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

14/09/22
Volume 3, Part 3, Chapter 30

Moving slowly, the Rostovs see the fire while they are traveling. The servants are immediately worried because of the weather – it’s windy and dry, the perfect conditions for spreading a fire.

Argh Natasha... if I read once more about her 'wide' eyes I shall scream!

It's kind of sweet that her & Andrey have reconnected although I reckon he thinks she's some sort of celestial being, come to ferry him to the next life (I think it's mentioned how she's back-lit?)

I know 😅Natasha is very highly strung. She reminds me of Joey Bettany in the Chalet School series a lot actually if anyone knows it. Like Natasha, Joey is a very bright, lively, inquisitive girl. So highly strung that she would worry herself into a fever whenever she gets upset. She has 'dancing eyes'.

I thought that the the reunion was very touching, although neither of them has spoken a word yet. Poor Andrei seems very vulnerable. Their lives are very different now to the last time they met.

I have used the word very five times in my post.

I'm very sorry about that.

Oops :)

Back to Gradesaver summaries as I keep getting a '502 Bad Gateway' message from Shmoop 🤷‍♀️

15/09/22
Volume 3, Part 3, Chapter 31

Sonya lets slip to Natasha that Prince Andrei is with the family and is wounded. Natasha, distraught and certain the reunion will be painful, decides to visit him. When he sees her, he holds out his hand.

16/09/22 Shmoops back!
Volume 3, Part 3, Chapters 31 & 32
31;
• Sonya and Countess Rostov are in tears about the fire in Moscow, but when they tell Natasha, she has no reaction and just keeps sitting catatonically.

•	Apparently someone finally told her that the badly wounded Andrei was traveling with them and was going to die soon. She’s been totally unresponsive ever since.

•	That night, Natasha waits for Sonya and her mom to fall asleep and slowly creeps out of the hotel room where she's staying. She knows she has to go see Andrei and makes her way slowly over to his room.

•	She has to step over some servants sleeping on the floor, but when she gets to his bed she suddenly panics.

•	What will he look like? Is he disfigured? Is there even a recognizable body left?

•	Thankfully, he just looks like the Andrei she remembers. She kneels by his side.

•	He wakes up, smiles, and gives her his hand.

32:

•	Andrei has been making surprising progress, shocking his doctor by wanting to eat and drink a little bit and sitting up by himself.

•	Still, the pain is severe, and he drifts in and out of consciousness all the time, hallucinating.

•	In his hallucinations, he can only focus on one thing at a time. He tries to get back to the feeling of universal love that he experienced when he saw Anatole lying wounded near him, but he keeps being distracted by a feeling like needles flying into his face or flies landing on him and burning him.

•	Suddenly he sees some kind of white thing floating in the room and assumes that this is also a hallucination.

•	He thinks about Natasha, picturing how much he loved her and deeply feeling the love.

•	But then, suddenly, the flies are back again.

•	Then, again, he sees Natasha's face and slowly realizes that this is the real Natasha, actually kneeling next to him in the room, not a hallucination.

•	He tells her he loves her.

•	She asks his forgiveness.

•	Shmoop wipes a tear from our eye.

•	From that day on, she stays by his side day in and day out, taking care of him.

•	No one talks about the idea of them getting re-engaged, because everyone assumes that Andrei will die really soon.

Schmoop wipes a tear from our eye
Love this 😅

This is very moving. The reader really wants everything to work out for them at this stage.

The reader really wants everything to work out for them at this stage.

Do they? Do they really 😉? To be honest, the old romantic in me is hoping it all works out (even though Andrey could do better!) but today's chapter does paint him as still so desperately ill - and he had a bad time of recovery last time resulting in his year away although doubt Natasha would make the same mistake she made then... although she's young and stupid so perhaps she might?

I knew you had a romantic bone in you somewhere, SanFran 😉 * *

I don’t want to shatter anyone’s dreams, but Andrey has putrefying intestines. I really don’t think he’s going to recover, poor man.

Interesting that Schmoop doesn’t mention the religious aspect of all this: that Andrey feels he truly understands how to love his neighbour, as Jesus commanded.

Yes! Schmoop did completely neglect to mention it and they should have. It's essential to the chapter. Andrei's recent experiences have transformed him.

His injuries sound most severe. I thought it was a sweet moment between the two of them and at least there has been forgiveness and reconciliation, however long he has left.

Thanks for bringing us back to reality with the putrefying intestines ChannelLightVessel!

17/09/22
Volume 3, Part 3, Chapters 33

•	On September 3, Pierre wakes up all gung-ho and ready to go out there and kill him some Napoleon.

•	When he goes outside he is shocked to see how big the fire has become overnight.

