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.
No comments:
Post a Comment