In Which We Discuss War and Peace, Part 15, Chapters 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20

 Chapter 16

We're still with Pierre, Natasha, and Mary, who are talking about the deaths of Andrew and Petya.  Mostly exchanging details, since none of them were present for both.  Natasha leaves the room in tears when Young Nikolai arrives, and, after a break, they move the conversation to the dining room.

Chapter 17

Mary, Natasha, and Pierre continue catching up.  We already know of these events, so this is more about how they share and communicate with one another, and what's changed.  Apparently, the big change for Natasha and Pierre is that Natasha now listens to him with childlike wonder (my words) like a real woman (Tolstoy's words) without trying to learn from his stories or trying to build on the conversation herself.  So now they can get married I guess.   Really, Tolstoy was doing quite well for someone who died in 1910.  I suppose we can make some allowances, considering how old the book is.  And maybe it lost something in translation.

Meanwhile, Mary realises that Natasha and Pierre might be in love and is very happy for them both.  It's now 3am.  Natasha and Pierre agree that, given their time again, they would make the same choices and relive it all, which reminds me a lot of Shadow Hearts and makes me wonder if that reference is intentional, since the main character is supposed to be half-Russian.

Anyway, realising the time, Pierre leaves while Mary and Natasha talk a little longer.  Natasha confirms that it was okay to talk of Andrew's death, since Pierre loved him and Mary reassures her.  I love Mary now, I don't care what I said about her at the beginning, she is a precious baby angel who deserves better.  I want her to show up in a gooey romance novel where she is swept off her feet by someone who adores her.

Chapter 18

While Natasha and Mary talking, Pierre is pacing up and down and feeling jealous of the relationship Andrew had with Natasha.  He decides he and Natasha must be married as soon as possible.  The next day, he talks to Savelich - who I think is some kind of representative of his peasants, who we might have met before though google won't tell me - about the possibility that he might get married soon and also tries to hint to his cousin the Princess.  The Princess has heard rumours of Mary marrying Nikolai Rostov, who I hope will be as worthy of her as any romantic hero (modern day romance, not, like, Byronic or Heathcliff-esque).  Pierre is very happy with everyone and everything today, and goes to Mary's for dinner.  He experiences a brief moment of doubt and fear before he goes in, but he gets over that and Natasha appears to have recovered her former light.  He goes round for dinner every night that week, but they soon run out of things to say and it gets a little bit awkward.  Eventually, the night before he heads to St Petersburg, after promising that he'll call again before he goes, he confesses his feelings about Natasha to Mary and asks for her advice.  He doesn't want to step over Andrew's still-warm body to propose but he also doesn't want to leave it too late and miss his chance.  Mary says she's confident Natasha does/will return his feelings and offers to take care of everything if Pierre writes to the Rostov parents.

Chapter 19

Pierre's feelings towards Natasha are- favourably - compared with his feelings about Helene at the same place in their courtship.  He's feeling a lot less anxious about having said or done the wrong thing, for a start.  He's very happy, except for when he doubts himself and sometimes wonders if he made the whole thing up.

Chapter 20

We now go back a little in time to see how Natasha's been feeling.  She does love Pierre, and Mary's a little troubled about what that implies about Natasha's feelings for Andrew but is glad to see Natasha happy again.  Mary tells Natasha exactly what Pierre has said before heading to St Petersburg, and can't quite hide her own sadness over Andrew but forgives Natasha.  Natasha is a little upset and baffled that Pierre has confessed all this and then immediately left for St Petersburg.

...and that's the end of book 15!  Books 16 and 17 are sometimes referred to as epilogues 1 and 2, so I think this is the end of the main narrative.  If I recall correctly, book 16 is 16 chapters and book 17 is 12 chapters, so I might be done in a week if I keep reading 5 chapters a night.  On the other hand, my Masters degree begins tomorrow, so we'll see.

In Which We Discuss War and Peace, Part 15, Chapters 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15

 Chapter 11

Despite the honours heaped on Kutuzov, everyone understands that he is old and out of touch and not in favour with the Emperor.  This is because Kutuzov doesn't see the sense in having another war when the country is still recovering from the last one and when there is no way it can improve Russia in anyway.  Kutuzov doesn't understand about being European, but only about being Russian. And so, he is quietly left behind and dies.