•	He walks along to the gate, trying to keep himself psyched up for the assassination, but feeling his determination slowly melting away.

•	Still, he keeps walking toward the fire until he sees a woman on the ground weeping horribly.

•	It turns out her youngest child got left behind as they fled the fire. She begs Pierre to help her. Her other children are nearby, and her husband seems resigned to the idea that the little girl is dead.

•	Their maid leads Pierre through the nearby streets to show him where their house is.

•	The heat is almost unbearable, and Pierre realizes that no one can go into the house anymore. He runs into some French soldiers who are looting nearby houses and asks them if they’ve seen a child anywhere. One of them is like, oh yeah, we heard some noise in the garden.

•	Pierre goes to the garden and finds...a 3-year-old girl in a pink dress under a bench. Phew.

•	She struggles as he tries to get her out of there, but he holds on to her and runs back to her family.

Ah Pierre is a good sort.

You heartless people, I can't believe you're not melting at the reunion of Andrei and Natasha 😁

I’ve been to StP and visited an area called Kronstadt, it’s a very melancholy place because it’s where the city was blockaded by the Germans in WWII, but on a clear day, you can see Finland!

I love the map. One day Tolstoyians, one day.

18/09/22
Volume 3, Part 3, Chapter 34

•	When he gets back to the square, it's filled with people and he can’t figure out where the crying woman is.

•	He finally finds someone who knows the woman and her daughter.

•	As he talks to these neighbors, he sees French soldiers stripping the boots and fur coat from a rich Armenian man. His family sits nearby, and another soldier comes and starts to menacingly get close to their daughter.

•	It’s a horrifying scene, especially since the daughter just sits there and doesn’t even struggle against the soldier.

•	Pierre runs up, screams for them to let the young woman go, and starts to beat the stuffing out of the soldier. A patrol group of soldiers rounds the corner and takes him out.

•	Apparently the French have orders to round up anyone suspicious as part of a strategy to stop the fires, which they think are being set by guerrilla fighters.

•	Pierre fits the bill. He's taken into custody and placed in a house under guard. Talk about a cliffhanger.

From Gradesaver:

Analysis:
The destruction of Moscow may seem like an inhumane event – one of the great sites of human culture is surrendered to fire and pillaging. However, this unlikely event forms a backdrop for Tolstoy’s exploration of how people come to do good things. This theme first comes up as the Rostovs prepare to evacuate Moscow and (somewhat accidentally) volunteer their carts as medical transports. This proves to be a significant act of charity; while the other noble families have fled the city weeks ago, the Rostovs have stayed and are now transporting nearly 100 wounded officers. However, their altruism doesn’t come from any generous feeling. Natasha impulsively volunteers the carts when she gets bored packing her clothes, and the weak-willed Count Rostov feels obliged to follow through on his daughter’s offer.
The Rostovs’ ambiguous generosity is consistent with the way they were portrayed earlier in the novel. Count Rostov maintains his gentle and resigned demeanor, and the scene in which he allows all the family’s carts to be given to the military echoes the one when he takes responsibility for Nikolai’s gambling debts to Dolokhovv_. Both incidents have they same result: they further strain the Rostovs’ already precarious finances, but are a result of the family's gentleness.
Pierre’s acts of generosity are similarly ambiguous. When the French first invade Moscow, he believes that he can best help humanity through assassinating Napoleon and getting himself killed in retaliation. If the violence of Pierre’s ambitions isn’t questionable enough, he seems entirely fixated on the idea of heroic ‘suicide by cop.’ He doesn’t seem to care if he succeeds in killing the emperor, as shown when he chooses to use a dagger instead of a pistol despite his doubts about whether it will get the job done. Ironically, scenes of violence are what rouse Pierre from his fantasies of bloody heroism. The sight of a hysterical woman and a burning house inspire him to rescue the little girl, after which he decides that it’s better to help the people around him than to try to kill the emperor. He is even more inspired when he sees a French soldier about to rape a young woman.
Unlike the Rostovs, whose self-sacrifice is mostly accidental, Pierre’s generosity is intentional. However, he is only able to help those around him because he matures quickly. He starts out indulging his childish fantasies of heroism, but when he sees the horrifying reality of violence, he gallantly throws himself into the fray in order to help others – and in doing so, ceases to think about himself in romantic or heroic terms. This narrative parallels the experiences that Prince Andrei and Nikolai Rostov have when they go to battle for the first time.
And indeed, Pierre's decision to help others rather than pursue his idealized heroism reveals his maturity in terms of the conflict between spiritual and material existence. Before, when confronted with the petty, material world of society, Pierre has been pushed to disappear into his spirituality. Here, he chooses to act in the opposite way; he has a spiritual goal, but when confronted directly with suffering in the world around him, he chooses to engage the world and thereby reveals the true depths of his morality.
At the end of the chapter, Tolstoy includes a small coda to his exploration of how individuals become heroes. When Pierre rescues the girl from the burning house, a French soldier helps him find her. “Faut être humain” (928), he explains – that is, ‘one must be human.’ This comment suggests that regardless of what inspires people to commit heroic acts, compassion is a universal human quality. And by default, patriotism is potentially a ruse behind which true humanity ebbs and flows.
Finally, one should consider how interesting Tolstoy's depiction of Moscow's desertion would be to his contemporary reader, for whom the event was not so far removed historically. Rastpochin, a real historical figure who might have been responsible for ordering the city burnt to the ground, is one who would have inspired strong responses from a reading audience, and his villainy here is clear. Watching the nobility flee the city in such droves, even as some of them pretend to maintain the same air of civility, makes this the point in the novel when 'war' and 'peace' have most coincided. There will be no more detached political discussions at parties, but instead, everyone is being touched by war, a fact that Tolstoy might argue was always the case whether the people involved knew it or not.

