Anna Karenina tells of the doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing oficer, Count Vronsky. Tragedy unfolds as Anna rejects her passionless marriage and must endure the hypocrisies of society. Set against a vast and richly textured canvas of nineteenth-century Russia, the novel's seven major characters create a dynamic imbalance, playing out the contrasts of city and country life and all the variations on love and...

Young Tess Durbeyfield attempts to restore her family's fortunes by claiming their connection with the aristocratic d'Urbervilles. But Alec d'Urberville is a rich wastrel who seduces her and makes her life miserable. When Tess meets Angel Clare, she is offered true love and happiness, but her past catches up with her and she faces an agonizing moral choice...

Restoration: Robert Merivel is a young man who seems to have everything...until an affair leads to scandel, suddenly leaving him heartbroken and penniless. An ideal husband: A politician's spotless reputation is threatened by a dark secret from his past. Her magesty, Mrs. Brown: John Brown is a lowly servant who looks after Queen Victoria's horses. Yet when circumstances bring them together, the result is a passionate friendship. Tom & Viv: A...

In Tolstoy's masterpiece, the gorgeous Anna Karenina is married to a significant government minister but falls in love with a prosperous army officer named Count Vronsky. Frantic for truth and significance in life, Anna recklessly defies the norms of Russian society, often smoking opium with her lover as she abandons her son and husband. Damned and detested by her peers, Anna finds herself increasingly jealous and unfulfilled.

"Imagine keeping a record of every book you ever read. What would those titles say about you? With humor and warmth, the editor of The New York Times Book Review shares the stories that have shaped her life. For twenty-eight years, Pamela Paul has been keeping a diary that records the books she reads, rather than the life she leads. Or does it? Over time, it's become clear that this Book of Books, or Bob, as she calls him, tells a much bigger story....