Chapter 12

Pierre fell ill with bilious fever three days after becoming free.  It was only then that the weight of having been a prisoner falls on him.  As he recovers he is continually surprised by the thought that no one is going to give him orders or demand that he go somewhere and do something - he is free.  Not least because, on the same day he learned of Petya's death, he also learned of the death of Helene and the fact that he is now a widower.  He also learned of the death of Andrew at the same time.  Now, entirely free of obligations, Pierre is at peace and he has found the answer to his search for meaning in life.  For him, the meaning of life is the fact that God exists.

I looked it up, and bilious fever is an illness characterised by fever, nausea or vomiting, and diarrhoea.  We now understand that illnesses with those symptoms might be caused by any number of infections - I think those are some of the symptoms of covid-19, for a start - and so, today, we would instead identify the illness by the cause rather than the symptoms.  I had quite an interesting lecture on this topic in a history of medicine class, about how we classify different things, including illnesses.  It even comes up in discussions of covid-19, when people talk about deaths being attributed to underlying illnesses, like diabetes, when the cause of their death was covid-19, or rather, that was the thing that changed, even though maybe they wouldn't have died without that prior condition.  It's that leeway that lets you massage the figures, since we decided those categories, they're not completely objective.  We looked at one list of causes of death which listed death due to lack of vitamin A, scurvy, etc, and a lot of them could be summed as "not enough food" or "not enough variety of food" but that fact was almost hidden in the way the deaths were categorised, even though none of the categories were "wrong".

Chapter 13

Pierre hasn't changed much from the outside, except now he's much happier and a better listener, which makes him more likable.   The "oldest princess" who the chapter identifies as his cousin, but I think she'd actually be his half sister?  I'm sure the princesses were the counts daughters.  Anyway, the oldest princess is nursing him and is quite vexed that she actually likes him now when she just wanted to be pious.

I googled and apparently the three princesses are his cousins, and their names are Katarina, Olga, and Sophie.  Apparently the Count also has other illegitimate sons, he just likes Pierre best.

Pierre also makes friends with his servants, his doctor, and an Italian prisoner of war.  At some point, Willarski, the freemason who introduced him to the lodge, comes to visit.  He doesn't approve of the changes in Pierre, even though he likes him better now.  Pierre knows he used to be like Willarski and finds him interesting to observe.

Pierre's become a lot better with money, mostly by developing a sense of whom he should give money to and whom he shouldn't, instead of just giving it to everyone.

Chapter 14

Moscow has been thoroughly plundered, not just by the French but by the Russians recovering from the war.

Chapter 15

Pierre goes to Moscow at the end of January, intending to head on to St Petersburg within a few days.  He barely thinks of Natasha, feeling as free of his feelings about her as he is from everything else.  When he hears that Mary is also in Moscow, he goes to visit, not least because thoughts of Andrew have stuck with him.  Natasha is with Mary, but Pierre doesn't recognise her because the grief has changed her a lot.  As soon as he does recognise her, it becomes clear to everyone that he loves her.

In Which We Discuss War and Peace, Part 15, Chapters 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10

 Chapter 6

It's the 5th of November, but no one's setting off fireworks except in the bullety sense because it's the first day of what will later be called the battle of Krasnoe.  Krasnoe is a place (I googled to check).  After a day of utter shambles, Kutuzov has realised there's no need for a battle - because the French are already running away, so what else could anyone possibly want? - and heads to his headquarters at Dobroe.  There are groups of French prisoners everywhere, because 7000 were captured that day.  Kutuzov gives a brief speech, which soon becomes an old soldier just talking to his comrades, about how Russia has won and now they can even have room to pity their French captives.

Chapter 7

The army has moved and is setting up camp.  Really, you'd think this would have been described at some point earlier in the book, it must have been happening all the time.

Chapter 8

Considering the army is lacking in supplies and it's freezing, you'd think they'd be miserable but they're doing pretty well.  This chapter - like the last one - is mostly just eavesdropping on the day to day life of the soldiers who aren't main characters.  Apparently there's a rumour that the French dead don't rot - "probably because of the food they eat".  Also, sometimes the soldiers refer to older men as "Daddy" which I guess is intended a sign of familiarity and respect, but that's not what it means to me so I have to do a little mental correction every time.  The chapter ends with some of the men hearing a ruckus from fifth company, so they wander over to see what's happening.

