Anna Karenina
Directed by Joe Wright
Written by Tom Stoppard
Starring: Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Kelly Macdonald
Universal Pictures
Rated R | 130 Minutes
Release Date: November 30, 2012

“Rummaging in our souls, we often dig up something that ought to have lain there unnoticed.” – Tolstoy

Baz Luhrmann meets Terrance Malick in this excruciatingly exquisite adaptation of Leo Tolstoy‘s 19th century novel, Anna Karenina.

Directed Joe Wright (Atonement, Pride and Prejudice), with a script by famed British playwright Tom Stoppard, the film details the tragedy of married aristocrat and socialite Anna Karenina (Keira Knightley) and her affair with the affluent Count Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson).

A charming, well-off bachelor, Vronsky pursues Anna, asking her to leave her husband Karenin (Jude Law), a high-ranking government official. Unhappy with the lack of love in her marriage, Anna flirts and dances with Vronsky in public, leaving her vulnerable to the scrutiny of her peers. A passionate affair ensues, and the private matters of Anna Karenina are soon put on stage before all of Russian high-society.

There have been more than fifteen feature films titled Anna Karenina, and that doesn’t even include the made-for-television versions. What makes Joe Wright’s adaptation different is the cinematic vocabulary used to bring Tolstoy’s classic novel to life. Wright’s rhythmic, dreamlike direction turns Anna Karenina into a stage play within the colossal theatre of Russian society.

Android Karenina
By Leo Tolstoy & Ben H. Winters
Paperback Edition
Quirk Classics
Release date: June 8, 2010

This review of Android Karenina is part of the Quirk Classics Blogsplosion event, where you can enter for a chance to win one of 25 Quirk Books prize-packs. Visit Quirk Classics to enter and be sure to tell them that Geeks of Doom sent you!

Literary monster mash-ups are all the rage these days with most of the fun not only happening in England, but in the 19th century fictional world of Jane Austen thanks to titles like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. With the success of these books, it’s no wonder that historical and popular fictional characters are getting in on the action with Queen Victoria hunting demons (Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter), the young ladies of Little Women facing werewolves (Little Women and Werewolves), and even President Abraham Lincoln is out there stalking vampires (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter).

There’s no doubt vampires, werewolves, and other creatures of the night will be invading, stalking, and menacing Regency England many more times in the future, but if you want a little variety in your literary mash-ups, then look no further than Android Karenina, the newest selection in the Quirk Classics library.

In Android Karenina, author Ben H. Winters takes Leo Tolstoy‘s classic Anna Karenina, set in 19th century Russia, and converts it into a futuristic science fiction tale with robots, mechanical terrorists, and space travel, all made possible by the discovery of the “Miracle Metal” groznium.

Did you catch that? Robots… all types of robots from manservants to laborers to mechanical animals to massive attack cyborgs controlled by an anti-government terrorist organization known as UnConSciya (Union of Concerned Scientists).

Leo Tolstoy‘s classic Anna Karenina is the next selection in the Quirk Classics’ line-up with Android Karenina, the cover of which was revealed today by publisher.

Check out the cover here at right!

If you’re not familiar with the Quirk Classics branding, you might remember their first mashup Pride and Prejudice and Zombie where zombies were inserted into Jane Austen’s literary classic. Ah, see, now you know what I’m talking about.

Android Karenina is co-written by Ben H. Winters, who took on Austen last year with Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.

According to Quirk, Android Karenina is “an enhanced edition of the classic love story set in a dystopian world of robots, cyborgs, and interstellar space travel.” See the full official synopsis here below.

The 512-page book will be released on June 8, 2010, and is available for pre-order right now.