W&P Week 42: Four/One/15

For 10/28/2021, to p.1056

Scene: Petersburg, September 1812

Chapter 1

In St. Petersburg, the events at Borodino and in Moscow seem far away. On the day of the battle of Borodino, Anna Pavlova is holding one of her soirées, and Prince Vasili is holding forth as usual, reading a pompous patriotic speeches and praising Kutuzov. But people still speak plenty of French and seem to be hypocritical about their patriotism.

Chapter 2

The next day, as first false and then no news at all comes from Borodino and Moscow, everyone is rattled and now turns on Kutuzov; while the Tzar writes to him for more information, the Petersburgh gossip circles find out that Hélène, rumored to be pregnant by one of her two lovers, has died–apparently as a consequence of an abortion drug given to her by an Italian doctor OR maybe deliberately by overdose suicide (?)–but in either case, completely off stage and drowned out by the disastrous news from Moscow.

Chapter 3

Michaud, a French-born messenger loyal to Russia, brings the Tzar actual news from Moscow, elegantly phrased, promising that the Russian soldiers are still eager to fight. The Tzar indicates that he will fight to the bitter end for his beloved Russia and never try to “reign together” with Napoleon (1013)–not sure when they ever reigned together? Michaud is all admiration.

Scene: Voronezh, the Russian Provinces, September 1812 (Nikolai Rostov)

Chapter 4

Meanwhile, Nikolai has been participating in the war in a minor and, to him, very casual but also normal “officer” way; he is in the provinces on behalf of his regiment, requisitioning horses and enjoying himself in country gentry society in Voronezh, with many of the men gone off to war, flirting heavily with the wife of a provincial official/governor, Nikita Ivanych.

Chapter 5

At a particular ball one evening, Nikolai is flirting again with Ivanych’s wife until it is mentioned that Marya Bolkonskaya is also in Voronezh, staying with her aunt Anna. Ivanych’s wife is immediately determined to make a match, having heard of the connection between the two. Even as Nikolai tries to explain about his engagement / promise to Sonya, and his “repugnance” about marrying a wealthy heiress for his mother’s sake, he actually finds it comforting to hear that Sonya should step back and that he should listen to his mother.

Chapter 6

Princess Marya, who had sort of put Nikolai out of her mind after her last encounter with him, is all riled up again about him once the governor’s wife comes to see her and her aunt and talks about the idea of a match between the two of them. When Nikolai comes to call on her, though, she is very happy and behaves very naturally, which brings out her beauty and goodness (1023) and they both feel at ease with each other. On the one hand, they almost think they love each other; on the other, Nikolai cannot imagine married life with her.

Chapter 7

At this point, the news about Borodino and the burning of Moscow reaches Voronezh, and Marya, hearing about Andrei’s whereabouts (after only having learned from the paper that he was wounded, sets out to find him. In the meantime, Nikolai feels terrible about having whiled away his time in Voronezh and longs to be back with his regiment, because only there”would everything again become clear to him” (1025). But before he can leave to rejoin them, he sees Marya at a church service and is again impressed by her spirituality and her earnest prayer. That day, he receives two letters, one by his mother and one by Sonya, who sets him free to marry Marya, which is what his mother wants. But his mother also lets him know that Prince Andrei is with them, severely wounded, and nursed by Natasha and Sonya. Before Nikolai and Marya each leave Voronezh, he for the regiment and she for Yaroslavl, they talk about the news and seem very connected, perhaps to be on their way to an as yet unspoken engagement.

Scene: Troitsa Monastery (the Rostov family)

Chapter 8

Backtracking a little: In Troitsa, just before the Rostovs move on to Yaroslavl, Sonya was desperately unhappy, because she is under increasing pressure from the Countess about writing that letter to Nikolai, by which she would give up everything (i.e. the marriage to Nikolai) for which she has sacrificed herself to the Rostovs’ needs and wants. But she still has some hope because if Andrei lives, Natasha and Andrei’s reunion will prevent Nikolai from being able to marry Marya. She tries to rope Natasha into this hope by claiming that what she saw that Christmas years earlier in the prophetic mirror was Andrei on his sickbed (although she really saw nothing). She writes the letter releasing him from his engagement in the hope that Nikolai will not be able to marry Marya and come back to her.

