Fear and love at Bald Hills
Fear and love at Bald Hills
War and Peace Week 4: Book 1 Part 1 Chapter 22 – Part 2 Chapter 3
Welcome to week four of War and Peace 2024. 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:
The reading schedule with links to daily chat threads for each chapter.
Weekly updates like this one.
All Tolstoy’s parties (for paying subscribers)
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This week’s characters
These are the principal characters, in the order they are mentioned:
Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky • Andrei • Liza • Marya • Mademoiselle Bourienne • Julie Karagin • Nikolai Rostov • Pierre • Prince Vasili • Anna Mikhailovna • Anatole Kuragin • Mikhail Ivanovich • Tikhon • Kutuzov • Dolokhov • Archduke Ferdinand • General Mack • Timokhin • Zherkov • Nesvitsky • Emperor Francis • Kozlovsky
This week’s theme: Fear and love at Bald Hills
Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.1
At its heart, War and Peace is the story of four families: the Kuragins, the Bezukhovs, the Rostovs, and the Bolkonskys.
Part One (or Book One) sets the scene by introducing us to all four families. After spending three weeks in the two capitals, we fly off west towards Smolensk, where the Bolkonskys live on their family estates at Bald Hills.
If the Rostovs is the house of joy and pleasure, then the Bolkonskys are bound together by duty and loyalty. And here, with his father and sister, we get a much greater understanding of why Prince Andrei is the way he is.
On the surface, Bald Hills is a frightening place. The old prince, Nikolai Bolkonsky, is a cruel and tyrannical father. Princess Marya is lonely and self-loathing. The new addition to the family: Liza, is terrified of her father-in-law and stricken with foreboding about the war and her unborn child.
But there is much more to it than this. And we see that most of all in the final brilliant chapter of Part One. We see the tender relationship between brother and sister, who understand each other far better than they understand themselves. And in the old prince’s love for his son and fear of losing him, manifested in anger, shame and sneezes.
And these chapters help us understand why Andrei and Liza are so unhappy. As a Bolkonsky, Andrei is trying to do the best for his wife. He has good intentions, but they are tragically flawed – as his sister tries to show him. And the couple are painfully ill-suited. If they married for beauty (and they are both very beautiful), familiarity has quickly bred mutual contempt and incomprehension.
We began the month with a party, we end it with fear and foreboding, divided families and a coming war.
Poll: Pick your house
Don’t think about it. Go with your gut.
This week’s story
Chapter 22
(➡️ chat thread)
Though in the new reign he was free to return to the capitals he still continued to live in the country, remarking that anyone who wanted to see him could come the hundred miles from Moscow to Bald Hills, while he himself needed no one and nothing. He used to say that there are only two sources of human vice—idleness and superstition, and only two virtues—activity and intelligence.
Welcome to Bald Hills! A country estate managed with precision by the “hard-hearted” Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky, father of Andrei and Marya. In this chapter, we peer over Marya’s shoulder as she reads news from her Moscow friend Julie Karagin. And she writes back about religion and marriage.
Bald Hills
Bald Hills is located forty miles east of Smolénsk and two miles from the main road to Moscow. This is a fictional setting, although Tolstoy clearly had in mind his own family estate at Yasnaya Polyana. The old prince Nikolai Bolkonsky is based on Tolstoy’s own grandfather Nikolai Volkonsky, who retired from the army to his estates in 1799. A widower, he brought up his only child, Marya, on the estate. Marya, of course, was Tolstoy’s mother.
Nikolai Bolkonsky
However, there are important differences. Tolstoy’s mother was devoted to her father. But there is no evidence Volkonsky was anything like the “hard-hearted” prince of Bald Hills. His nickname is the King of Prussia, a reference to this chap, Frederik the Great:
Apparently, he didn’t look anything like this, which is a whole other story. He was one of the great rulers of the previous century, “meticulous, exacting, and extremely domineering”2. He was a religious sceptic and a rationalist, corresponding with major figures of the Enlightenment like Voltaire, who called him a philosopher-king.
Maria Bolkonskaya
We get an enormous amount of exposition and plot in the letters between Marya and Julie. It’s the only epistolary section of the book and it is directly inspired by a large collection of letters written between two friends that Tolstoy read in manuscript in 1863. Marya’s father calls Julie, “Héloïse”, a sardonic reference to the 1761 epistolary novel Julie; or, The New Heloise by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. It was one of the bestselling books of the 18th Century, a publishing sensation that went through at least 70 editions before 1800.
