Chapter 23
We get a bit of foreshadowing here, as Pierre follows Bennigsen across the future battlefield. One spot will later be named the Raevski Redoubt or the Knoll Battery, and Pierre has no idea that it would "become more memorable to him than any other spot on the plain of Borodino". A little later, they walk past a bit that was Russian yesterday but French today, and Pierre tries to spot Napoleon. Bennigsen is approached by a general and explains the position of the troops, and Pierre is embarrassed to realise he can't keep up with the plan for the upcoming battle. He lies and tells Bennigsen he finds it all fascinating when asked. They travel a little more - at one point, distracted by a bunny that is disturbed by all the horses and goes bounding down the road - and then Bennigsen gives orders to the troops, orders which Pierre is sure, are of great military importance (he has no capacity for knowing this, he just has a feeling). Bennigsen also criticises the fact that there is a massive hill with no troops on it because all the troops are below it. The generals agree, with one declaring that the troops below the high ground are simply put there to be slaughtered. I assume this is more of the campaign against Kutuzov, who I am very fond of right now. Pierre is very understanding of the general mood and shares their opinions, but he is a bit confused about how someone could have taken the war this far only to make such a stupid mistake. It's actually Bennigsen making a mistake - he assumes the troops are there for defence but they're actually concealed as an ambush. Because he's arrogant, he moves the troops according to his own ideas, without involving Kutuzov.
Incidentally, I've been watching a youtube channel called How to Cook That, and found this video on a wedding cake made by Napoleon's French pastry chef. I'm not sure if War and Peace gets to any French feasts in the last few hundred pages or so, so I'm just embedding the video now.
I also enjoyed the video on making a 200-year-old cheesecake recipe, which begins by literally making cheese.
Chapter 24
It's the same evening, and Prince Andrew is lying around feeling agitated and irritable and contemplating his own demise, the serious possibility of which is only just occuring to him. Many of his previous preoccupations, both good and bad, seem downright silly in the face of this. The text actually says they appear like "magic lantern pictures". A quick google search tells me that a magic lantern is basically a projector, and that they're a lot older than I thought they were. Andrew's three great sorrows are Natasha, his father's death, and the French invasion, so it's handy that he's in the right position to directly deal with at least one of those. He describes - thinking out loud - the fact that he may well die tomorrow, and not even by a French soldier but through friendly fire, and then the French will just throw him into a hole, and, after the battle, life might be totally different and he will know nothing about it. He decides to go out for a walk. When he gets back, he settle sa disagreement and then hears Pierre outside. Andrew is not happy to see Pierre, since Pierre reminds him of all the painful moments of his last visit to Moscow. Pierre awkwardly explains that he wants to see a battle and Andrew sarcastically asks how to Masonic brothers would stop it. He doesn't leave a gap for Pierre to reply before asking about 'his people', presumably his son and sister. Pierre tells him that he's heard from Julie Drubetskaya that Mary and little Nikolai are at Andrew's estate near Moscow.
No comments:
Post a Comment