Anna Karenina

Considered "the greatest novel of all time," Tolstoy's Anna Karenina was published in serial form between the years 1873 and 1877. It opens with the famous line "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." The novel is about love and adultery, and it portrays the tangled love lives of myriad characters: Oblonsky, who has cheated on his wife with the governess, is about to lose his family until sister Anna shows up to cool things out. But on the train ride she meets the dashing Count Vronsky, who is already engaged.

Anna, married for ten years, falls in love with Vronsky and then... well everything blows up in her face. Mini plot descriptions, however, do little justice to the masterpiece that is Anna Karenina. Another thread that Tolstoy follows is of the character Levin, who's a gentleman farmer (and a portrait of Tolstoy himself). Levin is eccentric and philosophical, and his fears and doubts about the big questions in life are a nice relief from the chaotic mess of the aristocrats. His connection to Anna and Vronsky is his wife Kitty, who might or might not love Count Vronsky as well. The two relationships are at opposite poles: one is all chaos, drama, and passion, while the other is chill and content. Only you can decide which is right.