Readers across the world are fin

DAY 68 Readers across the world are finding solace in “War and Peace”

solace    /ˈsɒləs/  =comfort
a feeling of emotional comfort when you are sad or disappointed; a person or thing that makes you feel better or happier when you are sad or disappointed
n.安慰; 慰藉; 给以安慰的人(或事物);v.安慰，慰藉; 减轻; 使快乐;

War    [wɔː(r)]

Peace [piːs]

The rhythm of the epic novel is eerily suited to life in lockdown

rhythm /ˈrɪðəm/   n.节奏; 韵律; 律动; 规则变化; 规律; 节律;
a strong regular repeated pattern of sounds or movements

epic  /ˈepɪk/
1>  ​having the features of an epic
2>  very great and impressive

novel  /ˈnɒvl/

eerily  /ˈɪərəli/   ['ɪrəli]    ad. 怪诞地；奇异地；可怕地
​in a strange, mysterious and frightening way

be suited to  适合; 适合于;

lockdown  n.活动(或行动)限制;

1 Over the past 15 years Yiyun Li, a Chinese-American author, has read “War and Peace” at least a dozen times. Her hardback copy of Leo Tolstoy’s 1,200-page saga bristles with coloured notes, like some exotic lizard’s spine. The novel is not just a masterclass in fiction, Ms Li believes, but a remedy for distress. At the most difficult times in her life, she says, she has turned to it again and again, reassured by its “solidity” in the face of uncertainty.

Chinese-American  美籍华人

 a dozen times  dʌzn  多次， 十几遍;

hardback   /ˈhɑːdbæk/   ​ n.精装书
a book that has a stiff cover  

 Leo Tolstoy  [ˈliːəʊ ˈtɒlstɔɪ] 列夫·托尔斯泰   1828－1910  
19世纪中期俄国批判现实主义作家、政治思想家 [2]  、哲学家，代表作有《战争与和平》、《安娜·卡列尼娜》、《复活》等。

saga [ˈsɑːɡə]
n.萨迦(尤指古代挪威或冰岛讲述冒险经历和英雄业绩的长篇故事); (讲述许多年间发生的事情的) 长篇故事，长篇小说; 一连串的事件(或经历); 一连串经历的讲述(或记述);

bristle with sth 
to have a large amount of something, or to be full of something

bristles  [ˈbrɪsl]
n.短而硬的毛发; 刚毛; 刷子毛;v.(对某人的言行) 大为恼怒; 被激怒; (背部或颈部的毛因惊吓或发怒) 竖起，耸起;

exotic    ɪɡˈzɒtɪk
adj.来自异国(尤指热带国家)的; 奇异的; 异国情调的; 异国风味的;

lizard [ˈlɪzəd] n.蜥蜴;

spine [spaɪn]
n.脊柱; 脊椎; (植物的) 刺; (动物的) 刺毛; 书脊;

masterclass ˈmɑːstəklɑːs
n.(大师授课的) 高级音乐讲习班; 深造班;

in fiction 小说中
fiction   [ˈfɪkʃn]    n.小说; 虚构的事; 假想之物;

remedy  [ˈremədi]
n.处理方法; 改进措施; 补偿; 疗法; 治疗; 药品

distress [dɪˈstres]  n  忧虑; 痛苦; 贫困;

solidity  [səˈlɪdəti]   n.固态; 坚固性; 可靠性; n. 坚硬，坚固；体积；固体性

 reassure riːəˈʃʊə(r);
vt. 使安心；使消除疑虑；安慰；重新保证，再次确保；（尤指保险）分保，给……再保险

2 “War and Peace”—originally titled “The Year 1805”—is widely considered the world’s greatest novel. It is also among the most daunting, acknowledged Richard Pevear, one of its translators, “as vast as Russia itself”. Its huge canvas encompasses not just Napoleon’s wars against the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires from 1805 to 1812, but a cast whose actions and emotions span the breadth of human consciousness. As James Wood, a literary critic, has noted, Tolstoy is the supreme novelist of human contradiction. His epic is an unparalleled examination of how people respond to the pressures of both war and ordinary life.

