A semblance of life
War and Peace Week 16: Book 2 Part 3 Chapter 3 – 9
Welcome to week sixteen of War and Peace 2024. This week, we have read Book 2 Part 3 Chapters 3 – 9. Everything you need for this read-along and book group can be found on the main War and Peace page of Footnotes and Tangents. There you will find:
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This week’s theme: A semblance of life
Leo Tolstoy first came to Saint Petersburg in January 1849. He had spent a winter in Moscow, gambling and not sitting his law exams. In December, he wrote, “I have been completely corrupted in this social world, all that annoys me terribly at the moment, and I am dreaming again of my life in the country.” Instead, he drifted to Saint Petersburg.
Early in the book, we talked about the distinction between the two capitals. Moscow is associated with old Russia, the “heart” of the country, home and hospitality, music and dance. In contrast, Saint Petersburg is the “head” of Russia, the modern capital built by Peter the Great in the image of the West. It is the seat of government and the home of rarefied high society.
From Saint Petersburg, Tolstoy wrote a long letter telling his brother Sergey that everyone was busy in the city, and this industrious spirit had reined in this wayward young aristocrat: he would sit his exams and join the civil service. A few months later, he grew bored of his studies and abandoned Saint Petersburg for the country, leaving behind a trail of unpaid debts.
In Tolstoy’s writing, Saint Petersburg society lacks the authenticity and deeper meaning that he and his characters seek. It is superficial, disingenuous, fraudulent. It has the illusion of depth, with its grand façades and boulevards giving the appearance of a much older and more substantial city. The cold white stone of Petersburg, Speransky with his white hands, marble Hélène conjuring intelligence with a smile. The masons with their mystery.
Andrei and Pierre come from the country, with hopes and dreams. They both have a mentor, and they both have a plan. But life, and Saint Petersburg, have other ideas.
Chapter 3: Green shoots
The next day, Andrei sets off home. On the way, he passes his gnarly old oak transformed: old scars, old doubts, old sorrows no longer visible. He is seized by a spring-time feeling of renewal and makes plans to go to Petersburg. He keeps his new thoughts “secret as a crime” and is outwardly cold and logical. Marya blames his intellectual work.
The old oak, quite transfigured, spreading out a canopy of sappy dark-green foliage, stood rapt and slightly trembling in the rays of the evening sun. Neither gnarled fingers nor old scars nor old doubts and sorrows were any of them in evidence now. Through the hard century-old bark, even where there were no twigs, leaves had sprouted such as one could hardly believe the old veteran could have produced.
Is there a tree that means something special to you?
Have you ever hid “irrational, inexpressible thoughts, secret as a crime”?
Chapter 4: A cold reception
In Petersberg, Andrei is snubbed by the emperor for not having served since 1805. He believes his proposed reform of the army will “speak for itself” but the Minister of War, Count Arakcheev, pours cold water on his plans. Two men are now all-powerful in Russian society: the terrifying Arakcheev and the youthful reformer Speransky.
Andrei • Arakcheev • Speransky • Alexander
Footnote: Aleksey Arakcheev
Despite his disappointment, Andrei doesn’t let himself be rattled too much by the Minster of War. Perhaps Andrei, the intellectual, looks down on Arakcheev, who is semi-illiterate, scrawling across Andrei’s proposal in pencil, “without capital letters, misspelt, and without punctuation.” But Arakcheev terrifies other people, with his austere manners and fiery temper.
Arakcheev is reorganising the army after the recent disastrous defeats against Napoleon. It would appear he regards Andrei’s French-based reforms as unwanted competition to his own plans. Arakcheev went on to oversee the introduction of military colonies to create a self-supporting reserve army. Life in these settlements combined the brutal hardships of peasant life with the strict martial discipline of the army.
Tangent: Tolstoy’s plan
Andrei was not the only man with a plan. Witnessing the situation first-hand in Crimera, Leo Tolstoy concluded that the military urgently needed reform. In March 1855, he began sketching a plan for modernising the entire army. He wrote, “We don’t have an army but a mob of oppressed disciplined slaves who have submitted to robbers and mercenaries.” Typically, for Tolstoy, his project was too ambitious and unlikely to succeed. He abandoned it after only a few days.
Chapter 5: The Great Reformer
Despite his initial reception at court, Andrei is made welcome in the diverse circles of society. The liberals think he is a liberal, the traditionalists think he is conservative, and the ladies think he is charming and available. But Andrei only has eyes for one man: the great reformer Speransky, with the fate of Russia in his plump white hands. He tries to resist, but the man is irresistible.