Chapter 9

Two French soldiers - Morel and Ramballe - have wandered out of the woods to sit by the fire because they're quite ill.  After first mistaking them for bears, the fifth company offer them vodka, because I'm pretty sure they have to hand in their Russian passports if they don't.   None of fifth company actually speak French, but they have fun trying to repeat Morel's songs in Russian-French gibberish.

Apparently, Ramballe was previously saved by Pierre, but I don't remember that part.

Chapter 10

This one's another history essay.  Apparently, the French army crossing the Berezina river has been lauded as an important, victorious point for Russia, but Tolstoy points out that the Battle of Krasnoe was a bigger loss for them and traversing the Russian countryside picked off most of them.  Everyone - Russian and French - were starving and cold and saving the French prisoners would have meant taking food from the Russians.  Which some Russians did, but there just wasn't enough for everyone, and that's why the French retreated rather than surrendering, because they had a better chance of surviving with a group of other French soldiers rather than hoping the Russians would feed them.  Around this time, the other Russian generals are getting annoyed with Kutuzov for not giving them glorious battles.  How dare he not let thousands of men kill each other unnecessarily?  One of the generals, Chichagov, is under the impression that Kutuzov owes him because Chichagov was honest about Kutuzov doing his job (brokering peace with Turkey in 1911) before he even arrived.  Kutuzov receives an Order of St George of the First Class, which I think is the highest honour possible, despite no one seeming to approve of him.

In Which We Discuss War and Peace, Part 15 Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5

 Chapter 1

We're now with Natasha and Mary, who are united in mourning for Andrew.  However, Mary is now "an absolute and independent arbiter of her own fate" since the death of her father and brother, and is the sole guardian of her nephew, so she has to pull herself together.  Natasha has less responsibilities - and is more of a drama queen - so it takes her longer.  She keeps going over what she and didn't say to Andrew.   The chapter ends with her being called to hear the news of Petya's death.

Chapter 2

Petya's death reunites Natasha with her family, after Andrew's had estranged her.  

Chapter 3

Mary delays the departure of her and her nephew, little Nikolai, because Natasha is the only one able to comfort her mother.  Natasha's love, in caring for her mother, is able to help her heal begin to heal from her grief.  Natasha cares for her mother until she becomes ill, and then Mary takes care of her.  Natasha and Mary begin a tender and passionate friendship "such as only exists between women" with much kissing of hands and face.  They begin to feel that life is only possible in one another's presence.  They spend a great deal of time talking, and Natasha comes to appreciate Mary's relationship with religion, despite not being able to relate to it herself, which is rather sweet.  Natasha and Mary stay with the Rostovs until January - remember, Petya died at the end of October - before leaving together.

Chapter 4

We're back to the war.  The French have been fleeing so fast the Russians cannot keep up.  The Russian generals are trying to get Kutuzov to take some action even though, as Tolstoy likes to point out, the French are already doing exactly what Russia wants.  Kutuzov is doing his best to ignore these orders, but the generals are getting more eager because they're seeing their last chance for a bit of battle glory.  It's all very Lord Rust (see Jingo).  There are some battles - one senselessly raging on for three days, for no good reason, just because Napoleon happens to be there and some Russian generals want to capture him - but the French mostly just want to go home and are using guerilla tactics to slip past the Russian army if they can't just surrender.  Plus, none of the plans are working because they're all out of date by the time they get to the troops and/or someone wants to do something a bit more dramatic.  A bit shambolic really.  This chapter is stolidly in defence of Kutuzov and damns other historians for their lack of respect.

Chapter 5

In 1812 and 1813 Kutuzov was very much criticised for, basically, trying to preserve lives and have a sensible war rather than throwing soldiers away on vainglorious folly, and since we're not upset about all of Mary's family dying - except her and her nephew - and poor little Petya, we're inclined to agree with Tolstoy, who describes Napoleon, scathingly, as "that most insignificant tool of history who never anywhere, even in exile, showed human dignity".

You know, I've been thinking about the book of The Princess Bride recently, and the conceit that it's abridged from a much longer original novel which kept leaving the story for essays about the history of the country it was set in.  I wonder if William Goldman read War and Peace and took inspiration from it, or if that's just a coincidence?  I recently got a fully voice-acted abridged version of War and Peace on Audible, which comes in at, if I recall correctly, about 9 hours.  Considering 100 pages is normally about 3 hours, that's only a third of the book so I suspect they've cut out all these war essays in the same way Goldman claimed to have edited Morgenstern's story.

