War and Peace readalong thread 2022 - thread 3

[VikingNorthUtsire]

Welcome to the third thread. Please see the OP in threads 1 or 2 for the full info.on the readalong, links to different editions and translations, blog posts, etc.

I think most of us are established now so for this post I'll just re-shsre the reading schedule

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

I'm a bit early starting this thread - please keep on the old one until it's full

Thanks Viking Just checking in here now as I'm reading my chapters but not getting on MN much as super busy at work.

Thank you for the new thread @VikingNorthUtsire marking my place so I don't fall off again.

Thanks.

Thank you @VikingNorthUtsire Hope all’s well with you.

Thanks for the new thread Viking.

Place-marking with one of the new Rostopchin posters:)

What an amusing caricature of those cheese-eating surrender monkeys on your poster @IsFuzzyBeagMise

Place marking on the new thread.

Volume 3, Part 2, Chapter 20

•	August 25, Pierre gets to the road outside Mozhaisk, a town near Borodino.
•	A cart rides past him loaded with wounded soldiers. It’s kind of grisly, and one of the wounded men tells Pierre that the army is now full of untrained peasants in addition to trained soldiers. Presumably, these poor guys are just cannon fodder.

•	Pierre rides further and runs into someone he knows. When he tells this guy that he wants to be in the battle, the guy advises him to talk to Kutuzov. He sends him on to the town of Tatarinovo, where the trenches are being dug.

•	Suddenly Pierre has the thought that the thousands of young, healthy men he sees around him are going to be chopped to pieces tomorrow.
•	Around the corner, Pierre sees some peasants digging the defensive barrow and thinks about the wounded soldier’s point about the untrained being pressed into service.

I think we're on Chapter 21 today.

There is a terrible sense of foreboding in this chapter.

'...as if he knew full well that it might be all right to think how many men would be missing next day, but you ought not to talk about it'.

Oops. I'm not at home again. Will post Chapter 21 later.

Volume 3, Part 2, Chapter 21

•	Pierre walks out of his carriage to look out from the barrow to see the future battlefield.
•	He can’t figure out what he’s looking at, so he asks some nearby officers to explain. One of them points out the village of Borodino, then shows Pierre where the Russian and French troops are positioned.

•	Everyone he comes across is all, and you are who exactly? And why are you here? Shmoop has to say, this whole thing about Pierre being some kind of war tourist is darkly funny. Seriously – he’s going around trying to find the best vantage point to see the sights? It’s hilarious and horrible at the same time.

•	Suddenly there is yelling from down the road.

•	Turns out a sacred icon – the Smolenskaya Mother of God – is being paraded down the road for the army.

•	The icon is carried to the top of the hill, everyone gathers around, and a priest starts the sermon. A few Germans in the crowd also listen politely.

•	At the end of the service, Kutuzov comes out of nowhere (he’s just been making the rounds and happened to come across this service). He kneels, crosses himself, prays, kisses the icon, and is just barely able to stand back up again.

•	He looks old and weak.

Thanks for the new thread @VikingNorthUtsire and the update @DesdamonasHandkerchief

I agree with Shmoop about Pierre's voyeurism, very weird, but no-one apart from Andrey seemed that bothered by it. Maybe things were different then, but some rich gent just turning up to watch a lot of peasants die made me feel rather uncomfortable.

I thought it was quite sad that Kutuzov couldn't get back up.. I know its implied that it's his size but he's also an old man and has been an active soldier his entire life - I'm sure he's sore as well as a little infirm.

Agree as well about Pierre - he said he was off to join but seems like he's just gone for a bit of a look... surely he should be trying to join a regiment or at least, get an audience with Kutuzov (I think he was recommended that at some point?)

Agree, it's very odd how Pierre just turns up and wanders around, & no-one seems to think it strange.

Friday 29th July

Volume 3, Part 2, Chapter 22

•	Someone is calling Pierre’s name. Who could it be? Why, it’s everyone’s favorite social climber, Boris. He’s all dashing and handsome and dressed to the nines.
•	Boris offers to show Pierre around and invites him to crash at his place that night.

•	Turns out that Boris is allied with Bennigsen, the chief of staff, and so is anti-Kutuzov. There’s a lot of political jockeying for position, and Boris feels like if Bennigsen wins he’s going to bring new men up with him.

•	As Pierre is chatting with other acquaintances, Kutuzov notices him. (And really, how could he not? We’re assuming Pierre sticks out like a sore thumb.)
•	Before Pierre can talk to him, Dolokhov comes up to Kutuzov, giving him some report. Boris knows how to play the game, though. He says, as if he’s talking to Pierre (but within earshot of Kutuzov) that the militia is all ready for tomorrow.

•	Kutuzov talks to them and invites Pierre to stay and watch the fighting.