 daunting   [ˈdɔːntɪŋ]
 adj. 使人畏缩的；使人气馁的；令人怯步的

canvas [ˈkænvəs]
n. 帆布vt. 用帆布覆盖，用帆布装备adj. 帆布制的

 encompass vt.   [ɪnˈkʌmpəs]  包含；包围，环绕；完成

cast   全体演员阵容

3 So large is Tolstoy’s world, Ms Li reckoned, that there could be no better companion for people trapped in isolation. She conceived of a virtual book club to sustain readers through the lockdown. Participants around the globe would plough through this doorstopper together and share their thoughts on social media. With Brigid Hughes of “A Public Space”, a literary review based in Brooklyn, she christened the project #TolstoyTogether. It would be an anchor in unsettling times. To their amazement, when it began in mid-March 3,000 people on six continents signed up.

reckoned  = considered

conceived of

plough through  艰难的前行；费力的阅读
plough  /plaʊ/
a large piece of farming equipment with one or several curved blades (= metal cutting parts), pulled by a tractor or by animals. It is used for digging and turning over soil, especially before seeds are planted.

doorstopper   门栓 （隔离）

a literary review  文学书评

christen  /ˈkrɪsn/  v 给……取名；首次使用；给……洗礼

anchor   安全感；精神支柱

4 Other book clubs have sprung up to discuss great literature during the pandemic. Some are reading Boccaccio’s “Decameron”, a story cycle set amid the Black Death; others, “The Plague”, an allegorical tale by Albert Camus. But Tolstoy’s novel reflects the atmosphere of life in quarantine better, if more obliquely. Its alternating structure, toggling between battlefields and the salons of Russian high society, mirrors the disorienting split in readers’ own attention—between their own personal, stilled states and the calamity unfolding outside.

  spring up   出现；涌现；萌芽 

Boccaccio   薄伽丘
Decameron  《十日谈》

set 设定场景

  Plague

allegorical    ˌæləˈɡɒrɪkl  
adj. 讽喻的；寓言的，寓意的

obliquely   əˈbliːkli   adv. 倾斜地；转弯抹角地 ——>更隐晦地说

 toggle  [ˈtɒɡl]  v 场景切换；switch from one to another
n. 拴扣；切换键，开关；套索钉v. 切换；拴牢，系紧

disorienting  adj. 迷失方向的

still   [stɪl] vt. 蒸馏；使……静止；使……平静下来

calamity  [kəˈlæməti]  n. 灾难；不幸事件

unfolding [ʌn'fəʊldɪŋ] 
v. 展开，打开；透露，展现； 逐渐明朗；使传开；发生；被披露，被呈现（unfold 的现在分词）

 alternating structure 写作手法，在战场和聚会中不断变换，反映出读者精神的迷茫；这迷茫时关于读者自身的，迷失方向的

5 Those who have begun the book before might have skimmed the war sections; now they seize the foreground, the main and awful action which, like the news from Wuhan, Bergamo and New York, overshadows the drawing-room intrigues.

section  章节

 foreground  重点

overshadow  使……逊色

drawing-room intrigues 上层社会的阴谋
a room in a large house in which people relax and guests are entertained

6 Parallels with today’s crisis are inescapable. On the very first page, Anna Pavlovna, a St Petersburg hostess, comes down with “la grippe”—a flu—but holds her soirée nonetheless. Amid talk of Napoleon and war, she exclaims: “Can one be calm in times like these if one has any feeling?” Pauline Holdsworth, a reader in Toronto, shared the quote on Twitter, noting drily that it cut “a bit close to the bone”.

