Historical fiction book · Curated
Anna Karenina
Leo Tolstoy · historical fiction
Anna Karenina has a husband, a son, and St. Petersburg society—until a Moscow railway station and the officer Count Vronsky pull her into an affair the salons will not forgive; beside that ruin, landowner Konstantin Levin tries to make a marriage and a farm mean something. Tolstoy’s 1870s novel is Imperial Russian historical fiction of passion, class, and the question of how to live—the tragic counterpart to War and Peace already on the shelf.
Why read it: A perennial title-search nineteenth-century historical novel—the Tolstoy classic readers still look up by name, and a Gilded Age Russia counterpart to Wharton and Eliot already on the shelf.
About this historical novel
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy is historical fiction set around 1872–1876 in the Victorian / Gilded Age period with key settings including St. Petersburg, Moscow, Russia, Imperial Russia. Anna Karenina has a husband, a son, and St. Petersburg society—until a Moscow railway station and the officer Count Vronsky pull her into an affair the salons will not forgive; beside that ruin, landowner Konstantin Levin tries to make a marriage and a farm mean something. Tolstoy’s 1870s novel is Imperial Russian historical fiction of passion, class, and the question of how to live—the tragic counterpart to War and Peace already on the shelf.
On HisFic we tag it under 1. Literary historical fiction and 2. Historical romance so you can pair it with similar story types. Recurring themes include adultery, marriage, society, passion, and family. A perennial title-search nineteenth-century historical novel—the Tolstoy classic readers still look up by name, and a Gilded Age Russia counterpart to Wharton and Eliot already on the shelf.
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Plot summary
Anna Karenina has a husband, a son, and St. Petersburg society—until a Moscow railway station and the officer Count Vronsky pull her into an affair the salons will not forgive; beside that ruin, landowner Konstantin Levin tries to make a marriage and a farm mean something. Tolstoy’s 1870s novel is Imperial Russian historical fiction of passion, class, and the question of how to live—the tragic counterpart to War and Peace already on the shelf. A perennial title-search nineteenth-century historical novel—the Tolstoy classic readers still look up by name, and a Gilded Age Russia counterpart to Wharton and Eliot already on the shelf.
Subgenres
Eras
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Curated titles that share era, story type, or themes.
- The Age of Innocence · Edith Wharton
In 1870s Gilded Age New York, lawyer Newland Archer is days from marrying flawless May Welland when her cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska, returns from a ruined European marriage and makes the tribe’s rules visible. Wharton’s Pulitzer novel is historical fiction of old New York: opera boxes, Newport summers, and a love affair society will not permit.
- The French Lieutenant's Woman · John Fowles
In 1867 Lyme Regis, gentleman-paleontologist Charles Smithson is engaged to a proper heiress when he becomes entangled with Sarah Woodruff, the outcast the town calls the French lieutenant’s woman. John Fowles’s novel is Victorian historical fiction that both inhabits a mid-century love story and lets a modern narrator question how such stories end.
- Days Without End · Sebastian Barry
An Irish immigrant and his partner fight in the Indian Wars and Civil War (Walter Scott Prize 2017).
- Homegoing · Yaa Gyasi
Linked stories follow two half-sisters’ lineages across centuries of African and American history.
- Pride and Prejudice · Jane Austen
When wealthy bachelor Mr. Bingley takes Netherfield, Mrs. Bennet is determined to marry off a daughter—but it is the proud Mr. Darcy, and Elizabeth Bennet’s first impression of him, that turns a Hertfordshire season into the most famous courtship in English fiction. Jane Austen’s 1813 novel is Regency historical romance of manners, money, and a woman who will not marry without respect.
- East of Eden · John Steinbeck
From the Civil War to the Great War, the Hamiltons and the Trasks settle the Salinas Valley, and two generations of brothers replay Cain and Abel—land, a woman named Cathy, and the Hebrew word timshel, thou mayest. John Steinbeck’s novel is Gilded Age family-saga historical fiction of California: a valley’s making, and a family’s argument with fate.
Regions & places
Europe
St. Petersburg · Moscow · Russia · Imperial Russia
Themes
- adultery
- marriage
- society
- passion
- family
Tags
classic · literary