#10 Greatest Book of All Time
At #10 on the History of Literature's Greatest Books of All Time is Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Among the most memorable opening lines of any novel is the one that opens Anna Karenina:
Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
How much of Tolstoy's own marriage influenced the imagined world depicted in this novel is an open question, but the diaries of Tolstoy's wife give some insight into their marital dynamics. In one diary entry, Sophia Tolstoy writes:
He loves to torment me and see me weep because he does not trust me. He wishes I had lived as evil a life as he so I might more fully appreciate goodness. It instinctively irritates him that happiness has come so easily to me.
Check out Episode 744 for Jacke's perspective on the merits of Anna Karenina.
The 25 Greatest Books of All Time: The List Continues
