In Anna Karenina Tolstoy gave the world one of the best loved heroines of literature. Her charm dominates the novel, but there is also a feeling of ultimate doom always approaching. Anna, despite and because of her actions, is a sympathetic character. Although desperate to escape from her stifling marriage, she is uncertain and vulnerable. She eventually does escape, but the outcome is not as desirable as she wished, and ends in tragedy. Together with War and Peace, Anna Karenina is justifiably