War and Peace Readalong thread 2022

[VikingNorthUtsire]

Interest thread for the 2022 War and Peace readalong

THIS OP WAS UPDATED on 4/1 BY MNHQ (THANK YOU) TO ADD MORE DETAIL TO THE READING SCHEDULE AND UPDATE THE AMAZON LINKS

"The finest novel ever written on this planet"
"Here is a novel that is worth whatever time one gives to it. There is more life between its cover than in any other existent fictional narrative"

This is a really helpful blog post by someone who has done the challenge: nicksenger.com/onecatholiclife/announcing-the-2020-war-and-peace-chapter-a-day-read-along

1. Translations

The main complication seems to be which edition to choose. The blog post above contains some commentary of the different tranlsations that are available and their merits. There's also a pretty comprehensive guide here including samples from some of the best-known translations: welovetranslations.com/2021/08/31/whats-the-best-translation-of-war-and-peace-by-tolstoy/

The main differences that I can see are:

• some editions (including the free download on Project Gutenburg) have a different chapter structure. I think/hope we would manage to find one another if some are reading versions with more or fewer chapters but I have based the readalong on the versions with 361 chapters.

• there's quite a lot of French in at least some parts of the book. Some editions translate it into English, others keep it in French but use footnotes

• some translators have chosen to anglicise the characters' names. I guess its personal preference whether you prefer Mary, Andrew and Basil or a more Russian version.

Looking at the editions recommended and reviewed in the above blog:

The Vintage Classics edition, translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky: ]]

NB also this link for the kindle version: ]]

The Signet Classics edition, translated by Anne Dunnigan: ]]

The Penguin Classics edition, translated by Anthony Briggs: ]]

As a general rule I would definitely recommend downloading a sample of any kindle edition before buying, so you can be sure that you are happy with it.

Obviously, some people will prefer to avoid Amazon! Feel free to use the weeks in the run-up to Day 1 to share any tips on what you are buying and where from. Can I suggest though that we stick where possible to the editions with 361 chapters otherwise we will all get very confused!

1. Reading timeline

Nick, of the blog post, has very helpfully done the calculations for which chapters fall on which days, except he did it in 2020 which was a Leap Year. So feel free to take a look at nicksenger.com/onecatholiclife/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Nicks-2020-War-and-Peace-Chapter-a-Day-Reading-Schedule.pdf but see below the schedule for the Mumsnet Readalong.

Again, different editions name and number their chapters differently - some refer to four books divided into parts (as below), others refer to fifteen books although it's essentially the same structure just with different numbering. Hopefully there's enough info below to keep us all in sync, and always happy to let anyone know via PM what's happening in today's chapter so we can keep together.

Book 1: 1805
Book 1 Part One (25 chapters): 1/1 - 25/1
Book 1 Part Two (21 chapters): 26/1 - 15/2
Book 1 Part Three (19 chapters): 16/2 - 6/3
DAY OFF: 7/3
Book 2: 1806-1812
Book 2 Part One (16 chapters): 8/3 - 23/3
Book 2 Part Two (21 chapters): 24/3 - 13/4
Book 2 Part Three (26 chapters): 14/4 - 9/5
Book 2 Part Four (13 chapters): 10/5 - 22/5
Book 2 Part Five (22 chapters): 23/5 - 13/6
DAY OFF: 14/6
Book 3: 1812
Book Three Part One (23 chapters): 15/6 - 7/7
Book Three Part Two (39 chapters): 8/7 - 15/8
Book Three Part Three (34 chapters): 16/8 - 18/9
DAY OFF: 19/9
Book 4: 1812-13
Book Four Part One (16 chapters): 20/9 - 5/10
Book Four Part Two (19 chapters): 6/10 - 24/10
Book Four Part Three (19 chapters): 25/10 - 12/11
Book Four Part Four (20 chapters): 13/11 - 2/12
DAY OFF: 3/12
Epilogue One 1812-20 (16 chapters): 3/12 - 19/12
Epilogue Two (12 chapters): 20/12 - 31/12

Phew!

I would suggest that we meet at the end of each section (so 17 times over the course of the year) to discuss what we've read, but with (non-spoilerish) chatter welcome at any time in between. According to my guru, Nick, each chapter is around 4 pages long, so it should be do-able.