We’ve noticed a lot of people looking at themselves in the mirror in Part One, but Marya’s glance at her own reflection is of a different order:
Having read thus far, Princess Marya sighed and glanced into the mirror which stood on her right. It reflected a weak, ungraceful figure and thin face. Her eyes, always sad, now looked with particular hopelessness at her reflection in the glass. ‘She flatters me,’ thought the princess, turning away and continuing to read. But Julie did not flatter her friend: the princess’s eyes—large, deep, and luminous (it seemed as if at times there radiated from them shafts of warm light), were so beautiful that they often in spite of the plainness of her face they gave her an attraction more powerful than that of beauty. But the princess never saw the beautiful expression of her own eyes—the look they had when she was not thinking of herself. As with everyone, her face assumed a forced unnatural expression as soon as she looked in a glass.
There’s a bit of hackneyed writing advice that says you should never use a character looking in a mirror as a device to describe them. But Tolstoy shows us how it can be done, quite brilliantly. We learn about what she sees and doesn’t see, how she thinks of herself, and this warm light in her eyes more powerful than beauty. And by the end of this chapter, we have a pretty complex picture of Marya Bolkonskaya, her strengths and weaknesses, her passions and her fears.
Marya is one of the last main fictional characters to be introduced, and she’s many readers’ favourite.
Chapter 23
(➡️ chat thread)
Andrei and Liza arrive at Bald Hills. Much hugging and kissing ensues among the womenfolk and plenty of grimacing from the men. Andrei talks with his father as he dresses for dinner and explains the plans for war.
If you want to get a flavour of the music Marya is playing at the start of the chapter, here is a piece by the Czech composer and pianist Jan Ladislav Dussek:
Making plans
‘I don’t say it’s a plan I approve of,’ said the son; ‘I am only telling you what it is. Napoleon has also formed his plan by now, not worse than this one.’
France is at war with a loose alliance of countries called the Third Coalition, including Russia, Austria and the United Kingdom. The rest of Book One, Parts Two and Three, follow the events of that war in Austria and Central Europe.
If your eyes glaze over at mention of troop movements, don’t worry. War and Peace is not really about war strategy and battle tactics. You don’t need to understand why France and Russia are at war, or how they plan to defeat each other.
War and Peace is really about people living through war, and living through peace, and trying to make sense of it all. For most of the novel, we will remain at this human ground level.
However, Andrei has introduced the theme of making plans. Nothing ever goes to plan and we will return to this theme again and again, as people’s expectations continue to collide disastrously with messy and unpredictable reality.
‘Well, you’ve told me nothing new.’
While Andrei is telling his father all the plans for war, Nikolai Bolkonsky is singing the French folk song “Marlborough has left for the war”. Here it is:
The song is about the Duke of Marlborough in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701 –1714). It was a catchy tune that spread all over the world in the 18th Century, and we still sing it today with the lyrics, “For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow”. Allegedly, Napoleon was a fan, and is said to have hummed it at a significant event that will crop up later in War and Peace.
Chapter 24
(➡️ chat thread)
Dinner with the Bolkonskys is a frightening affair for Liza. The old prince holds forth on politics, speaking of the good old days and pouring scorn on the new men in general, and Napoleon in particular.
‘Everyone has his Achilles’ heel,’ continued Prince Andrei, ‘Imagine, with his powerful mind, indulging in such nonsense.’
The nonsense is a genealogical tree that traces the Bolkonsky family all the way back to the legendary Rurik in the 9th Century. The Viking chieftain is considered the founding father of the dynasty that ruled Russia until 1598.
Tolstoy’s maternal ancestors, the Volkonskys, also claimed to be descended from the noble family of Rurik. In comparison, the Tolstoys were a recent addition to the Russian nobility, and Count Leo Tolstoy’s title was an 18th-century invention by Peter the Great as a reward for service.
Andrei’s comment to Marya about their father’s “Achilles’ heel” is significant for two reasons.
Andrei emphasises the old prince’s “powerful mind”, but that mind seems less powerful than it once was. For all his precision and activity, there are signs that his thoughts are failing. There is the suggestion that his personality is also changing. Later, Andrei says “He always was rather harsh; and now I should think he’s getting very trying.” I always get the impression that the Nikolai Bolkonsky we see in War and Peace is no longer the same man whom Andrei and Marya loved as a father. When we struggle to understand why they love him, it is mostly because we have just met him and they have known him all their lives.
This quote is significant also for Andrei’s sake. What is the chink in his armour? What is his weakness?
Bonus: All Tolstoy’s parties
And if you’re curious about what our correspondent thought of dinner with the Bolkonskys, paying subscribers can read his latest despatch:
Flying dinner plates, Tikhon!
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Chapter 25
(➡️ chat thread)
Fears and farewells at Bald Hills. Andrei and Marya talk about Liza, and the sister gives the brother an icon to protect him. In his study, the old prince betrays his fears and his love in an icy goodbye to Andrei. The son confesses that he and his wife are fearful about the pregnancy, and both men speak of futures in which they are gone.
This is probably the most important chapter of the book so far.
