Friday 8 November 2019

In Which We Discuss War and Peace, Part 11 Chapter 33

Chapter 33

Pierre wakes up determined to assassinate Napoleon and ashamed of getting distracted by his pleasant conversation with a French officer the previous day.  He picks up a dagger, since his pistol has been fired, despite the fact that he'd previously decided that the last assassination effort failed because the culprit tried to use a dagger.  He's also not taken into account the fact that Napoleon has left Moscow, likely because he doesn't know.

On the way, Pierre is distracted by the need to rescue a child from a house set on fire and currently being looted by the French.

Chapter 34

Pierre has saved the little girl and is attempting to reunite her with her family when he is distracted, by an Armenian family being bothered by the French.  He asks some of the crowd that has built up to return the child to her family while he protects the family, which includes an 'Oriental beauty'.  Pierre does this by beating up the Frenchman, which gathers quite a lot of cheers.  It does not go well for him when the other French soldiers turn up.  He is taken away to be court-martialled.  I'm not sure how they can do that when he's not a member of their army, but perhaps it's a translational or cultural issue.  He's basically being taken in because they're pretty sure he's an 'incendiary'.


...and that's the end of Part 11!  The remaining 6 books are much shorter, at 20 chapters max, and the average chapter length is shorter too.

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