Leo Tolstoy – Anna Karenina
- Episodes
- 117
- Format
- Series – listen from the start
- Latest episode
- Feb 22, 2026
About the podcast
This novel from the era of Russian realism offers a profound insight into the life and worldview of the Russian aristocracy of the 19th century. Even more impressive is the way it depicts its characters, rendered down to the smallest detail with great insight into human nature. Tolstoy brings their essence closer to us largely through the way they speak, think and act, and through the "circles" they choose.
Extramarital affairs were quite common in polite society, but not of the kind Anna Karenina commits. Moreover, different standards applied to adultery by women than by men, as the example of Anna's brother, Stepan Oblonsky, shows. The plot also moves within many other fields of tension – for example, those between landowners and peasants, town and country, the healthy and the sick, superiors and subordinates, Russia and abroad, progressive thinking and conservatism, Moscow and St. Petersburg.
At the center are three families. On the one hand, the Karenins and Vronsky (Anna's lover), who live in St. Petersburg; then the Oblonskys, who are based in Moscow; and finally the Levins, who feel most at home on their country estate. Although these families are related to one another, they could hardly live more differently. Through their example, Tolstoy makes the reader reflect on how one should live properly. (Summary by Eva K.)
Episodes 117
These are the latest 77 of 117 episodes. You’ll find older episodes in the podcast’s feed.
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