The translation is a little wordy and circumlocutive. That kind of Victorian style where people do long sentences with subclauses separated by "wanton cruelty to the common comma", as Terry Pratchett quips about Carrot's writing.
Here's a sample with some paragraphs of varying lengths so you can get the effect (and you don't end up thinking it's *all* a giant Wall O'Text like in the second):
Quote:
And at this recollection, Stepan Arkadyevitch, as is so often the case, was not so much annoyed at the fact itself as at the way in which he had met his wife’s words.
There happened to him at that instant what does happen to people when they are unexpectedly caught in something very disgraceful. He did not succeed in adapting his face to the position in which he was placed towards his wife by the discovery of his fault. Instead of being hurt, denying, defending himself, begging forgiveness, instead of remaining indifferent even—anything would have been better than what he did do—his face utterly involuntarily (reflex spinal action, reflected Stepan Arkadyevitch, who was fond of physiology)—utterly involuntarily assumed its habitual, good-humored, and therefore idiotic smile.
This idiotic smile he could not forgive himself. Catching sight of that smile, Dolly shuddered as though at physical pain, broke out with her characteristic heat into a flood of cruel words, and rushed out of the room. Since then she had refused to see her husband.
“It’s that idiotic smile that’s to blame for it all,” thought Stepan Arkadyevitch.
“But what’s to be done? What’s to be done?” he said to himself in despair, and found no answer
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If that seems too clunky for you, probably a modern translation would be better to read, and just use the footnotes and bonus essays from the B&N version.
I think I've seen one or two recent translations recommended over in the Recs forum, but that may have been for Tolstoy's other work
War and Peace.
ETA: According to the cover, the translator is
Constance Garnett, who apparently was a major figure in the introduction of Russian literature works to the English-speaking public back then.
The Wikipedia article has a section on her translations which includes some criticism of various issues, so you could probably use that to help decide.