Where to start with Leo Tolstoy

Russian novelist, 1828–1910.

Best Leo Tolstoy book to start with: Anna Karenina (1875), on 7 of the 10 lists it could have made.

If you’ve never read Tolstoy, read Anna Karenina before War and Peace. It’s long, but you’ll want to keep reading. A married woman begins an affair in Russian high society, and beside her story runs a quieter one, about a landowner called Levin who is trying to work out what to live for. The two stories comment on each other, so don’t skip Levin’s chapters.

War and Peace is the one to save for later. It follows several families through the Napoleonic wars, with a large cast and a good deal of history, and most people settle into it only after the first hundred pages. Choose your translation with care, because it changes how the book reads.

If you’ve never read Russian fiction, Anna Karenina is the better first book, because the plot pulls harder. Neither book is a quick read, but Anna Karenina is the one most people finish.