Anna Karenina

By: Leo Tolstoy

Narrated by: David Horovitch

Length: 38 hrs

Publisher's summary

Anna Karenina seems to have everything - beauty, wealth, popularity and an adored son. But she feels that her life is empty until the moment she encounters the impetuous officer Count Vronsky.

Translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude.

©1994 BBC Audiobooks Ltd (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Better Than Gyllenhaal

Upon starting Anna K, I purchased both the Gyllenhaal and Hortovitch narrations and listened to the first two chapters. I kept Hortovitch, his reading being much more passionate than Gyllenhaal’s. Additionally, Hortovitch reads the Maude translation (a richer translation in my opinion), in contrast to Gyllenhaal’s reading of the Garnett translation. I was very happy with my selection; this title was 38 hours well spent.

My three biggest takeaways from this title: Konstantin. Dmitrievich. Levin. Talk about a character after my own heart: his morals, his relationships, his reactions to society, his enlightenment and the like. He’s a profound masculine character hidden behind the feminine facade of this title.

Anna K has lots for male and female readers alike. Perhaps my biggest disappointment with this title is the politicking of the various characters and cities. On a second read I might pick up more from these chapters but for the first read I found these scenes distracting.

For the first-time reader, be sure to keep your eye on the motions of Varenka and Koznyshev. While they both hold minor roles in the book, there are key moments for both of these characters throughout the title that should not be missed.

The meditations on the wide varieties of relationships presented in Anna K will leave me plenty to think about for the weeks ahead. While I didn’t find myself immediately itching to start a second reading like I’ve felt after some of the other Russian classics, the final 200 pages are quite the climax to the story and are absolutely worth the effort.

Come for Anna, stay for Levin, and enjoy some of the best outdoor scenery and relationships in literature along the way. May your own needs, desires and relationships be better understood upon completing this title.

Tolstoy's writing is stunning

You must be a fan of a 'period piece' to really understand and follow Tolstoy. His writing is some of the most remarkable I have ever 'read'. I am awed by it; brilliant. I probably would never survive the printed page tho - too slow and too cumbersome for me in that form. Being able to listen and have my attention absorbed by the EXCELLENT narration is captivating.

A Mindtrip through Passions of Humanity

I was new last Fall to this Tolstoy masterpiece when I read it and listened in part. I came to it skeptical, under the mistaken impression that it was simply about Anna Karenina, her terminal love affair and her despicable selfishness toward her son and everyone else in the end. I thought "Anna K" was simply a story of this lady showing the tragic consequences of self-centeredness and the lack of any moral compass.

I was mistaken; the foregoing is only part of the story and should only be viewed in the context of the novel's three (or four) other relationships to appreciate the beauty of this Tolstoy masterwork.

Both the Russian Giants (Leo and Dostoevsky) play consistently the themes of man/woman's relationship to and with God and with spouse, the internal struggles of faith versus doubt and monogamy and morality versus free will, as well as the ongoing, infinite war between good and evil with all the skirmishes on the fringe.

These themes are arguably no where more dramatically displayed for study, contemplation and interpretation for all time by scholars, thinkers and, most importantly, lovers of literature in a quite timeless story of tragedy and relationships among and between:

Anna K in her tragic affair with the younger Count Vronsky

Her relationship with the controlling, but cuckolded husband Karenin and his capacity (or not) to move on and be a father to their son;

the steady, thinking farmer Levin and his courtship of and marriage to young, gorgeous and shallow Kitty who was once infatuated with Vronsky; and,

the unsteady, unfaithful social-hound Stiva Oblonsky (Anna's brother) and his loyal wife Dolly (Kitty's sister), the exemplary and unappreciated mother of his children, who catches herself daydreaming and fantasizing of what it may be like to have a torrid, short-term affair of body and soul.


Over this rocky terrain, Tolstoy fashioned an extraordinary and unforgettable mindtrip through the passions of humanity. YOUR destination should be some measure of SELF-revelation. Probably, it's varies from mine, maybe even antithetical. That is Tolstoy's point: a narrative to make you think and feel.

excellent narrator

excellent narrator!!

Superb Reading

The narrator does so well that it’s very difficult to imagine a better reading of this fascinating novel.

Best Narrator Ever!!!

In addition to enjoying the book very much, I was lucky to hear it read by the best narrator ever!!!

Almost excellent

The reader is excellent, but at times he modulated his voice so low that he could not be heard. I hope in the future the engineer and reader will find a range so that the listener doesn't have to keep changing the volume.

What a PERFORMANCE!!!

This was a joy to listen to. Thank you so much to the reader. So, so good.

Masterful narration for a masterful book.

Simply superb from start to finish. David Horovitch doesn't miss a beat in telling Tolstoy's story.

It's not just about Anna

If you've never read the book before, you will be surprised at the breadth of characters that take the stage in this story. It doesn't just focus on Anna, her life, and her fall, but on a series of interconnected individuals in post serfdom Russia. This is a story about religion, marriage, high society, politics, and the pursuit of love. A dense, but great read.

My only comments about the performance is that, it was not optimally recorded. When the actor whispers you can barely hear it at all. Also. translations are not always given as the characters code switch between french and Russian.