The great battles occupy less than fifty pages in most translations. It is not that the chaotic battles are an afterthought. Rather, the real war that the characters struggle through is the battle with themselves, the world, and the other flesh-and-blood humans who dot the landscape of Tolstoy’s magisterial portrait

Why should we read the great books? The 'best which has been thought and said' teaches us about love -- the love found in forgiveness, the love found in the family, the love found in God. From Homer and Dante to Shakespeare, Austen and Dickens, they reignite the heart’s passion for beauty, goodness and truth

As the eyes are the window to the soul, so […]