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Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina

All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

all the while keeping their eyes trained for sails on the horizon and footprints in the sand.

Like Robinson Crusoe stranded on the Isle of Despair, the Count would maintain his resolve by committing to the business of practicalities.

But in a period of abundance any half-wit with a spoon can please a palate. To truly test a chef’s ingenuity, one must instead look to a period of want. And what provides want better than war?

adversity presents itself in many forms; and that if a man does not master his circumstances then he is bound to be mastered by them. - the grand duke and the Count’s godfather

And when the Count’s parents succumbed to cholera within hours of each other in 1900, it was the Grand Duke who took the young Count aside and explained that he must be strong for his sister’s sake;

it was in September of 1905 that the members of the Delegation had signed the Treaty of Portsmouth to end the Russo-Japanese War. In the seventeen years since the making of that peace—hardly a generation—Russia had suffered a world war, a civil war, two famines, and the so-called Red Terror.

“A king fortifies himself with a castle,” observed the Count, “a gentleman with a desk.”

Thus, it is the opinion of this committee that you should be returned to that hotel of which you are so fond. But make no mistake: should you ever set foot outside of the Metropol again, you will be shot. Next matter. Bearing the signatures of V. A. Ignatov

On that basis, our inclination would be to have you taken from this chamber and put against the wall. But there are those within the senior ranks of the Party who count you among the heroes of the prerevolutionary cause.

Ignatov: Alexander Ilyich Rostov, taking into full account your own testimony, we can only assume that the clear-eyed spirit who wrote the poem Where Is It Now? has succumbed irrevocably to the corruptions of his class—and now poses a threat to the very ideals he once espoused.

Rostov: I have lived under the impression that a man’s purpose is known only to God.

"Jem, I ain't ever heard of a nigger snowman," I said. - Scout

The boy had on shorts, and a shock of soapy hair fell to his eyebrows. I looked up at Jem.

Jem looked from the girl-doll to me. The girl-doll wore bangs. So did I.

- description of Jem and Scout

There are no clearly defined seasons in South Alabama;

Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I'd have the facts.

They couldn’t read or write and was allowed to be taught these things at home as it may contradict the way school will eventually teach them

This book is told from the perspective of a 2nd grade girl

This was in a time when disobeying your parents, particularly the father, was harshly and swiftly dealt with. To us it may seem a small thing that Jem et al wants to leave the ‘ilusive’ neighbour boy a note to come out and play. But everyone keeps warning them to stay away from there and as kids are kids, they then go out of their way to find out what’s going on.

"Scout, I'm tellin' you for the last time, shut your trap or go home- I declare to the Lord you're gettin' more like a girl every day!" With that, I had no option but to join them.

Dubose was the meanest old woman who ever lived. Jem wouldn't go by her place without Atticus beside him.

but as I inched sluggishly along the treadmill of the Maycomb County school system, I could not help receiving the impression that I was being cheated out of something. Out of what I knew not, yet I did not believe that twelve years of unrelieved boredom was exactly what the state had in mind for me.

The Ewels were the scum of the community. The father was a drunk, the kids were filthy and none of them followed the rules or common decency.

I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.

The Radleys are the scary family in the town of Maycomb. They kept to themselves, they did not go to church and worshipped at home. Mrs Radley did not meet up for coffee with the neighbours, the shutters were always drawn and everyone wondered what it is Mr Radley even did for a living as he didn’t appear to have a job.

It seems Jules inherited Ruby’s bloodlust. Ruby killed all the men who stood in her way. So does Jules it seems, with Ben.

The Darnell curse

The truth isn’t some finite thing, it’s what we all choose to believe. - Cam

Ruby’s birth family are the Darnells and Jules is one of them

Tragedy stalked the Darnells, though, because Linda had also died––in a car accident in 2011, which had left her nineteen-year-old daughter an orphan. Caitlin Julianne Darnell. A real mouthful. Didn’t blame her for switching to Jules, although I still can’t tell you where Brewster came from. Never did figure that part out. Did Ruby reach out first? Did Jules? I don’t know. - Cam