History Literature / AnnaKarenina

* CleavageWindow: Levin is [[CrowningMomentOfFunny distracted by one briefly.]]

** In the 2012 movies, she outright refuses to let him share the bed: "I can't ... I'm ''his'' wife now."

* DuelToTheDeath: When wondering what to do about Anna's affair, Karenin briefly wonders if he should challenge her lover to a duel. Though he dismisses the idea on the grounds that he'd lose and was afraid of death; he does realize how utterly futile it would have been if he'd won as he'd merely have killed a man he'd never really know, and his marriage would be none the better.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: When wondering what to do about Anna's affair, Karenin briefly wonders if he should challenge her lover to a duel. Though he dismisses the idea on the grounds that he'd lose and was afraid of death; he does realize how utterly futile it would have been if he'd won as he'd merely have killed a man he'd never really know, and his marriage would be none the better.

* AuthorFilibuster: Tolstoy loves this trope. In fact, the entire final section of this book, after [[spoiler:[[ItWasHisSled Anna's]] [[AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame suicide]]]], which nobody seems to remember, is nothing except an anarcho-pacifist Christian moralist lecture.

*** I've heard that it wasn't planned this way. Tolstoy had a religious crisis while writing the book and couldn't resist having Levin, his Avatar, have the same crisis.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: You can pretty much tell the author's standpoint on each character depending on how they are at the end of the story. The characters who embodies the author's ideals got the best endings, especially Levin and Kitty.

* CompletelyDifferentTitle: MGM changed the title to ''Love'' so they could run ads saying "Garbo and Gilbert in ''Love''", a nod to their RealLife romance.

* {{Jerkass}}: Vronsky.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The death of a railroad worker in the book's first chapters, which coincides with Anna and Vronsky's first meeting and prefigures [[spoiler: Anna's eventual suicide by train]]. Anna even [[LampshadeHanging calls this a "bad omen"]] in-text. Also, the bizarre dream shared by Vronsky and Anna, which foreshadows the same event.

* {{Jerkass}}/JerkassWithAHeartOfGold: Vronsky, depending on your interpretation.

* {{Jerkass}}: Vronsky

* ThePhilosopher: Levin

** Which is ''nothing'' compared to his more famous ''War and Peace'' which was several times longer.

* AuthorTract: The book more or less is a vehicle with which to deliver it. By the end of the book, all pretense is dropped and the final 100 page section is nothing except for a prolonged AuthorFilibuster by Levin.

** Subverted during the birth of Anna and Vronsky's baby. The two of them share a heartwarming moment of reconciliation with Karenin; he forgives them both, promises to the look after the baby... then Anna survives, to her own disappointment, and feels so inadequate in the face of Karenin's kindness that she leaves him, breaking his heart and their son's.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: When wondering what to do about Anna's affair, Karenin briefly wonders if he should challenge her lover to a duel. Though he dismisses the idea on the grounds that he'd lose and was afraid of death; he does realize how utterly futile it would have been if he'd won as he'd merely have killed a man he holds no real enmity over, and his marriage would be none the better.

* RetroactiveRecognition: For the 2012 Joe Wright movie, Creator/DomhnallGleeson and Creator/AliciaVikander.

This book is a Russian classic and tends to be considered a timeless love story, though it also contains touches of satire of contemporary Russian society. The novel has been adapted into many [[FilmOfTheBook versions]] for both theatrical film and TV, with actresses such as Creator/GretaGarbo (1927), Vivien Leigh (1948), Jacqueline Bisset (1985), Sophie Marceau (1997) and Creator/KeiraKnightley (2012) in the title role.

This book is a Russian classic and tends to be considered a timeless love story, though it also contains touches of satire of contemporary Russian society. The novel has been adapted into many [[FilmOfTheBook versions]] for both theatrical film and TV, with actresses such as Creator/GretaGarbo, Vivien Leigh, Jacqueline Bisset, Sophie Marceau and Creator/KeiraKnightley in the title role.

* RevisedEnding: MGM ordered two endings--Tolstoy's ending, in which Anna throws herself in front of the train, and a happy ending in which Anna survives and she and Vronsky are reunited after Karenin's death. Contrary to what the restored edition of the film says, the HappyEnding was not specifically for American audiences; exhibitors had a choice of which ending to show and in many areas the original ending was shown.

* DrivenToSuicide: Anna, when everything falls apart. Vronsky is also DrivenToSuicide earlier in the story but his attempt fails and he reconsiders. Levin struggles with suicidal urges near the end, due to not finding any true meaning in life.

* InHarmsWay: Vronsky, severely depressed, returns to his military roots in the quasi-epilogue and goes off to fight for Serbian independence as his coping mechanism for Anna's suicide.
* ItWasHisSled: Nabokov invoked this trope about Anna's suicide so his students wouldn't focus entirely on the plot.