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Sevastopol Sketches ✅. I love when Tolstoy writes things like 'his beloved ensign' followed by the coldest one-line description of said ensign's death and really twists the knife in. He kills characters for the moral of his story so it's a bit better than Dostoevsky who just enjoys extra pain and suffering, but equally he knows how to elicit reader sympathy for it to hurt deeply. Excellent read.

Sevastopol in May ✅. I’ll never get tired of Tolstoy writing about war and hearing his views on it.

Sevastopol in December ✅. Wonderful. This is Tolstoy at his most comfortable and his best.

The Cossacks ✅. Bit sad about the ending but I should’ve seen that coming. I was hoping Tolstoy is a more magnanimous writer but I suppose not when he’s trying to deliver a message. Mostly enjoyed though!

Lukashka and Olenin are either going to become best brothers or violently end each other, there’s no in between. Also predicting that Maryana is going to be the girl that Olenin dreamt about on the road.

Love to see the sublime evoked through potent landscapes. ‘And the mountains…’

Part IV has to be my favourite so far. More slice of life and less treacherous roads, with a side of political turbulence. But all in all a beautiful and lively narration taking in Persian sights as spring rolled in.

Byron is such a capricious personality. He may be controversially judgemental in parts but I most enjoy a character as such. Increasingly I am coming to terms with how contradictory people can be, and that's fine. That's merely humanity.

Yeats' relationship to esotericism is fascinating and it is a great delight to ponder its subtle manifestations in his poetry.