The Big Read 2021: War and Peace

Newsletter (Digital)
Subscribers get access to exclusive newsletters (weekly), supplemental reading suggestions, expert interviews, community discussions, and more. 2021 is the first year of the Big Read; hopefully the first of many. Our first book is Leo Tolstoy’s famous War & Peace. At over 1,300 pages, it’s one of the longer classics you’ll ever encounter, and yet surprisingly readable. It’s easier than Moby Dick; easier, at times, than Les Miserables. The beauty of Tolstoy is in his relatable characters, his avoidance of easy black and white answers, and, most relevant to today, his wisdom regarding how to live in turbulent, earth-shattering times. How do we relate to others, especially when they aren’t in the same social world as us? How do we view the tides of history when we’ve living in them? Can war and peace really be separated and easily delineated? The questions are as big as they come. Source

Actions

Share this page

Media Outlet details

Scope National
Language English
Country United States of America
Similarweb UVMSimilarweb UVM Request pricing
Comscore UVMComscore UVM Request pricing

Recent Articles

Search Articles

Les Mis: The Consummate Bourgeois

|
By Jeremy Anderberg 
| The Big Read 2021: War and Peace
Today I’m recapping the entirety of the book, “The Consummate Bourgeois.” The whole thing is only 10 pages long — so be sure to have read all eight chapters before reading on. We’ve had some very short sections in the last couple months; interestingly, we’re approaching the halfway point of the year, but we’ll be a touch less than halfway…
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Les Mis: A Study of Paris Through One of Its Atoms

|
By Jeremy Anderberg 
| The Big Read 2021: War and Peace
A Parisian boy photographed by Lewis Hine in 1918 or 1919 Hello readers! Today, I’m recapping all of the book “A Study of Paris Through One of Its Atoms,” which is the first book in the “Marius” volume. On the reading schedule, that takes us through tomorrow (June 8). But the chapters are so short that it was plenty easy to keep going and get ahead just …
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Les Mis: Concluding "Cemeteries Take What They Are Given"

|
By Jeremy Anderberg 
| The Big Read 2021: War and Peace
This week we finished the powerful section “Cemeteries Take What They Are Given” (as well as “Part” or “Volume” Two) — which is where the vast majority of my notes for the week came from. So we’re going to stay there for this recap. Next week we’ll read Chapters V-XI of “Paris Through the Study of One of Its Atoms,” and I’ll then recap wh…
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Les Mis: Cemeteries, Chapters I-VI

|
By Jeremy Anderberg 
| The Big Read 2021: War and Peace
This week Hugo dropped us back into the narrative like we hadn’t just been waylaid for the last 50 pages. It was like nothing had happened — the whole thing about the convent was just a temporary loss of consciousness and we were right back to the main event. It’s actually what makes a book like this so special. As I’ve mentioned before,…
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Les Mis: Parenthesis

|
By Jeremy Anderberg 
| The Big Read 2021: War and Peace
Victor Hugo. Do his digressions make you feel like this at times? Hello readers, This week’s reading remarkably short in terms of page count, but gave us a bit more to think about on a philosophical level. The very title of this short book told us we were in for even more digression (we’re back with Valjean and Cosette this week, thankfully), but it had …
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Les Mis: Finishing Petit-Picpus

|
By Jeremy Anderberg 
| The Big Read 2021: War and Peace
What does a white whale have to do with Les Mis? More than you think. Hello readers, This week’s reading continued yet another long, descriptive digression. And Victor Hugo knows it. In fact, he keeps plainly telling us exactly that. At multiple points he admits that what he’s describing has little or nothing to do with the plot: “has no bearing on the st…
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Les Mis: Silent Stalkers → Petit-Picpus

|
By Jeremy Anderberg 
| The Big Read 2021: War and Peace
This week we finished the chase through the Paris streets and landed unexpectedly inside a strict convent. A wall is scaled, a door appears, and suddenly we’re in a completely different world. Hugo has been moving Valjean (and Cosette) from danger to danger, continually narrowing their options. A place like Petit-Picpus — closed and cut of…
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Les Mis: Silent Stalkers in the Dark, Chapters I-VII

|
By Jeremy Anderberg 
| The Big Read 2021: War and Peace
This is from the late 1800s, but the vibes seem similar to Hugo’s version of Paris. Hello readers, This week’s chapters read like one of those long single-camera, continuous take scenes out of a thriller. Quick turns down dark alleys, a group of cops hunting a fugitive, a last-minute escape over a wall that shouldn’t be scalable. There aren’t many stoppi…
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Les Mis: The Gorbeau Tenement

|
By Jeremy Anderberg 
| The Big Read 2021: War and Peace
This week we read the entire book “The Gorbeau Tenement.” He spends the first handful of pages describing a neighborhood, a building, a mood — and only then settles us back into the story. By the time Valjean and Cosette arrive, we don’t just know where they live, we viscerally sense it. But even the most miserable surroundings can still c…
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Les Mis: A Deathbed Promise Is Honored

|
By Jeremy Anderberg 
| The Big Read 2021: War and Peace
First, do not read this until you’ve finished the book “A Deathbed Promise is Honored.” In today’s recap, I’m covering the rest of that book, which we started last week. In these chapters, Hugo stays almost entirely with Cosette, and in doing so gives us one of the clearest pictures yet of what he means by les misérables. It’s not just po…
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

The Big Read 2021: War and Peace Journalists

Anderberg, Jeremy
Smith, Kyle

Actions

Share this page