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GettyImages, @shutter_j/Twitter, @katarinagulliver/Twitter
It all began when Katrina Gulliver responded to a Twitter thread in which a user by the name of "Marchella" encouraged people to educate themselves about "the follies of communism."
Marchella had been watching Netflix's The Last Czars and read Leo Tolstoy's literary masterpiece, War and Peace and was compelled to tweet:
"After watching the 'Last Czars' and reading 'War and Peace' it's so important to teach your kiddos of the follies of communism."
"You have the internet, research for yourself. For the love of God."
Gulliver asked Marchella what War and Peace – a novel about the French invasion of Russia that takes place during the Napoleonic Era – had to do with communism.
That's when "The Righteous Pumpkin Trebuchet" offered his unsolicited and uneducated response:
"The communist revolution."
On the off-chance the "Righteous Pumkin" didn't crack open Tolstoy's book, Gulliver explained the setting of the historical chronicle.
"'War and Peace' is set in the Napoleonic Wars. A century before the Bolsheviks."
She screenshot their entire exchange.
The Righteous Pumpkin admitted he falsely assumed the book was about Russian history.
He replied:
"I'm gonna level with you; I have neither watched it or read the book."
"I assumed it was about the Russian revolution as it was written by Tolstoy, who was sort of into that kind of thing."
Gulliver resumed with the lesson.
"Tolstoy died in 1910. So he didn't live to see the Russian revolution, let alone be 'into it.'"
He humbly added that he will stick with what he knows.
"Russian history is not my forte. I will stick to the British/Roman/Greek history section of my personal library numbering 500+ books. Cheers."
And with that, the Righteous Pumpkin was no more.
How is this mansplaining?
Righteous Pumpkin knew he knew nothing about the subject, knew he had never read the book, but still felt compelled to "correct" the woman commenting on the thread.
That in a nutshell is mansplaining.
The screenshot of his profile revealed the married Catholic had a way with women.
@andyffgibbons/Twitter
"#prolife married Catholic. Software Developer, and part-time student of Philosophy at Edinburgh University."
"Follow me, Ladies, you won't be disappointed."
How does his "wife" feel about that?
His need to weigh in about something he has no clue about speaks volumes about him.
At least more than his collection of 500 books.
The married software developer gave Twitter the dry heaves by promising ladies who follow him won't be disappointed.
Sure, he had a redemptive moment.
But it was short lived.
People relentlessly roasted his mention of his extensive library.
Tolstoy began drafting War and Peace in 1863. The book spans between 1805 to 1820, 60 years before the Russian author's time and spoke with people who lived through the 1812 French invasion of Russia as research.
He also studied books, journals, biographies and auto-biographies about the Napoleonic Wars and incorporated his own experience in the Crimean War into the novel in which he aimed to blur the line between fiction and history.
The not-so Righteous Pumpkin was entirely wrong, morally questionable and has now inducted himself into the annals of internet shame.
Cheers.
The book War and Peace is available here in a clothbound hardcover edition or in paperback here.
Hollywood did not tackle War and Peace, but during the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union decided to create an epic film to rival anything the west could do. That film is available here, War and Peace The Criterion Collection.
In 2016, BBC Wales produced War and Peace as a miniseries, available here.