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I always feel a bit lost and listless in these war chapters, but your posts change everything about that!

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Aug 11·edited Aug 11Author

That's great to hear. Makes me feel like this is worthwhile!

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Aug 11Liked by Simon Haisell

Thank you, Simon for another brilliant summary. It’s been a frenetic and emotional week. First worrying about Pierre and now poor Andrei! 🫣

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Aug 11Liked by Simon Haisell

Reading all this, Simon, makes me thing of one thing. I can't believe it's only been a week in our lives and it was about one day in history. I shake my head. Over war, over folly, over the passage of time which is sometimes so weird.

Thank you for the information on the wormwood. I knew it had to have some importance because everything Tolstoy describes does. I just couldn't suss it out properly.

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It's one of the more harrowing weeks of War and Peace.

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Aug 11Liked by Simon Haisell

Thank you for all these weekly summaries. Very informative, as always. An emotional end to the week. A strong coffee needed now! Have a good week, Simon

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Thanks Lynn, you too.

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Aug 11Liked by Simon Haisell

Thank you for the connection to the raft/ferry chapter. I read it again and it is so meaningful to look back on from our current situation. Each sentence in this book packs a punch and with such a long book it is almost impossible(for me at least) to recall all of these details on the first read through - so I appreciate your guidance even more the further we get!

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One of the wonders of a slow read, making all those connections!

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I have always had the impression that Andre's spinning charge is rather small, hand grenade size. Maybe that's wrong, but every time I get to that point I'm yelling at him to kick it TF out of the way!

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Aug 13Liked by Simon Haisell

Whew! This was a powerful summary, Simon. I read every chapter this week and also the chats afterwards, but your overview of the entire scene made me see things in different ways. So much gratitude.

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Oh thank you Robyn, that means a lot. I appreciate it!

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Borodino is an interesting battlefield. Today it is marked by monuments to indicate the locations of the various regiments of the Russian army at about the midpoint of the battle. Even without the smoke of battle, it is difficult from either Napoleon's or Kutuzov's position to see all of the battlefield - especially Utitsa were Poniatowski is leading the French attack. During World War II it was again a battlefield as German forces pushed towards Moscow along the road from Smolensk. While in Moscow, we also found the marker for the mass grave of a reported 15,000 French casualties from the French hospitals in Moscow who had all been left behind in the retreat from that city. Around it were the graves of several French pilots who after the fall of France were on the Soviet Front flying in the Normandy-Niemen Squadron alongside the Red Air Forces.

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Aug 11Liked by Simon Haisell

I suppose visiting Borodino is out of the question, but wouldn’t that be fantastic. To go and see where they all were?

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Right now, yes. Quite impossible sadly.

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And that excellent image of the third Trumpet! Sometimes I have to see your summary before I can tolerate the story itself.

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Ah, what do you mean by tolerate?

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