Tag Archives: War and Peace

Questions about the Reading Experience

By Robin Bates | Published: August 19, 2025

In which I continue to answer questions, directed to Barbara Kingsolver, about my reading experiences. Then I come up with some new questions.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Tortoise Shout", Barbara Kingsolver, Catcher in the Rye, D. H. Lawrence, Flaubert’s Parrot, Franny and Zooey, George Eliot, Haruki Murakami, J. D. Salinger, Julian Barnes, Lady Chatterley's Lover, Leo Tolstoy, Man Who Died, Middlemarch, My Antonia, Willa Cather, Women in Love | Comments closed

What to Make of Fascist Authors

By Robin Bates | Published: June 26, 2025

In which I explore a Lit Hub article arguing that authors and fascists have things in common, which explains why certain authors have turned to the dark side.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Ed Simon, Eduard Limonov, Emily Bronte, Fascism, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Leo Tolstoy, Merchant of Venice, Tempoe of the Golden Pavilion, William Shakespeare, Wuthering Heights, Yukio Mishima | Comments closed

Tolstoy’s Advice for Diplomats

By Robin Bates | Published: May 8, 2025

Former diplomat Fletcher Burton shows Tolstoy’s brilliance in depicting diplomats and diplomacy in War in Peace.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged diplomacy, Fletcher Burton, Leo Tolstoy | Comments closed

An Iranian Hostage Recalls Tolstoy

By Robin Bates | Published: May 7, 2025

In which one of the 1980 Iranian hostages explains why “War and Peace” meant so much to him at the time.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Emma, George Eliot, Homer, Iliad, Iranian hostage crisis, Jane Austen, Leo Tolstoy, Life and Fate, Middlemarch, Pride and Prejudice, Vasily Grossman | Comments closed

Ukraine: What Would Leo and Fyodor Do?

By Robin Bates | Published: June 21, 2023

Dostoevsky and Tolstoy’s novels work as indictments of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Anna Karenina, Brothers Karamazov, Child Abuse, Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Hadji Murat, Leo Tolstoy, Resurrection, Russian Invasion of Ukraine, sadism, Vladimir Putin | Comments closed

The Very Model of a Modern Russian General

By Robin Bates | Published: March 27, 2022

Tweeters have been busy finding literary allusions to capture the incompetence of Russia’s armed forces in Ukraine.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Gilbert and Sullivan, Importance of Being Earnest, Leo Tolstoy, Oscar Wilde, Pirates of Penzance, Ukraine invasion, William S. Gilbert | Comments closed

Putin Quoting Tolstoy? Puleeze!

By Robin Bates | Published: June 21, 2021

Putin claimed to quote Tolstoy but didn’t in his meeting with Biden. What he says is reminiscent of Flannery O’Connor’s Misfit, however.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Flannery O'Connor, Good Man Is Hard to Find, Joe Biden, Leo Tolstoy, Soul, Vladimir Putin | Comments closed

Is GOP a Death Cult? Ask Tolstoy

By Robin Bates | Published: June 24, 2020

Has the GOP become a death cult. Tolstoy’s description of suicidal behavior from Napoleon’s soldiers suggests yes.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged COVID19, GOP, Leo Tolstoy | Comments closed

Tolstoy on Suicidal Cult Followers

By Robin Bates | Published: May 3, 2020

Why do so many Trump supporters deliberately court coronavirus? Why do Napoleon’s soldiers in “War and Peace” throw themselves into a river to impress him.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged coronavirus protests, COVID-19, Donald Trump, Gov. Whitmer, Leo Tolstoy, settle in place orders | Comments closed