Tolstoy wrote Anna Karenina in 1875, 13 years after he was married to his beloved wife Sophia. It is clear from recovered diaries that he was devoted to her, but also struggled with what he called a “torturous struggle of lust” and was very open with Sophia that “he was not in control of himself”.

Tolstoy and Sophia had 13 children and their marriage survived to the end of Tolstoy’s life. At the age of 82 and upset with the unhappiness he felt in his marriage and life, he snuck out of his house and onto a train bound for a secluded place. However, he caught pneumonia on the first day of travel and passed away near a train station.

Though open about her marital unhappiness, Sophia did not waver in her loyalty for Leo and at the end confessed, “The truth is I have much love.

Anna Karenina, as it was originally written by Tolstoy in his native Russian, is considered by many to be the greatest work of literature. Unfortunately, not very many people can read it from cover to cover. It's too heavy, to thick with complicated character names and digressions that confuse and stifle the average reader. Most of the interpretations into English are too strict and lose Tolstoy's original context and meaning.

Anna Karenina in 101 Pages is a fresh interpretation of a timeliness story of romance, marital discord, affair and forgiveness, adultery and suicide. It is a new translation with an updated vocabulary that will grab your attention, and hold it from start to finish. Characters and their names have been simplified, and the plot has been refined to a clear and concise format.

Don't let the word "abridgment" scare you away from this book. It is a complete book, a new chance to discover one of the world's greatest story's ever written.