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Liza Bennett's avatar

Thank you for these fresh and vital takes on War and Peace which is a different and more enriching book with every read. Thank you, too, for another year of the brilliant Frugal Chariot.

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Nicie Panetta's avatar

Thank you, Liza. Praise from you means the world. As I mentioned, I can't wait to "re-read" W&P via the Thandiwe Newton audio version which is now available. For anyone following thread, Liza has a wonderful blog here: http://lizagyllenhaal.com/

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Sophie Nusslé's avatar

What a delight to wake up to this essay this morning! I wish I’d known about the War and Peace study group this autumn - it passed me by. But thank you for sharing your thoughts about W&P and the environment. Tolstoy was an early environmentalist, and deserves to be read that way (as well as all the other ways in which we can look at his great work).

To add to your small list of political leaders who don’t treat power as a bilboquet: Jacinda Ardern, and the late great Nelson Mandela.

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Nicie Panetta's avatar

Thank you so much for your kind words and thoughts, Sophie. Do track @apublicspace for future group reads; I believe Moby Dick is next.

I agree that Tolstoy was deeply attuned to the non-human world. He wrote a story called Strider from the point of view of a horse.

And, yes, let's celebrate the great Mandela and principled leaders like Ardern. They do exist and deserve our active support.

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