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I decided to make this a pick because of the sheer volume of research Bartlett put into this book. It‘s kind of mind blowing and super impressive. I recently bought a gorgeous edition of War and Peace, but I thought I should learn about Tolstoy‘s life before I dived in. That was a mistake…the more I read about him, the more I found myself disliking him. While I understand the profound impact he had on Russian culture and language ⬇️