In Which We Discuss War and Peace, Part 12 Chapters 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10

Chapter 6

We're back to Mary now.  After meeting Nikolai, she'd gone to Moscow to pick up her nephew and follow Andrew's directions to reach her aunt Malvintseva in Voronezh.  That was a month ago, and now she's done sorting out the practical arrangements, she has time to mourn her father and worry about her brother being in a war zone.   She's also feeling peaceful, having stifled her feelings towards Nikolai.

The governor's wife comes to visit Malvintseva right after the party of the last chapter, to talk about getting Mary and Nikolai together, to "get to know one another", and Mary, rather than feeling happy, feelings doubtful and self-reproaching, but also desirous and hopeful, none of which is comfortable.  She spends the two days before Nikolai arrives planning how she's going to act.  This immediately goes out of the window when he does arrive and Mary suddenly turns into a beautiful and confident woman, to everyone's surprise, including her own.  Nikolai is besotted.  He is persuaded to declare his intentions towards her a few days later, and while he says he couldn't possibly, he agrees to go.  He knows Mary is better than anyone he ever knows, better even than himself, but he can't imagine what being married to her would be like, as he'd pictured with every other woman, and he's afraid.

Chapter 7

Meanwhile, before Mary and Nikolai meet again, news comes of the battle of Borodino and the loss of Moscow.  Mary has heard that her brother has been wounded and resolves to set out in search of him.  Nikolai feels ashamed of himself, for being hear having fun and buying horses instead of being in the battle and becomes quite irritated at all the delays.  Before he leaves, he attends church where he sees Mary, and hurries over to tell her that, if Andrew were dead, the Gazette would definitely have reported that, because he's a colonel.  The type of wound Andrew has received is, in his experience, either fatal or slight, so there is a good chance Andrew is fine.

Nikolai admires Mary's spirituality, even though that's exactly what he despises in Andrew, and compares her, favourably, to Sonya.  He tries again to imagine how he would propose to Mary and what being married to her would be like, and he fails because "he did not understand her but simply loved her".  I'm so glad pious little Mary is getting this great love, considering how she'd been treated in the novel before now.  He tries to emulate Mary's faith and prays to be released from Sonya, but is interrupted by the arrival of two letters.  The first, from Sonya, frees him from their engagement.  The countess has repeatedly expressed her wish for him to marry Mary - because she's rich, not because he loves her, because the countess doesn't know about that - and Sonya has decided to release him because she knows what the money will mean to his family.  The second letter, from Nikolai's mother, the countess, describes the fire and the destruction of their property, and mentions that Andrew is travelling with them.  The next day, Nikolai takes the second letter to Mary, feeling as if they are as intimate as family because he can bring her news of his brother.  The day after that, Mary leaves for Yaroslavl.  A few days later, Nikolai leaves to rejoin his regiment.

Chapter 8

We're now with Sonya.  The countess has not only been going on and on about how Nikolai marrying an heiress would solve all their problems and making snide remarks about Sonya - especially after receiving Nikolai's letter about meeting Mary in Bogucharovo - but has begged Sonya to sacrifice her own happiness for the sake of the family.  Sonya is used to being self-sacrificing, since it's her only value in this family, but, before now, Nikolai and her own self-esteem were the reward for the sacrifice.  She decides to wait until she sees him, with the intention of binding him to her for forever.  Andrew turning up amongst the wounded is a sign, to her, because if he and Natasha are engaged, Nikola and Mary won't be able to marry because it will considered incest.  I guess that makes some sense - if people are allowed to marry cousins, you want to make sure those cousins are as genetically dissimilar as cousins.  Or maybe incest wasn't really understood, but they knew close family marrying was bad and gone a bit overboard in protectiveness.

The Rostov's journey is broken - for a day - when they reach the Troitsa monastery.  Natasha spends the day with Andrew.  Sonya creeps up to the room, intending to listen to their conversation, but Natasha comes out and Sonya comforts her instead.  They both want Andrew to live, if for slightly different reasons.  I'm not convinced Natasha wants to marry him, I suspect she'd just feel absolutely awful if he died and never got over her and found happiness elsewhere.  They peek in at Andrew and Sonya is horrorstruck, convinced that the way Andrew is lying is exactly the way she saw him (the narration makes it clear that she is remembering incorrectly) when she played at fortune-telling for Natasha, back in the Christmas interlude.  Natasha goes back in to Andrew and Sonya remains thinking about what it means, that her vision has come true.  The countess asks her to write to Nikolai and Sonya agrees, believing, because of the vision, that it won't matter since Natasha will marry Andrew.  I think Sonya assumes that Nikolai loves her enough to at least argue with the letter, and/or that he will realise that Natasha might marry Andrew and avoid preventing that, because, if not, there's always a chance that he'll marry Mary before Natasha has the chance to marry Andrew.

Chapter 9

Now we're looking in on Pierre, who has been arrested.  He was treated with a little fearful respect on the first day, because his captors weren't sure if he was important, but, once the guard changes, he's just Russian prisoner number 17.  He's taken out of his seperate room and put in with the rest of the captured Russians, who are all lower class and avoid him, especially because he speaks French.  They all make fun of him, and he feels very sad about this.  It's not his fault he was raised in Paris.