Scene: Moscow (Pierre)

Chapter 9

Meanwhile, Pierre is imprisoned with many other Russians, all accused of trying to burn the city down, and even though he provides more information to the French soldiers at his first trial, since he doesn’t give his name and they do not believe him, he remains a prisoner and has to await his second examination / trial, on September 8.

Chapter 10

On September 8, Pierra and 13 other prisoners are taken to an abandoned Russian estate near Virgin’s Field; Pierre sees the charred ruins of Moscow and the unharmed Kremlin in the distance, where they are being investigated by a Frenchman named Davout, who accuses Pierre of being a Russian spy. Pierre speaks in French and discloses who he is, but he is accused of lying, and then an adjutant comes and summons Davout away. Pierre is unsure whether before Davout’s departure, when he simply says, “Yes, of course,” this is an order for Pierre to be executed, and if so, from whom it really emanates: the adjutant’s info? Davout’s mind? “the system” “no one”? This gets very Kafkaesque (1037).

Chapter 11

The prisoners are led to Virgin’s Field, where there is a post and a pit for execution by squadron gunfire. Pierre hears the French officers discussing whether they should kill people one by one or in couples. As Pierre witnesses the first executions, he starts to basically dissociate (1038). In all faces, Russian and French, he sees “the same dismay, horror, and conflict that were in his own heart. ‘But who. after all, is doing this?'” Another man, a workman who seem like “a wounded animal” (1039) is executed and watches as the man crumples to the ground. The dead are buried in the pit, the sharpshooters seem dazed and traumatized, and the crowd disperses.

Chapter 12

Pierre is separated from the surviving prisoners and put in a small ruined chapel, and then taken to the barracks for prisoners of war. No one can explain to him why he has been pardoned, and he feels the meaninglessness of everything very acutely, concinved that “it was not in his power to regain faith in the meaning of life” (1041). But in his cell/shed, among many others, there is a very simple peasant, a man named Platon Karataev, a former peasant, from the Apsheron regiment, who alternately calls himself and Pierre “little falcon” and shares his potatoes with him. This fellow prisoner with his random stories and ramblings gives him hope again (1045).

Chapter 13

Pierre is in the company of many other prisoners–soldiers, three officers and two officials, but when he thinks back on those four weeks he spends with them as a PoW, he just remembers Platon, very fondly, as “the personification of everything Russian, kindly, and round” (1045), completely unselfconscious, simple, and holistic in his thinking. He does everything, “not very well but not badly” and keeps himself busy (1047); he is full of simple folksy sayings that seem true even if they contradict each other and even though Platon typically forgets immediately what he has said.

Scene: Yaroslavl (the Rostov family / Marya)

Chapter 14

Marya, with Mademoiselle Bourienne, the nanny Dessalles, the servants and little Nikolushka in tow, is in a very energetic, determined mood as she takes the long roundabout journey to Yaroslavl, despite the anxiety about Andrei’s life; the uncertainty regarding Nikolai does not bother her at all and she simply knows that “she loved and was beloved” (1048) but does not think about practicalities. When she gets to the Rostovs at the merchant’s house where they are staying, the countess greets her very cordially, but it is the even more emotional encounter with Natasha, on whose shoulder she cries when they embrace, seeing in her “a real comrade in her grief” (1050). Natasha leads her to Andrei, and although on the way Marya still has some hope, Natasha tells her before they enter the sick room that he has changed in the last couple of days and that he cannot live.

Chapter 15

Marya and Natasha walk into the room and he is calm, detached, aloof, although he seems to make an effort to be “affectionate” with her and with Natasha. He is clearly no longer really part of their world, and even when he agrees to see his son, he does so with “gentle irony” and again, an effort to understand that they are all very sad but that all of this is so unnecessary. Nikolushka, at 7, does understand that he has been brought to see his father because he is supposed to say good bye. Afterwards, he keeps avoiding everyone but Natasha and Marya, who are now taking turns at Andrei’s deathbed, praying.