The novel’s first words threaten to dissolve all happy families into a sea of uninteresting sameness, while unhappy families are unique, intriguing, even romantic. But if the opening line is a universal truth, it is also a challenge Tolstoy sets himself: to shine light on the damnable tragedy that gives unhappiness its luster, and commend the unsung glories of an ordinary life. -F rom Sean Johnson’s guide

The Worldview Guides from the Canon Classics Literature Series provide an aesthetic and thematic Christian perspective on the most definitive and daunting works of Western Literature. Each Worldview Guide presents the big picture (both the good and the bad) without neglecting the details. Each Worldview Guide is a friendly literary coach-and a treasure map, and a compass, and a key-to help teachers, parents, and students appreciate, critique, and begin to master the classics.

The bite-size WGs are divided into these ten sections (with some variation due to genre): Introduction, The World Around, About the Author, What Other Notables Said, Setting, Characters, & Argument, Worldview Analysis, Quotables, 21 Significant Questions & Answers, and Further Discussion & Review.