•	Afterward, Dolokhov goes up to Pierre, shakes his hand, and says no hard feelings. He’s got no shame, this Dolokhov guy. It’s kind of amazing – and it totally works for him.

•	Bennigsen invites Pierre to ride along the line and he takes him up on the offer. (Shmoop hint: This shows just how rich and high-level Pierre must be. It’s as if he showed up randomly in Iraq or Afghanistan and got a personal tour from the Secretary of Defense himself.)

Gran Vals: Francisco Tárrega.

This is a relaxing piece to listen to after the intensity of the Bach double bill.

When I listen to classical guitar, I always wonder why I don't listen to it more often. It's lovely. * *

Sorry folks. Wrong thread!

Pingu is worried about the turn of events in this section and is taking solace in tea.

Volume 3, Part 2, Chapter 23

•	Bennigsen rides off along the barrow, and Pierre sees the future Raevsky battery barrow – which is where he’ll be spending the battle. But he doesn’t know this yet, so he doesn’t pay attention.
•	Bennigsen talks to his officers about planning, and Pierre tunes out because it’s boring and he has no idea what they’re talking about.

•	Bennigsen notices and snaps at him for not listening. Pierre tries to cover.

•	Then Bennigsen notices a bunch of soldiers positioned under an elevated piece of land. The better place to secure the hill would be on top, so Bennigsen moves them.
•	What Bennigsen doesn’t know is that the soldiers were put under the hill not to defend the high place, but to be a sneak attack force. He moves them, says nothing to Kutuzov because he hates him, and so destroys a piece of strategy.

I think you may have jumped a chapter, Desdemona... either that or I'm getting myself confused. My last chapter was all Andrey, holding court and getting angrier and angrier with the way the war is being championed by those on high but the real price is being paid by those on the ground who understand and know better.

Hasn't it always been thus, though? I mean, I don't study military history at all but makes sense to me. Although, if the battlefield is vast, it's likely to be a different story, but it all seems quite concentrated in one area here?

Sunday 31st July (was it this chapter SanFran? Or am I still a day behind? I need to catch up again so haven't read the chapters I'm posting!)

Volume 3, Part 2, Chapter 24

•	Andrei chills in his shed, excited for the battle.

•	There’s nothing to do but wait, so he just sits and ruminates about his life. He’s grossed out by the way he romanticized his love for Natasha, when in the end it turned out that love can’t really be divorced from sex.

•	Then he has a little pity party about the fact that he might die tomorrow and no one would care, except maybe his sister.

•	There’s a noise outside, and in busts Pierre.

•	Andrei is surprised. Very unpleasantly surprised. He hates everyone who knows about the whole Natasha debacle.

•	Pierre was excited to see him, but is immediately taken aback by Andrei's hostility. He mumbles that he wanted to say hi since he was nearby checking out the battle.

Aha.. yes, that sounds more like it. Thanks for posting, Desdemona - always like the summaries as sometimes offers me insight that completely passed me by (and I like the way it's all worded too!)

01/08/22
Volume 3, Part 2, Chapter 25

•	Andrei invites Timokhin to join him and Pierre for tea, since he doesn’t want to talk to Pierre alone.
•	He asks Pierre if he understands the battle plan. When Pierre says yes, Andrei is all, well, then you’re one up on everyone else.

•	Timokhin says it doesn’t matter because everything will go well now that Kutuzov is in charge. Why? Because Barclay couldn’t sense the whole mood of the army shifting when they started fighting on Russian instead of Polish land. The stakes changed and the soldiers became way more committed.

•	Pierre is like, but what about Barclay’s awesome generalship?

•	Andrei says there’s no such thing. Everything is random in war, so there’s no such thing as being a good commander.

•	Andrei and Timokhin tell Pierre that success in battle depends not on position or ammunition or number of troops, but only on “the feeling that’s in me, in him, in every soldier” (3.2.25.24).

•	Pierre is alarmed. So are we, truth be told.

•	Andrei is only just getting started, though. He says the battle of Austerlitz was only lost because of this kind of intangible morale situation.

•	He thinks tomorrow’s battle will definitely be won. He can feel it because he is personally insulted by the French, and so are all the other soldiers.

•	Then Andrei goes off the deep end. Since all the French are offensive enemies, there shouldn’t be prisoners. Everyone should just be executed if caught. This will make wars more serious, more rare, and...he trails off, too excited by his patriotism.

•	Pierre leaves to rest up for the following day.

•	Andrei lies down. He thinks about Natasha telling him about a feeling of poetic passion she had when she came across a picturesque old man in the forest. She couldn’t convey exactly what she felt, but he knew what she meant. Andrei is bitter – he understood her so well and loved her inner person, and still she dumped him for some dumb stud.

Oh Andrei. Take some responsibility for your actions, man. If you loved her so much you shouldn't have buggered off out of the country for months on end!