Author Count Lyev Nikolayevich Tolstoy or Leo Tolstoy, was born on September 9, 1828 in Yasnaya Polyana naya Polyana,

their family estate in Russias Tula region. He was a Russian writer of realist fiction and philosophical essays. The fourth out of five children in the family, he and his siblings were raised by their relatives when their parents died when they were young. He began his studies regarding law and oriental languages at Kazan University on 1844. He left in the middle of his studies and went to Saint Petersburg where, in 1851, after accumulating heavy gambling debts, went with his brother to join the army. It was in this point of his life when he began writing. In 1957, when Tolstoy was in Paris, he was traumatized by the public execution he had witnessed which would mark him for the rest of his life. It was then that he had decided, as seen in the letter he sent to his friend V.P. Botkin, that he would never serve any government anymore. In 1860 to 1861, he met Victor Hugo, the famous author of the novel Les Miserables, which had a large impact on Tolstoys novel War and Peace. Also sometime in 1861, Tolstoy met French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon who was in exile. He was another person who another significant person who who would be a big influence to Tolstoy, earning him his admiration and holding him in high regard saying ...he was the only man who understood the significance of education and of the printing press in our time." On 1862, Tolstoy married Sophia Sonya" Andreevna Bers, who was 16 years younger than he. She was a daughter of a court physician. She bore him thirteen children, five of whom died during childhood. Despite some short-comings, their marriage was onstensibly happy. Tolstoy was given much freedom, allowing him to write War and Peace and Anna Karenina with Sonya acting as his secretary, proofreader and financial manager. Their latter life, however, was described as one of the unhappiest in literary history. His relationship with his wife deteriorated when his beliefs became increasingly radical, leading him to reject his inherited and earned wealth, including the renunciation of the copyrights on his earlier works. In his life, Tolstoy has written many wondrous literary pieces that he as been described by Virginia Woolf as the greatest of all novelists, supported by James Joyce by saying that "He is never dull, never stupid, never tired, never pedantic, never theatrical!" He died in 1910, at the age of 82, of pneumonia at Astapovo train station after falling ill when he left home in the middle of winter.

Literary Critique Leo Tolstoys Anna Karenina, considered by some as the greatest novel ever written, had received mixed reviews from a variety of critics. It was widely regarded as one of the best in realistic fiction and declared a flawless work of art by Fyodor Dostoevsky, the famous author of Crime and Punishment. His positive response and opinion was shared by Vladimir Nabokov, author of Lolita, who admired "the flawless magic of Tolstoy's style. William Falkner, the author of well known short stories like Hills like White Elephants and a Nobel Prize winner for Literature, described the novel as the best novel ever written. Other critics, especially Russian critics, had dismissed the novel as a simple trifling romance of high life. The novel explores quite a number of themes. The opening line in the novel All happy families resemble each other; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, we can already get a glimpse of these themes. These are of marriage, love and family life. The character of Oblonsky and his family have troubles due to the formers affair which, despite still gaining the respect of society, his married life seems all but happy. Anna, the titular character, is shunned by society when she openly left her husband Karenin in favor of another man. This questionable act of love brings nothing but trouble to Anna and she finds her own brand of unhappiness. The characters of Kitty and Levin, however, are shown in the novel as the happiest in the whole novel. Comparing these three families reflects the opening line and expresses the themes related to it

Historical Context The novel represent, in its scope, a breadth and vivid depiction of 19th-century Russian life and attitudes, a peak of realist fiction and tells parallel stories of an adulterous woman trapped by the conventions and lies of society, and of a philosophical landowner who works alongside the peasants in the fields and seeks to reform their lives. As was in the case of the Character Oblonsky, the aristocratic Russian society at the time seemed to have accepted adulterous liasons. It has been considered and noted that the character of Anna Karenina was inspired, in part, by Maria Gartung (1832 - 1919). She was the elder daughter of the Russian Poet Alexander Pushkin, whom he met at a dinner. After that same dinner, Leo Tolstoy began reading Pushkins prose and had a fleeting daydream of a bare exquisite aristocratic elbow which would also be seen in the novel in Annas character. There have also been mention that Levin, a character from the novel, was considered as a semiautobiographical portrayal and reflection of Tolstoy as he based much of their lives on his own life experiences, his own beliefs and struggles. Further supporting this is the name. Tolstoys first name in Russian is Lyev and Levin means of Lev. According to W. Gareth, Levin is said to have proposed to his wife Kitty in a similar fashion as Tolstoy to his wife Sonya. He also similarly let his wife read his diary full of his faults which also reflects to Tolstoys action the night before his wedding to Sonya.