A Class in Tolstoy To Help You Sled Through the Winter Months

The winter hasn’t been that bad yet (even though it is 2020 and one might have expected this to be the worst early winter in decades). But soon it will be very cold and snowy and we will be quarantined and the conditions will be just perfect for reading the work of Leo Tolstoy.
For anyone who is intimidated by the lengthy works of the Russian novelist (and all those complicated Russian names), help is at hand in the form of well-known American novelist Roxanna Robinson, a Cornwall, Conn., resident who has donated her time and talent during the quarantine to leading literature workshops online for the Cornwall Library.
Some of the authors and titles discussed in the Cornwall Reads Great Fiction series over the summer were Honor Moore (“Our Revolution: A Mother and Daughter at Midcentury”) and Tessa Hadley (“Bad Dreams and Other Stories”). Those were single sessions; Robinson did a deeper dive on Gustave Flaubert’s “Madame Bovary.”
Starting on Jan. 12 and continuing until March 2, Robinson will dig into Tolstoy’s tragic love story, “Anna Karenina.”
“We’ll talk about vital, electrifying Anna and her handsome and mysterious lover, Vronsky,” Robinson said. “We’ll talk about Tolstoy, who he was and what he represented in 19th-century Russia, what Russia was like at that time, what the novel was doing, how Tolstoy prefigured modernism, what his intentions were in writing the book, what its factual origins were, how his family played into it, and anything else that comes in to my head.
“It is a fabulous, moving, fast-paced novel, not at all ponderous or weighty, and it is one of the greatest novels ever written, so this is the chance for everyone who’s been meaning to do so to read it, and the chance to re-read and savor it for those who already have done so.”
Robinson, a novelist with 10 books to her credit (including “Dawson’s Fall,” which came out in 2019), is also a teacher and has taught “Anna Karenina” for nearly 15 years in the MFA Program at Hunter College in New York City.
Locally, she is a member of one of Cornwall’s oldest families, descended from the Scoville clan, who first settled in Cornwall in the 18th century.
“My great-grandfather, Samuel Scoville, married the daughter of Henry Ward Beecher. Beecher and his family — Harriet Beecher Stowe among them — lived in Litchfield,” she said.
“The Scovilles have been ministers, farmers and lawyers, and have taken care of the North Cornwall church since it was built in 1812. I live in the house my grandparents built — Samuel Scoville Jr., who was a lawyer and writer.”
Scoville’s unexpectedly amusing writing was read aloud by Robinson in the library’s Cornwall Reads Cornwall over Thanksgiving weekend.
Participation in the eight-week “Anna Karenina” class is open to everyone at no cost (donations to the library are appreciated, however). The class will meet by Zoom on Tuesdays at 4 p.m., beginning Jan. 12 and ending March 2.
The edition to get for the class is the paperback version of the acclaimed translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (a photo of the cover is above, on this page) from Penguin Classics.
Participants should plan to read 100 pages every week — however, there is no requirement that you come to class having read the material, Robinson promises. “I hope you’ll come to the discussion anyway, so as you finally finish the book you’ll have thoughts from the class in your mind.”
To register, go to the “events/programs” page on the Cornwall Library website at www.CornwallLibrary.org.
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MILLERTON — In the short time that Rev. Dr. Anna Crews Camphouse has called Sharon, Connecticut, “home,” she has taken on an abundance of leadership roles in the area in hopes to grow and connect the community and people of faith.
Camphouse has been in pastoral ministry for almost 25 years. “Up until here, I’ve done a lot of things,” she said. Now, she leads four Methodist churches in the area.
After learning that the Lakeville United Methodist Church was without a pastor, Camphouse told to the district superintendent that she was interested and open to consideration for appointment. It was then that she was asked to take on Lakeville, along with the Sharon church.
Six months later, a year and a half ago, Camphouse got the call that Millerton had lost their pastor. In the first two years of her appointment, Camphouse took to running three local churches.
The next year, this past December, Camphouse was called to the Canaan United Methodist Church, as their pastor was retiring. Along with her current placements at the four churches, Camphouse is also “the convener of the Ministerial Association for the whole northwest corner,” she said.
Camphouse succeeds in carrying the impressive responsibility of four churches through a mix of organization and devotion. “There’s the technicality of how you do worship services, that’s more the science,” Camphouse said. “Then there is the art of it, which is ‘where is God calling me in this moment and how do I empower all of these people to be the best they can be, to serve God in the community?’”