Anyway, Tolstoy is very admiring of Kutuzov's dignity, and the way he appeared - from the writings and communications we have from the time - to be the only person who really understood what was going on and taking sensible actions about it.  Tolstoy attributes this to Kutuzov's pure Russian spirit.  There is definitely a vodka pun to be made here.  Tolstoy says that it is the fact that Kutuzov was a true hero and great leader that prevented him from being put in the false mould of the "European hero" because, as he's been saying since the beginning, the real world doesn't work like a story and battles and wars never go to plan, and you can't intend to carry out a plan and then do it in the middle of a battlefield so pretending that some generals did is just dumb.  He makes a very convincing argument.

In Which We Discuss War and Peace, Part 14, Chapters 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19

 Chapter 11

Petya charges into his first battle.  He keeps trying to get to the exciting bits, but the enemies are all dead when he arrives.  Then Petya is dead, or at least gravely wounded.  It is very sudden.  Denisov and Dolokhov are dealing with that and their new Russian prisoners who, it turns out, includes Pierre.

Chapter 12

Nothing much has changed with Pierre since we last saw him, at least as far as orders from the French go.  They've basically just been travelling to this point, slowly losing bits of the French army and prisoners as they go.  Pierre has become more meditative and realised that, actually, being a prisoner really isn't any less free than being married to Helena.  He's managing to ignore the men who are being shot or dying of illness, and is quite content.

Chapter 13

We're still with Pierre, on the 22nd of October, strolling through Moscow.  There are rotting creatures "from men to horses" lying around everywhere.  Pierre is finding it harder to ignore the death around him, and finally has to face his dying friend and fellow prisoner.

Chapter 14

We're still with Pierre as a French marshal with a three-cornered hat goes past.  I associate that hat entirely with Napoleon, but I don't think it's Napoleon.  There's a gunshot.  Pierre doesn't understand its significance - and nor do I - but the French soldiers seem concerned.

Chapter 15

Pierre is reunited with the Russian army.  The soldiers and prisoners are very happy to see one another, even those who haven't before met in person.  Petya is being buried.  He was dead, after all.

Chapter 16

We're doing big picture stuff again now, on October 28th.  Mostly about how terribly the French are handling things.

Chapter 17

More big picture stuff.  Basically, the French were panicking and ran straight into the Russians.

Chapter 18

Tolstoy does not approve of historians describing any of this as if Napoleon planned it or as if the generals were great or clever.  "There is no greatness where simplicity, goodness and truth are absent".

Chapter 19

...and yet, why did the Russians fail to capture or cut off the French?  And, if this failure to be captured is a French victory, why did it lead to the defeat of France?  Because, according to Tolstoy, the Russians weren't trying to capture the French.  The French were running away, that's what Russia wanted.  And because you can't "cut off" an army.  It's not one thing, it's thousands of people who can each break apart and escape and get through the gaps.  Also, the Russians were out of vodka (that sounds like a joke, and I have phrased it more humorously than in the text, but I didn't make it up, it is in there).

Anyway, Tolstoy ascribes the difference between what happened and what historians wrote about to the fact that historians are writing about the beautiful words and plans the generals wrote, and not what actually happened.  For example, they never talk about the 50,000 men who dropped out of the war because they were old and sick and couldn't carry on.  He describes the Russian army as a whip behind a fleeing animal, held as a threat but not actually needing to strike.

This is the end of part 14!  I have three parts left, of 20, 16, and 12 chapters each.  We'll see how I get on with them.

In Which We Discuss War and Peace, Part 14, Chapters 10

 Chapter 10

Petya returns to find Denisov waiting, very worried about him.  Petya's too excited to sleep, and goes exploring when Denisov drifts off.  Petya talks to his horse about all the exciting adventures they're going to have in battle and then is interrupted by a Cossack.  Petya asks the cossack to sharpen Petya's never-been-used sword and also asks after Vesenny, the little French drummer boy.  The narration reflects on how unaware Petya is of what's around him and the reality of the upcoming battle.  I'm pretty sure Petya's going to die.  He dreams of music.