Parallels with   平行；与…比较   [ˈpærəlel

安娜·帕夫洛夫娜

inescapable  [ˌɪnɪˈskeɪpəbl]

St Petersburg   Saint Petersburg

hostess  /həʊstəs/
n. 女主人，女老板；女服务员；舞女；女房东

 comes down with 染上，得了（病）;

la grippe 流行感冒

 soirée   soiree  （s no ray）  晚会

drily    [ˈdraɪli  adv. 干燥地；冷淡地；讽刺地
adv.幽默而不形于色地; 冷冰冰地; 冷淡地; 不动感情地; 干燥地;

note  [nəʊt]  vt. 注意；记录；注解

Toronto [təˈrɒntəʊ]

cut to the bone
切中要害
cut, pare, etc. something to the bone​to reduce something, such as costs, as much as you possibly can

7 The rhythm of the readathon, too, is analogous to the woozy movement of epidemic time. At a prescribed 30 minutes a day (some 12 to 15 pages), readers move at a peculiar, slowed pace through battles and duels, deaths and marriage proposals and balls. If, as Ms Li claims, the book “contains everything about life”, it also mimics the temporal experience of real lives. There are none of the leaps and flashbacks that many modern novelists go in for. “Everything just goes on,” she explains, “time just goes on, exactly like how we live.” She has planned the readings to last for three months. And though the endpoint of the fictional action may be distant, it is still somehow plausible, like the eventual lifting of the lockdown.

readathon  阅读马拉松

is analogous to  类似于  /əˈnæləɡəs/
analogous (to/with something) 
similar in some way to another thing or situation and therefore able to be compared with it

woozy    /ˈwuːzi/
feeling unsteady, confused and unable to think clearly

mimic /ˈmɪmɪk/
​to copy the way somebody speaks, moves, behaves, etc., especially in order to make other people laugh

leaps and flashback  跳叙；倒叙

go in for
1>   to take an exam or enter a competition
2>  ​to have something as an interest or a hobby

plausible   /ˈplɔːzəbl/    <反>  implausible
​(of an excuse or explanation) reasonable and likely to be true

lifting of the lockdown  封锁的解封

disant 与生活很遥远

8 Most strikingly, readers have instantly recognised themselves in the seesawing emotions that course through all Tolstoy’s characters. None is ever really stable: Prince Andrei Bolkonsky swings abruptly between arrogance and euphoria; Pierre Bezukhov is forever thinking one thing and saying another; young Nikolai Rostov, enamoured of the tsar, is eager to die, then bolts away like a terrified hare.

seesaw  /ˈsiː sɔː/
see-saw (from A to B) 
to keep changing from one situation, opinion, emotion, etc. to another and back again

course through

euphoria   /juːˈfɔːriə/
​an extremely strong feeling of happiness and excitement that usually lasts only a short time

enamoured   /ɪˈnæməd/
(often in negative sentences) liking something a lot

tsar   /zɑː(r)/
​the emperor of Russia in the past

bolt away  逃走
bolt    /bəʊlt/   v
to fasten something

hare  野兔

9 “The amplified extremities of emotion during extreme times,” tweeted Kristin Boldon, a reader in Minneapolis. “I can relate.” Tolstoy’s genius is to capture these confused internal battles, which are never more evident than amid the cabin fever of quarantine—the oscillating closeness and exasperation with loved ones, claustrophobia jostling with odd hints of liberation. “He shows us we can be many things at once,” says Ms Hughes, who compiles the observations of Ms Li and others into a weekly newsletter. People are always complicated, Tolstoy insists; all must constantly find new footing in a shifting world.

relate  感同身受？

oscillate  /ˈɒsɪleɪt/  左右摇摆  =swing
oscillate (between A and B) 
(formal) to keep changing from one extreme of feeling or behaviour to another, and back again

exasperation  /ɪɡˌzæspəˈreɪʃn/  恼怒
the feeling of being extremely annoyed, especially because you cannot do anything to improve a situation

claustrophobia 幽闭恐惧症

jostle with  
jostle    /ˈdʒɒsl/   v
to push roughly against somebody in a crowd
vt. 推挤，撞；争夺vi. 竞争，争夺；推挤n. 推撞，挤拥

comply into 
comply  /kəmˈplaɪ/   v 遵从; 服从; 顺从;
​comply (with something)
 to obey a rule, an order, etc.; to meet particular standards

we can be many things at once  人可以有多面；多种身份

claustrophobia jostling with odd hints of liberation. 
幽闭恐惧症的不适（让人）争抢寻找任何可能的微小解脱。
odd = available？

