First published in 1878, Leo Tolstoy´s Anna Karenina is the tragic story of aristocrat Anna Karenina and her ill-fated affair with the cavalry officer Count Vronsky. Although passionately in love, the couple find their romance doomed by the sexual mores of their time and place, and the double standards that apply to men and women. The tale´s panoramic sweep and Tolstoy´s colorful depcition of Russia and the European continent are virtually unparallelled in world literature. This novel, in the estimation of William Faulkner, is "the best ever written." Anna Karenina is one of Barnes & Noble´s Collectible Editions classics. Each volume features authoritative texts by the world´s greatest authors in an exquisitely designed bonded leather binding, with distinctive gilt edging and an attractive ribbon bookmark. Decorative, durable, and collectible, these books offers hours of pleasure to readers young and old and are an indispensible cornerstone for any home library.