1. Chapter "meditations"

This looks like another really interesting blog post from someone who has done it, with thoughts and meditations on each chapter: brianedenton.medium.com/a-year-of-war-and-peace-cc66540d9619#.yabefbbgz

Come and join me! This time next year we will almost have finished reading the finest novel ever written on the planet.

PS Some may feel that each day off deserves a shot of vodka or two. I couldn't possibly comment.

They've certainly got hold of it in the next chapter InTheCludgie ...

Chapter 21
As they leave the bedroom Pierre and Anna Mikhaylovna come across Prince Vasily and Katishe in the outer room, once again in animated conversation - which comes to an abrupt halt. Pierre thinks he sees the Princess furtively hide something as he and Anna M. make their way towards the provided refreshments.

We get a peek into Pierre’s childhood as he remembers the Balls that were held in the house when he would watch the guests in their finery pass through the brightly lit little mirrored drawing room.

He comes too from his reverie, and at a loss as to what he should do next, he blindly follows ‘his guide’ Anna Mikhaylovna as she tiptoes back to the reception room to confront Katishe and Vasily.
As Pierre enters the room the two women are arguing in emotional whispers whilst Vasily looks on, trying to seem disinterested in their discussion.
In her hand Princess Katishe holds the inlaid portfolio containing the papers that could disinherit her, her sisters and Vasily in favour of Pierre, she is intent on confronting the Count with them. Anna M with ‘gentle persuasiveness’ is barring the Princess’s way and imploring her not to disturb a dying man with ‘worldly affairs’.
There follows an unseemly tussle over the portfolio with neither woman prepared to give any ground. Katishe is beside herself with hate and anger calling Anna a ‘scheming hussy’, Anna Mikhaylovna is resolute, despite the scene they are making, “her voice still managed to retain its unctuous charm and honeyed gentleness.”

Each woman calls upon their respective male second to intervene, Pierre, the only one present unaware of what is at stake, looks on bemused at Vasily’s ‘twitching cheeks’ and Anna Mikhaylovna’s face, ‘malicious beyond all decency’.
Vasily, all too aware of what is at stake, takes charge and joining in the tug of war says he will go and take the matter up with the Count himself, taking full responsibility for any detrimental change in his condition that may result. Triumphant, Katishe screams “foul woman” at Mikhaylovna and wrenches the portfolio from her hands.
Fortuitously (for some) however, it is just at this moment that the Count finally decides to shuffle off this mortal coil and the second Princess bangs out of the bedroom protesting that she has been left alone with a dying man. (Like for real this time!) Katishe drops the portfolio, whereupon, seeing her chance, Anna Mikhaylovna’s swoops upon it and the three of them rush to the Count’s bedside.
Pierre stays in the outer room and watches as they eventually emerge from the now dead Count’s room. Katishe is dry faced and pale but her face contorts into ‘uncontrolled hatred’ at the sight of Pierre and she spits at him:
“‘Oh, it’s all right for you …you’ve got what you wanted.’”

Next comes Vasily seemingly bereft - his jaw ‘quivering and twitching as though he were having a fit’
He takes Pierre by the elbow and calls him ‘my dear boy’ - ‘his voice ringing with a sincerity and weakness Pierre had never seen in him before’.
(Reminds me of that George Burns quote, ‘The key to success is sincerity. If you can fake that you've got it made!“)

Lastly Anna Mikhaylovna walks towards him with ‘slow, quiet steps’ leading Pierre back in to sit by his father, exhausted Pierre rests his head on his arm and falls asleep.
(And let’s just take a moment to reflect on what a very l-o-n-g and eventful day this has been, it started all those chapters ago with the arrival of Madam and Julie Karagin at the Rostov's house!)

In the morning Anna Mikhaylovna tries to explain to Pierre that he is to inherit everything and this is completely down to her intervention: “If I had not been there … God knows what might have happened.”
And wastes no time in making her demands for services rendered as clear as possible:
“You know my uncle promised me only the day before yesterday he wouldn’t forget Boris. But he didn’t have enough time. I do hope, my dear friend, that you will carry out your father’s wishes.’”

But Pierre is completely bemused by what is going on, he’s tongue tied and blushing, he gazes at her like a rabbit caught in the headlights. (Joey Essex stylee.)