Borodino to Bergamo

10 As great art can, the novel is helping its readers adjust to their own uncertain reality. As George Saunders, another American novelist, puts it, Tolstoy observes humankind “the way God sees us”, with empathy and forgiveness, implicitly encouraging readers to view themselves with the same generosity. The book club itself embodies the common humanity that the coronavirus has pointed up: a paradoxically rich connection with strangers who are widely dispersed yet linked by their predicaments and imaginations.

embody  /ɪmˈbɒdi/  体现
1>  to express or represent an idea or a quality  = represent
2>  (formal) to include or contain something

point up 强调  

  paradoxically   /ˌpærəˈdɒksɪkli/
in a way that seems strange, impossible or unlikely because it has two opposite features or contains two opposite ideas

disperse  /dɪˈspɜːs/
to move apart and go away in different directions; to make somebody/something do this
v.(使) 分散，散开; 疏散; 驱散; 散布; 散发; 传播;

predicament   /prɪˈdɪkəmənt/ n.尴尬的处境; 困境; 窘境;   =  quandary
a difficult or an unpleasant situation, especially one where it is difficult to know what to do

11 Whether listening to an audiobook while walking or curling up at the end of an exhausting homeschooling day, thousands of isolated souls are on the same page (as a side-benefit, struggling bookshops have seen a welcome run on the novel). The readers are an entertaining, highly literate bunch, weighing in every day with erudite analyses and favourite quotes. There are line-by-line comparisons of different translations, and revelations about Tolstoy and his miserable marriage to Sofia, who while bearing and bringing up several children edited the manuscript seven times. There are selfies with the book, photos of pets with the book, a bowl of borscht with the book, links to films and paintings and poems, even a Tolstoy tattoo featuring the comet of 1812. It is not too late to start: there are still hundreds of pages to go.

curling up  团着

literate bunch 文人墨客
bunch /bʌntʃ/ 
bunch (of something) 
a number of things of the same type which are growing or fastened together

run on sth  争先抢购

weighing in every day  如何度量每一天

erudite   /ˈerudaɪt/  = learned  博学的
having or showing great knowledge that is gained from academic study

borscht  /bɔːʃt/  n.罗宋汤; (俄罗斯或波兰) 甜菜汤;
 Russian or Polish soup made from beetroot (= a dark red root vegetable)

 comet  /ˈkɒmɪt/
​a mass of ice and dust that moves around the sun and looks like a bright star with a tail

12 Art imitates life and life responds in kind. One reader tweeted the famous chart made by Charles Minard of Napoleon’s losses in his campaign of 1812—the same chart to which, a day later, a critical-care doctor in New York referred to illustrate the winnowing of hospital supplies as the pandemic struck. Another reader shared a line from a letter that Vasily Grossman, sometimes called “the Soviet Tolstoy”, wrote to his daughter from the battle of Stalingrad. “Bombers. Shelling. Hellish thunder,” Grossman reported. “It’s impossible to read anything except ‘War and Peace’.”

 in kind  同样的方式 （in the same way)

critical-care  重症监护

winnow  /ˈwɪnəʊ/  筛选
to blow air through grain in order to remove its outer layer (called the chaff)

a line from a letter 一封信里的一行字

Stalingrad  斯大林格勒战役

Bombers 轰炸机   Shelling  炮击

战争与和平 (BBC版）

https://www.bilibili.com/bangumi/play/ss24268

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first1：30 特殊时期，特殊小说，特殊情感；小说讲了什么；时代背景&作者；对当下的意义
（有的是真的get，有的就是单纯猜）===