With a staggered and rotating schedule, Camphouse said, “I just try to get to as many things as I can as soon as I can.” She also hopes to build a strong and cooperative parish model. “There are certain things that only I can do as the pastor, but there’s other things that a lot of people can do, and so I’m trying to make it more manageable in that way.”
“For somebody who hasn’t been here very long, I’ve somehow gotten super connected and involved. I think that is both the joy and the challenge of small towns. When you come into them, you have an option to be involved or not be involved,” Camphouse said. Her main goal and calling is to “connect communities, whether they are my churches or people of faith in general, toward being heaven bringers,” she said, hoping to spread the qualities of love, peace, grace, gentleness, and patience.
Growing up in a rural community in Alabama and living in other similar settings, Camphouse has noticed differences in the rural life of her new home. “This is a place that is rural, but it has resources, education and creativity. It has a mix of people who are interesting and curious and have incredible backgrounds,” she said. “People have been really willing to engage with me, I’ve had really positive experiences.”
“Apple pies are fabulous here. They’re the best things ever,” Camphouse added to the list of positives.
She has also been keeping an eye out for attendance patterns in each of her churches. “I think slowly the word is getting out as I connect with people, and more people are coming in to visit or to try out different things,” she said. The church aims to envision ways to interact and strengthen community engagement.
“When people walk into my church, I want them to feel the unconditional love of God,” Camphouse emphasized. “That is my goal. When they leave, I want them to feel uplifted and empowered to do things to make a positive difference in the world around them.”
Camphouse is excited and hopeful, as the Methodist church is becoming more inclusive and eager to love, which she says will strengthen the Methodist movement as a whole. “We have been on a journey of learning how to love better and consequently becoming more inclusive of who gets to come to the table officially. Some of us have thought everybody belonged at the table in the first place.”
“I want to make it clear that everybody is welcome at our church,” she declared.
Camphouse urges the community as a whole to “be as spiritually whole and vibrant with as much goodness, love and joy as possible,” and to “come out of fear and into faith and empowerment.”
“We need every person to remember who they are and shine. That is my point,” Camphouse said. “And if you want to do that with us, you are more than welcome. But if not, know that we are praying for you and that we will come alongside you as we do good works together.”
Central Hudson has filed with the New York State Public Service Commission for a three-year rate increase to deliver electricity and in May 2025 the PSC Staff and Central Hudson reached an agreement which has been passed along to the commissioners for their approval as the final step in the “rate case.”
The complex pages-long proposal does not involve the actual cost of producing electricity, but the expense of the infrastructure to deliver it including maintaining the electricity grid, reading electric meters, billing customers, etc.
The projected increases over the next three years will increase the Basic Service Charge, a flat amount regardless of the amount of electricity used, by 21% from $21.50 currently to $26 in year three.
The Delivery Service Charge, which is the largest part of the delivery portion of the bill, is scheduled to increase 17% over the three-year period. On what Central Hudson deems average usage of 630 kilowatt-hours per month this would add approximately $8.00 to the average bill in year one — that’s before the cost of energy and other miscellaneous charges.
In a typical month these delivery charges make up over 50% of the total bill with the remainder calculated based on the market rate of the actual energy that Central Hudson or other companies may provide.
Central Hudson’s “Net Metering” plan for homes with solar panels still charges the Basic service charge and a Customer Benefit charge even if no electricity is consumed with no credit for extra energy pumped back into the grid.
Current basic service charges for Central Hudson customers compared to NYSEG, which supplies electricity to customers in the lower Hudson Valley including Amenia, are now 13% higher and delivery charges are 31% greater than NYSEG’s before the rate increase.
No one knows when or how the seven commissioners who are appointed by the governor will rule but public comment remains open until the end of the July. Anyone can post their views publicly and read other comments on the website maintained by the PSC: documents.dps.ny.gov/public/MatterManagement/CaseMaster.aspx?MatterCaseNo=24-E-0461.
Or you could write to your county legislator, State Senator Michelle Hinchey, Congressman Pat Ryan or Sue Serino, Dutchess County Executive. In a May press release Serino called the proposed rate increases, “Unfair, unbalanced, and out of step with reality.” Congressman Pat Ryan has called the increases “adding insult to injury.”
Opposition briefs filed with the PSC focus on affordability with nearly 16% of Central Hudson’s 315,000 residential customers already behind on utility payments — significantly higher than Con Edison or NYSEG customers according to Sarahana Shrestha, who represents Kingston in the New York State Assembly. Annual 4% salary increases for nonunion and management executives are also facing criticism.
The return on equity that Central Hudson anticipates to be 9% in order to preserve its bond rating has also been raised as a concern in public comments.