Footnote: Mikhail Speransky
Unlike most of the characters in War and Peace, Speransky had very humble beginnings. The son of a village priest, he studied in religious seminaries, where he acquired his surname Speransky, from the Latin verb “to hope”. This is highly appropriate for a story where hope looms so large. Hope is such a curious concept: so essential to life, but so illusory and impermanent. What hope does Speransky bring Andrei?
This is a fascinating moment for Andrei to arrive in Saint Petersburg. So far, Alexander’s rule has offered liberals and reformers much hope but little action. Now, here is a man with the skill and vision to make things happen. Napoleon calls Speransky “the only clear head in Russia.” There is talk about a constitutional monarchy with a modern legislative system and civil service exams.
But this is a very narrow window for change. During and after the 1812 war, Alexander becomes increasingly conservative, and the Francophile Speransky is made an easy scapegoat.
Chapter 6: The magic mirror
Andrei becomes the sort of man he once despised: A man of society, talking a great deal and thinking of nothing. His admiration of Speransky deepens. This is the man he would himself have wished to be, if he was not afflicted by self-doubt and self-loathing and the inkling that “all I think and believe is nonsense.” Very soon he is on the committee and drafting new laws.
He sometimes noticed with dissatisfaction that he repeated the same remark on the same day in different circles. But he was so busy for whole days together that he had no time to notice that he was thinking of nothing.
Tangent: Speaking without thinking
Andrei has fallen into a habit that he once despised. Remember how Liza’s chatter used to irritate him: “This very sentence about Countess Zubova and this same laugh Prince Andrei had already heard from his wife in the presence of others some five times.” Here in Saint Petersburg, he is faintly aware that he is irritating to others and to himself, but there is simply no time to stop and think.
Tangent: Small white hands
Tolstoy often links a specific physical detail to a character. Liza’s downy lip, Marya’s luminous eyes and Prince Vasili’s twitching cheeks. These epithets bring the character to life and help us remember who is who. But they also create connections between characters.
Tolstoy keeps reminding us of Andrei’s small hands. And from early on, we know he admires Napoleon, a man who, “when he worked, he went step to step towards his goal. He was free, he had nothing but his aim to consider, and he reached it.” When we meet Napoleon later, Tolstoy rests his attention on those soft white hands of his. Andrei has since become disenchanted with Napoleon, but here is Speransky, with his links to the Great Man, undertaking Napoleonic reforms in Russia. Andrei is smitten.
Everything was right and everything was as it should be: only one thing disconcerted Prince Andrei. This was Speransky’s cold, mirror-like look, which did not allow one to penetrate to his soul, and his delicate white hands, which Prince Andrei involuntarily watched as one does watch the hands of those who possess power. This mirror-like gaze and those delicate hands irriated Prince Andrei, he knew not why.
I suggest the reason why they irritate Andrei is they remind him of his own hands, and they remind us of Napoleon. He pays undue attention to the hands of powerful people and tries to imitate their character. He cannot see Speransky’s soul, which is surely far more important than his clever words. Will Andrei stop paying attention to these little white hands and leave behind his need to mirror the perceived greatness of others?
Chapter 7: Pierre’s pulpit
These past two years, Pierre has taken a leading role in the Petersburg freemasons. But he doubts the motivations of many of his brothers, and goes abroad to seek guidance from other lodges. He returns in the summer of 1809 with a proposal for the masons to become active in politics, working towards a universal government. The Grand Master reproves him for a "love of strife” and his proposal is rejected.
At that meeting he was struck for the first time by the endless variety of men’s minds, which prevents a truth from ever presenting itself identically to two persons.
Tangent: The endless variety of men’s minds
This is one of my favourite quotes in War and Peace. It sums up so much of the book, and it is a great description of both the joys and frustrations of conversations and society. How dull it would be if we all thought alike! How easy it would be to agree and get things done!
The quote may also be applied to this slow read and our discussions. I could labour forever in a fruitless attempt to make you see War and Peace the way I do. Hopefully, I will not be so foolish. My response to the novel is personal and unique, and so is yours. We will see things in entirely different ways. We share our interpretations to enrich our reading, and perhaps see things a little differently. But we do not need to arrive at the same place and we do not need to see the same truth.
Have you ever had your plans shot down?
When have you been reminded of the “endless variety of men’s minds”?
