Reading for Winter 2014:
Anna Karenina by Tolstoy
(trans. Pevear & Volokhonsky) ISBN: 978-0143035008Dostoevsky called this a "perfect work of art."
In the Penguin edition the editor said:
"Large in scope and magnificently poignant in its use of details, Anna Karenin poses the question of how we are to live our lives when the illusions and denials that we hold dear are stripped away. As well, there is the question to what extent we are happiest (perhaps a suspect word here) living the 'examined life' as opposed to the 'unexamined life.' With its insistence on drama over mere argument, Anna Karenina embodies the timeless struggle to make more than mere spectacle of our lives." Read more in their study guide here.