In this lively gambol through the history of quotations and quotation books, Gary Saul Morson traces our enduring fascination with the words of others. He defines what makes a quote quotable, as well as the (unexpected) differences between quotation and misquotation.

Anna Karenina is the tragic story of a married aristocrat/socialite and her affair with the affluent Count Vronsky. The story starts when she arrives in the midst of a family broken up by her brother's unbridled womanizing -- something that prefigures her own later situation, though she would experience less tolerance by others. A bachelor, Vronsky is eager to marry her if she will agree to leave her husband Karenin, a senior government official,...