Later, after a good sleep, Anna Mikhaylovna fabricates a ‘touching … inspiring … moving’ deathbed scene between the dying count and his errant son with which to regale the Rostovs. Where the Count remembered ‘everything and everyone’ and Pierre had been utterly distraught, yet manfully hid his grief so as not to upset his dying father. A truly heartbreaking scene!
Of the others in attendance she can only whisper “in the strictest confidence, sotto voce, about the machinations of the princess and Prince Vasily, of which she could not approve.”

Game, set and match, Anna! Great chapter.

Very exciting. I'm looking forward to reading on.

The question is, were they planning to confront the count, or quietly 'lose' the offending will!

I’m finding the fighting over the death bed darkly humorous, and rather Dickensian, together with the sanctimonious hypocrisy.

Brilliant chapter explanation Desdamona. I also hadn't twigged, until you said, that all this has happened in one day!

Oh my God I LOVE Anna M! She totally outmanoeuvred Katische and Vasily. I even forgive her none too subtle request for money for Boris, although Pierre bless him still wasn't picking up what she was putting down!

@Sadik

The question is, were they planning to confront the count, or quietly 'lose' the offending will!

I bet it would gave ended up straight on the nearest fire!

Chapter 22
Meanwhile Back At The Ranch …

We move to Bald Hills the country home of the Bolkonsky family situated about 100 miles outside Moscow.
Andrei’s father Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky (Another Nikolai 🙄) is an eccentric former commander-in-chief of the army. He runs his home, his life and the lives of those who live with him with military precision.
Every day has a strict routine that is not to be deviated from, and every moment should be filled with activity that is good for either the mind or the body in Bolkonsky World: “With those around him, from daughter to servant, the prince was brusque and always demanding so that without actually being cruel he inspired the kind of fear and respect that the cruellest of men would have found difficult to achieve.”

He lives with his daughter, Princess Marya, and her French companion Mademoiselle Bourienne.
We hear nothing of Mlle Bourienne in this chapter but Marya is described as gloomy, sickly, plain and timid. She has one beautiful attribute however, of which she is completely unaware, her soulful ‘large, deep and radiant’ eyes, “sometimes a warm light seemed to pour out of them, really so winsome that very often, in spite of the plainness of the face as a whole, her eyes held a greater appeal than mere beauty.”

Prince Bolkonsky has organised his daughters life around ‘one unending course of study’ teaching her algebra and geometry (despite her being nearly 20) and insisting on a couple of hours musical practice on a daily basis.
Tolstoy tells us that Bolkonsky Snr mixes ‘strictness with care and tenderness’ but on the basis of this chapter he seems to be something of a tyrant who scares his timid daughter half to death.
He dominates and intimidates her to such an extent that during his bad tempered lessons she feels herself, ‘completely swamped by her father and his long-familiar acrid odour of tobacco and old age … she could see and hear nothing, she could feel nothing but the close proximity of her strict father with his desiccated face, stale breath and body odour, and she could think of nothing but how to get away from there as soon as possible”

This day is one of the better ones in Marya’s fairly miserable existence however because not only are her brother Andrei and Lise, the pregnant chipmunk, due home imminently but her (and our) old friend Julie Karagin has written a gossipy letter filling her in on all the Moscow goings on.
Prince Bolkonsky hands the letter over, graciously deigning not to read it before her, on this occasion, but informs Marya he will only let two more of these foolish, nonsense letters arrive before he reads the third!

Finally set free from her interminable lessons Marya rushes to her room to read Julie’s news, much of which we already know.
Julie reveals her crush on the ‘noble’, ‘poetic’ but ‘too young’ Nicolas Rostov whose ‘departure for the army has caused [her] great pain’. How lucky Marya is, Julie says, to experience “none of these joys and these troubles which are so poignant.” (So much better to be stuck in the country with your abusive father and no friends hey Julie!)

‘The talk of all Moscow’ however is the death of Count Bezukhov and Pierre’s inheritance, Julie reveals that the three princesses got ‘almost nothing’ and Prince Vasily ‘nothing at all’. She is amused to find that all the unmarried society girls who once, like her, found Pierre a ‘miserable specimen of manhood” are suddenly finding him fascinating and irresistible! (What first attracted them to the billionaire Pierre Bezukhov she no doubt wonders?)

Julie’s last gossipy news affects Marya far more directly, word on the street is that a match is being sought between the ‘very handsome and very naughty’ Anatole Kuragin and Marya herself! What a way to find out about a potential suitor.