I was a bit 😑 about the end of this volume, it seemed to sort of fizzle out! That said, having read Gravesaver's summary, it makes more sense. I still like the last one, with the comet and everything just poised... I do hope Pierre is OK though! I really like that final but though - where War and Peace collide and how everyone was always at war, even if they were unaware. So very true...

Does this mean a day off tomorrow? Somewhat good timing, what with the Queens funeral and all... end of an era all round.

Interesting analysis. Thank you for posting it Desdamona.

I thought Pierre came into his own with the rescue of the young woman and also the little girl earlier. It was a really heroic action and I was happy that he stopped daydreaming to look around him and make a difference (though goodness knows what's going to happen to him now). * *

I like the point about 'war' and 'peace' having collided. War is everywhere now. Nobody can avoid it any longer.

Yes, thank you as always, Desdamona! Like others I really appreciate the point about war and peace colliding.

I'm not sure I agree though with the statement that Natasha helps the wounded because she's bored with packing clothes (do I detect a hint of sexism here?). Yes, it's an impulsive act on her part, but it's an act that seems to have a strong ethical motivation -- she sees human suffering close up and realises that saving lives is more important than saving material possessions. I don't think it's fair to say that she acts impulsively or accidentally while Pierre acts with intention. They both act impulsively! But they both make deliberate ethical choices as well.

Really proud of myself for not striking out any text in that last post, ha ha ha

Must admit I’ve found this section a bit of a slog, thanks for the daily summaries Desdemona as I often found I’d skimmed and missed detail. I’ve been enjoying your different perspectives on Natasha - I think if I met her in person I would be irritated/resentful of her but I find reading the book where you get to be her a little makes me much more tolerant of her. Cassandre I agree that it wasn’t just being bored of packing that made her insist on giving carriage-room to the wounded, it was an impulsive genuine act of kindness. I liked the way Pierre got the chance to shine after realising he wasn’t going to achieve the grand act of taking out Napoleon.

It was an impulsive genuine act of kindness.

I thought so too. Irritating as she can be, I think that her heart is in the right place.

Last Volume! 20/09/22
Volume 4, Part 1, Chapter 1

1812

•	OK, let’s back up a bit to just before the battle of Borodino. Zoom away from Moscow and refocus on Petersburg.

•	On the day of the battle of Borodino, Anna Pavlovna is having one of her famous salons – this time featuring some bland patriotic letter from the head of the Petersburg Orthodox Church. Prince Vassily gets the honor of reading it because he supposedly has such a super fantastic reading voice. Mostly this means that he sometimes reads the words quietly and sometimes loudly, mostly at random.

•	Anyway, this is a good time to gossip about Helene, who is apparently so sick that she can’t go out in public. Not only that, she’s being treated by a new doctor, not her normal guy.

•	Everyone feels like this illness is mostly because she’s trying to marry two men at once, and there’s some veiled mockery.

•	But of course, since Prince Vassily (her dad) is there, and since her friend Bilibin sticks up for her a bit by saying that the new doctor is some hotshot from Spain, they leave it alone.

•	After the letter reading, Anna Pavlovna predicts that they’ll get news the next day.

Nice to be back in the party scene - and given how far St Petersburg is from Moscow, I can finally understand why the war seems to far away now.

I wonder what is really up with Helene... I'm sure trying to be married to two men is stressful 🙄 but sounds like more than that.

And I know he's an idiot, but was nice to see Hippolyte sticking his foot in his mouth again (and loved his explanation!)