When Pierre is finally taken to court, he is asked only specific questions designed to lead to a conviction, rather than any questions which might lead to actual understanding of what happened (as, Tolstoy implies, is usual for judges).  Pierre knows the whole court is only for the look of the thing anyway.  He's been captured by force by an invading army.

More fires happen and Pierre and 13 other prisoners are moved to another location.  It's only as Pierre looks out over the streets during this movement that he understands the significance of the burning of Moscow.  The second trial is due to take place on the 8th of September, and Pierre has to wait in the location until then.

Chapter 10

It's the 8th of September and time for the second trial, examination, whatever they want to call it.  Pierre has still refused to give his name.  Moscow is even more burned, but the Kremlin still stands.

Pierre and the other prisoners are examined by the Davout, the Duke of Eckmuhl, who I'm pretty sure is a real person.  Pierre remains silent because he doesn't want to reveal his rank and position, and because he knows Davout as a man notorious for his cruelty (though, according to wikipedia, he was a surprisingly loyal and loving husband and father for the time and circumstances, so he had that going for him).  Davout decides that Pierre must be a Russian spy, and Pierre corrects him, finally giving his name as Bezukhov, which is accurate but not totally truthful.  Davout points out that Pierre can't prove he isn't lying, and, as Pierre pleads his case, they make eye contact.  This eye contact allows them to understand that they are both humans and brothers in some sense, and Davout doesn't have Pierre executed.  Then they are interrupted and Davout orders Pierre to be lead away.  Pierre is pretty sure he's heading for execution, though he doesn't know who's sentenced him.  He decides it is the System, in which he is a small cog.  I'm pretty sure that was the message of Battle Royale.  The book anyway, the movie creates more personal motivations.

In Which We Discuss War and Peace, Part 12 Chapters 3, 4, and 5

Chapter 3

The Tsar receives Kutuzov's letter explaining that he had chosen to sacrifice Moscow to win the war and eventually gain Moscow back, rather than defending it, losing the war, and then losing Moscow anyway.  The Tsar is dramatic about this.

Chapter 4

This is another of Tolstoy's historical essay-style chapters.  He explains that, while it might seem to a modern audience that people living through historic events were probably thinking about it the whole time, very few of them actually were.  They were mostly concerned with their own business.  Those who tried to think of the big picture and be self-sacrificing and so on tended not to have a large effect on events, while those who just carried on with the task in front of them sometimes ended up playing large roles.  The regiment Pierre raised ends up looting and barely playing a part in the war, while Nikolai Rostov, who is just minding his own business, hoping to be promoted someday, and leaving the bigger concerns to the Tsar and generals is playing a larger role in the scheme of things. Shortly before the battle of Borodino, he was sent to Voronezh to buy remounts for his regiments.  It's not that he wants to leave the army, but he does quite enjoy seeing normal people going about their daily business while not in an active warzone.  While buying horses, he meets with the Governor of Voronezh, who is a friend of his mother's.  He invites Nikolai to visit with them later in the evening.  The towns have become livelier this year, because that's where all the people from the cities went.  They are all very pleased to see a nice, clean-shaven Nikolai in his dress uniform, and he quite enjoys parading around.  Many of the older guests determine that they're going to get him married.  Nikolai decides, instead, to flirt with the wife of one of the men there, who doesn't enjoy it as much as Nikolai expects.

Chapter 5

We're still at the party with Nikolai.  He's still flirting with the blonde wife, but gets called away to see Mary Bolkonskaya's aunt, Anna Ignatyevna Malvintseva.   Aunt Anna has heard all about Nikolai rescuing Mary.  They talk a little, and it's clear that Aunt Anna doesn't think much of old Count Nick Bolkonski or of Andrew.  The governor's wife offers to set Nikolai up to marry Mary, but he objects on two counts.  Firstly, that he has never liked the idea of marrying for money, and secondly, Sonya.  He says he would also object because of Natasha's engagement to Andrew, but that's over now.  Still, he allows himself to be persuaded.

In Which We Discuss War and Peace, Part 12 Chapters 1 and 2

I took a month's break, not intentionally, because my master's project work picked up.

Chapter 1

St Petersburg are failing to take the war seriously because, basically, nothing has changed for them.  Helena is ill and everyone's pretty sure it's due to her bigamy, but no one wants to say.  The doctor says it's actually angina pectoris, which surprises me because I didn't know she actually had a heart.  The war is discussed at only a few parties, including Anna Pavlovna's.  It's the 26th of August - the day of the battle of Borodino - and she feels optimistic about it.

Chapter 2

Kutuzov has sent a letter stating that the Russians didn't retreat, the French losses were heavy, and, generally, the battle was won, so Anna Pavlovna feels nicely vindicated.    The people of St Petersburg still don't really understand the war, but the ones who care about it are pretty sure Russia's won the whole thing and are happy to have learned this on the Tsar's birthday.  They're unhappy that Kutaysov, a young favourite, has died, but that's really the only downside.

The next day, no more news is received and people begin to feel anxious and blame Kutuzov about it.  Helena also dies, and it's rumoured that she commited suicide because her wretched, profligate husband, Pierre, refused to reply to her letters.

On the third day, news of Moscow's surrender arrives, and people are shocked.

They decry Kutuzov as a traitor and the Emperor sends him a note.