Marya does not seem unhappy with the news however, she is pensive but smiling, her ‘radiant eyes lighting up and utterly transforming her face’.
She writes back immediately in her rather overly religious, dour and pious style. She defends Pierre, saying he has ‘an excellent heart’ (She’s Team Pierre too!) and is concerned for the temptations the poor love will have to face, burdened as he now is, with all that filthy lucre!
As far as marriage is concerned Marya considers it:
“to be a divine institution to which we must conform. However painful it may be for me, if the Almighty should ever impose upon me the duties of wife and mother, I shall strive to fulfil them as faithfully as I can, without troubling to consider my feelings towards him whom he may give me for a husband.”

She sounds like a real bundle of laughs, I’m sure she and Anatole will get on like a house on fire.

Thanks Desdemona! Excellent résumé. That was a long chapter.
'She and Anatole will get on like a house on fire'... not! I don't think so :) she does seem rather joyless. She would make a good nun, I think.
Her father sounds abominable. A Russian Rumpelstiltskin.

Yes Fuzzy she's very pious and a bit of a fun sponge, I thought she was very rude and holier than thou about the book Julie sent her as a gift. Maybe she lightens up as the novel progresses.

And surely she's kidding herself here:

If anyone asked what i would like most in the world, it would be to be poorer than the poorest beggar

She's reminding me a little of Dorothea Brooke in Middlemarch (although Dorothea had a very kind and indulgent uncle rather than a domineering father) in finding the idea of martyring herself appealing.

@highlandcoo

And surely she's kidding herself here:

If anyone asked what i would like most in the world, it would be to be poorer than the poorest beggar

She's reminding me a little of Dorothea Brooke in Middlemarch (although Dorothea had a very kind and indulgent uncle rather than a domineering father) in finding the idea of martyring herself appealing.

Yes, definitely! Good observation.

Also up for a Proust readalong next year! I've never got further than the first few pages.

Maybe also a touch of the Mary Bennets? Though she's obviously had a pretty rough deal, so I imagine taking consolation in religion might be the best option open to her.

Not knowing Middlemarch, I also thought of Mary Bennet again with Princess Mary, as with Vera earlier. Poor girl - piety (or geometry!) seems the only outlet available to her for any sort of occupation/self fulfilment. I’d have taken the geometry any day!

I would struggle with geometry. I would have to stick to Bible studies!

Yeah I thought Marya was a bit much. I felt more sorry for Anatole! I highlighted this line:

Ah! si nous n’avions pas la religion pour nous consoler, la vie serait bien triste.

Or cough

Ah! if we did not have religion to console us, life would be quite sad.

So I think the extremity of her being a god-fearing spoil sport drip reflects how miserable the rest of her “orderly” life is. I could feel the suffocation intensely, almost choked at the bit where her dad has his arm round the back of her chair and surrounds her, his horrid pungent smoking and old man smell 🤢🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮

I was alarmed when Kindle told me the chapter was a 30min read, but half of it was footnotes translating the french!

@BakeOffRewatch

I was alarmed when Kindle told me the chapter was a 30min read, but half of it was footnotes translating the french!

The Briggs version just tells us when it's in French.

She is a bit Mary Bennet isn't she? I suppose the religiosity she displays would be much more common when the novel was written.
The Grade Saver website makes this observation about Marya:

'Marya possesses a moral insightfulness that many of the other characters lack. At this point in the novel, she is the only one to recognize the human cost of going to war. Indeed, when she writes about the men of Bald Hills leaving for their deployment, she is the first character to acknowledge explicitly that men who go to war may die. For most of these aristocrats, fighting in war is simply a part of a long aristocratic tradition, and contains within it a certain honor. The brutality of the Napoleonic Wars, which were yet unseen by Russian society, will come as a shock later.'

Marya makes a comment in her letter to Julie saying “It seemed as if humanity had forgotten the laws of its divine Saviour, who preached love and forgiveness, and were placing the greatest merit in the art of killing one another.”
Certainly all the men seem to see going off to war as great heroic fun. Lise, and Sonya appear to grasp the fact that their loved ones may not be returning and Marya fears for Andrei, but she also sees the bigger picture of the loss of life at all levels of society.

That's true. We are being hard on her.

Marya's comment is very close to Tolstoy's thoughts on war in his year book which I'm reading alongside W & P. This is today's entry.

Exactly. Thanks for that rifling and Desdemona