Last fall, Philip Weinstein, a professor of literature at Swarthmore College, taught a six-part course on William Faulkner at the Vineyard Haven library. The course was nearly standing room only each week, and those who attended now finally understand that Faulkner was never being deliberately difficult and obtuse in his writing. Rather, by fully entering into the stream of consciousness of his characters, he enabled the reader to both witness and get closer to each character’s journey. The inner landscape of Benjy the idiot was finally illuminated as was his true pain, which in Faulkner’s hands also mirrors the journey of the South.

This fall Professor Weinstein is traveling further afield — Russia to be exact and the era of the Napoleonic wars. The book is War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. It’s a big book and best travelled with a pack, lest one get lost amidst the names and places and sheer weight of both history and the mastery of the author.

The course is free and will take place on Wednesday nights over the next three months, beginning on Sept. 17.

To sign up, contact amyryan@clamsnet.