“Anna Karenina” is one of the most representative works of the great writer Lev Tolstoy, alongside his novel “War and Peace”. Written and published between 1873 and 1877, the novel portrays the life of Anna Karenina, a beautiful and intelligent woman who must confront conflicts and tragedies in her life.

Over nearly 150 years, “Anna Karenina” has been translated into numerous languages, widely republished and adapted into various art forms, including film, theatre and ballet.

In Vietnam, writer Vũ Ngọc Phan began translating “Anna Karenina” in 1937, with the translation published in the French-Vietnamese magazine in Hanoi and the Trang An newspaper in Hue. In 1944, the translation was published as a book under the title “Anna Kha Le Ninh”.

The cover of Lev Tolstoy's classic novel “Anna Karenina”.

In 1973, readers in southern Vietnam were introduced to the translation “Anna Karénine” by Mac Thai Phong, translated from Henri Mongault's French version and published by Dat ng Publishing House. In 1978, translators Nhi Ca and Duong Tuong introduced another Vietnamese translation based on the English and French versions.

Thus, before the latest edition by translator Le Duc Man, “Anna Karenina” had already been translated into Vietnamese three times, but none of the existing versions had been translated directly from the original Russian text.

Translator Le Duc Man began working on his translation of “Anna Karenina” in 2019, a process that took three years to complete. Translating a novel of more than 1,000 pages from 19th-century Russian into modern Vietnamese presented numerous challenges, particularly in conveying the cultural elements and linguistic nuances of the original text.

He said that he had initially had no intention of producing a new translation, as “Anna Karenina” already held an important place in Vietnam's translated literary canon. He did not claim that his new translation was superior to previous versions, but simply hoped to convey the work to the best of his ability.

The new edition of “Anna Karenina” comprises two volumes, totalling more than 1,000 pages, and is being distributed nationwide.

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