Tolstoy's Anna Karenina turns out to deserve its reputation as one of the world's greatest novels. Far more than just the famous story of a married woman's doomed love affair, it presents a broadly sweeping picture of the Russian elite in the 1870s, from dysfunctional marriages to troubled courtships, against a backdrop of a society in flux. As well as a powerful narrative drive, its strength lies in the complexities of its characters and a brutally honest exploration of the emotions and outside forces that motivate and change them.