Sunday 19 January 2020

In Which We Discuss War and Peace, Part 13, Chapters 7, 8, 9, and 10

Chapter 7

Battle is still complete and utter shambles, which Kutuzov expected.  It's the main reason he didn't want to have a battle right now.  Hundreds of men are needlessly lost and, afterwards, some shiny medals are given out.  No one got what they wanted or planned, and yet, this battle was the start of the ultimate Russian victory over the French.

Chapter 8

Napoleon entered Moscow in such a good position that he had to really try to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  Historians argue that Napoleon lost his faculties at this point, but Tolstoy continues to make the point that the victory wasn't attributable to Napoleon's genius and so the failure cannot be attributed to Napoleon's foolishness.  Napoleon carried on doing his best.

Chapter 9

This chapter lays out the steps Napoleon took to try to keep the looting of Moscow civilised and return it to normal function, for example by setting up markets and promising the peasants they would be allowed to buy and sell fairly.

Chapter 10

The measures laid out in the last chapter fail to work entirely, because Napoleon is basically asking criminals to please stop being criminals.  Tolstoy states that the French army is dying and so is flailing like a dying beast.  He repeatedly compares Napoleon to a child, but I don't think that's entirely unbiased commentary.

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