Anna Karenina, Book 8 by Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910)

Anna Karenina tells of the doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing officer, Count Vronsky. In Book 8, Vronsky leaves for the Servian war, unable to live without Anna and hoping to die. Back at his farm with a loving wife and baby son, Levin struggles with thoughts of death and the horror of living when he does not understand "the whence, and why, and how, and what [life] was." (Summary by Mary Anderson and MaryAnn)