Footnote: Illuminism
The Petersburg lodge accuses Pierre of Illuminism. Historically, the Illuminati was a secret society established in 1776 in Bavaria to oppose superstition and propagate Enlightenment ideas throughout society and government. The society modelled itself on the Freemasons, and many of its members belonged to both societies. However, they were vehemently anti-clerical, targeting what they saw as the influence of the Jesuits and mysticism in Freemasonry.
It is notable that this is the second time Pierre has travelled abroad and come back a bit of a firebrand, full of reform and revolution. Both times, his Russian audience reject his ideas. Through Pierre, Tolstoy explores the idea that change in Russia may come from outside, and from Western Europe. But the question remains: is it the idea or the messenger that is at fault?
Chapter 8: Life’s dilemma
Pierre sinks into depression. He is under pressure to return to his wife, but feels unable to make that step. He goes to see Bazdeev who is living poorly and suffering a great deal. Bazdeev tells him to focus on the improvement of the self. Pierre begins a diary and moves back in with his wife.
Tangent: What do we do first?
A younger version of me really hated Bazdeev—this reactionary old man who tells Pierre to stop trying to change the world. And I am still not convinced by Bazdeev and the Grand Master’s arguments that pride and a “love of strife” lead Pierre astray. I sense they take too much comfort in a world that doesn’t change.
And yet, Bazdeev's advice has some truth and wisdom. The world is an unfathomable mess. What do we do first? Do we seek to understand the world or ourselves? Do we work on ourselves before we work on the world? There are no easy answers, as I think Pierre is only now beginning to understand.
Has Pierre made the right decision?
What should we change first: ourselves or the world?
Chapter 9: The bluestocking and the crank
Hélène’s salon has become the epicentre of Francophile intellectual life in Petersberg, much to the consternation of her husband. Pierre is regarded as a harmless, absent-minded crank whom no one takes seriously. Boris becomes an intimate friend of the household. Hélène calls him her pageboy and treats him like a child. Pierre believes his wife has given up “affairs of the heart” but feels a “strange antipathy” towards Boris.
In the eyes of the world Pierre was a gentleman, the rather blind and absurd husband of a distinguished wife, a clever crank who did nothing, but harmed nobody, and was a first-rate, good-natured fellow. But a complex and difficult process of internal development was taking place all this time in Pierre’s soul, revealing much to him and causing him many spiritual doubts and joys.
Footnote: Bluestockings
The Blue Stockings Society was an eighteenth-century movement for the education and mutual cooperation of women. It began in the 1750s as a discussion group attended by both men and women, gaining its name from the blue legwear of the botanist Benjamin Stillingfleet. Founding members included the writer and reformer Elizabeth Montagu and the intellectual hostess Elizabeth Vesey. By the 1770s, the word was used to describe any learned woman in society.
But is Hélène a bluestocking? Pierre seems to use it ironically, since he “knew she was very stupid” and would say “the emptiest and stupidest things.” Everyone else is convinced she is very clever and profound. This gives her salon a sense of unreality for Pierre, where everyone is happy to be deceived and take pleasure in the illusion of intelligence.
What does Pierre understand about Hélène?
What does he not understand?
Thank you for reading
Thank you for reading and joining me on this slow read of War and Peace.
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And that’s all for this week. I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Have a great week, and I’ll see everyone here next Sunday for more War and Peace 2024.
I see Helen’s way of navigating and influencing society as a social intelligence. She is able to bring various people together and facilitate events without having to be a dominant force. She uses more subtle power. I cannot speak to her intellectual prowess because of course we don’t get to hear her speak.
Pierre seems to have theoretical/book intelligence but doesn’t have much social intelligence. He wants his Mason brethren to uphold their duties but cannot induce them to contribute their alms or take up leadership, so he just does it himself. He comes in blazing with reform ideas but hasn’t considered how to introduce or implement them. He expects that just announcing them will gain support and is shocked when there is blowback.
As an analogy, if Pierre and Helen were playing billiards, he would try powering through every turn like a break shot, and she would be using finesse while running the table. It’s too bad they cannot see and appreciate each other’s strengths because they could be a formidable power couple if they cooperated.
I can’t help but bristle at Pierre’s line about Hélène being “very stupid” - it seems to me that she’s a figure of agency, facilitating public conversations on the circuit. She herself doesn’t necessarily need to say much (tho of course we never hear her words to judge), rather she can artfully engage others. Pierre meanwhile has played into her flame of attention orbit as the object of dismissive eye-rolling from those delighting in Hélène as hostess with the mostest ….