Anna Karenina, a novel by Leo Tolstoy, has been published in serial installments from 1873 in the periodical The Russian Messenger.

Tolstoy clashes with its main editor, Mikhail Katkov, over political issues that arise in the final installment (Tolstoy's unpopular views of volunteers going to Serbia); therefore, the novel's first complete appearance will be in book form.

Widely regarded as a pinnacle in realist fiction, Tolstoy considers Anna Karenina his first true novel, when he comes to consider War and Peace to be more than a novel.

Fyodor Dostoevsky will declare it to be "flawless as a work of art".

His opinion will be shared by Vladimir Nabokov, who especially admires "the flawless magic of Tolstoy's style", and by William Faulkner, who will describe the novel as "the best ever written". (Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina. Penguin Publishing. Faulkner's opinion is used as an advert on the inside cover.)