Anna Karenina.

TOLSTOY, Leo. [Count Lyof N Tolstoi].

Item Number: 120185

Moscow: T. Ris, 1878.

First edition in Russian of Tolstoy’s masterpiece. Octavo, 3 volumes, bound in full calf, gilt titles and tooling to the spine and front panel. Housed in a custom half morocco chemise and clamshell box. In near fine condition. First editions in Russian are rare.

Vladimir Nabokov called Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina "one of the greatest love stories in world literature." Matthew Arnold claimed it was not so much a work of art as "a piece of life." Set in imperial Russia, Anna Karenina is a rich and complex meditation on passionate love and disastrous infidelity. First published in book form in Moscow in 1878. Upon first reading it, Dostoyevsky wrote: “Anna Karenina is sheer perfection as a work of art. No European work of fiction of our present day comes anywhere near it.”