years of writing. And the autobiographical Levin and his philosophical soliloquys is enjoyable to get to know. Although easy to read, often hard to put down, an eight course banquet like this takes away the appetite for further reading for a while.