Marya puts into words what might well be the guiding philosophy of this book:
‘We should enter into everyone’s situation. To understand everything is to forgive everything.’
Like her father and brother, she sees that Liza is not a Bolkonsky, she’s not like them. But her compassion reaches out to her sister-in-law in a way no other character so far has managed.
And behind the cold armour of both Bolkonsky princes, we glimpse the fear that courses through their veins. Andrei shares his wife’s fear about the pregnancy (“her fancy and mine”), and his father is terrified about losing his son.
As Sterne says: “We love people not so much for the good they’ve done for us, as for the good we’ve done them.”
Yiyin Li3 notes that it is rather odd that Marya quotes Laurence Sterne, one of Tolstoy’s favourite novelists. “Is Princess Marya the kind of character who would like his work? She mostly reads religious books.”
We know what Tolstoy liked because he compiled a reading list of the books that influenced him at different stages of his life. Between the ages of 14 and 20 he was reading Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey as well as Rousseau’s Julie; or the New Heloise.
During his late thirties, when he was writing War and Peace, Tolstoy cites George Eliot, Anthony Trollope and Victor Hugo as writers who made an impression on his work.
Congratulations on finishing Book 1 Part 1 of War and Peace!
One of our fellow readers
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And
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Thank you both! Onwards to Book 1 Part 2!
Book 1 Part 2
Chapter 1
(➡️ chat thread)
Greatcoats and old boots. We are in Austria, near Braunau am Inn. An infantry regiment has been ordered to prepare for inspection by the commander-in-chief Kutuzov. And Dolokhov is here, drawing attention to himself in his blue coat. It matches his eyes.
And the war begins with a farce! After the emotional scenes at Bald Hills, these parade ground theatrics should be light relief. If it wasn’t for the grim reality of “burdened” villagers, worn-out boots, and the dreadful feeling this army is not ready for what’s to come.
Last night on our daily chat,
shared his latest painting, and it is inspired by this week’s reading. It’s called “The Insolence of Dolokhov”, and he’s given me permission to share it with everyone:
I’m absolutely delighted that the book has begun to inspire people to create. This is what it’s all about! So if you are inspired by your reading and make anything you would like to share, please get in touch.
Reading tip: Don’t worry about most of these new characters and their ranks. Let it breeze over you. It’s worth refreshing your memory about Dolokhov, the man who hung out of a window with a bottle of rum and tied a policeman to a bear. All the others only have minor roles to play in the story.
Chapter 2
(➡️ chat thread)
Kutuzov inspects the regiment and shows off the state of their boots to an Austrian general dressed all in white. The soldiers are tired, hungry and confused about where they are and what they are doing. Dolokhov knows what he is doing, and has vowed to leave off drinking and gambling until he is reinstated as an officer.
Just as battles played out in the drawing rooms, the battlegrounds turn into drawing rooms.4
Field Marshal Kutuzov
I said ignore all the new characters, but you can’t ignore Kutuzov. And you shouldn’t. In fact, of all the real historical characters in War and Peace, Kutuzov will have the largest role. He’s the head of the army and a veteran of the wars against the Ottoman Empire in the reign of Catherine the Great. In 1774, a bullet to his head left him blind in one eye. He was lucky to survive at all.
Napoleon called him a “sly old fox”. Tolstoy called him a “truly great figure”. We will see why in the pages ahead.
If you want to get a flavour of the song the soldiers sing in this chapter, here is a short clip from the 1968 Soviet adaptation of War and Peace. If you speak Russian, it contains the mildest of spoilers for next week’s chapters.
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Chapter 3
(➡️ chat thread)
Bad news and buffoonery in Braunau. Kutuzov and the Austrian general out do each other in saying one thing and meaning another, until General Mack arrives to tell them of his catastrophic surrender to Napoleon. Battle seems now very likely, and Andrei is chipper about it. But as Zherkov taunts an Austrian general, Andrei tells his comrade Nesvitsky to keep better company.
‘You see before you the unfortunate Mack.’
On 16 October 1805, Napoleon trapped the entire Austrian army in and around the city of Ulm. On the 19th, General Mack surrendered 25,000 men, 18 generals and 65 artillery. Mack was later court-martialed and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.
In the first three chapters, we have witnessed a farce, buffoonery and news of calamitous defeat.
I know a lot of readers feel intimidated by the “war” parts of War and Peace. Many people expect not to enjoy them. But I want to reassure you that these sections of the novel are not so different from the time spent in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. At war, characters are making fools of themselves or trying to get ahead. They are worried about how they look and what they say and do. And they are thinking about the home they, and we, have left behind.
On top of all of this, spending time with these men in Austria will help us understand what happens when they return. And it gives greater depth to those scenes at Bald Hills and the two capitals. There are moments of great conflict in the “peace” sections and scenes of great beauty, meaning and peace while the characters are at war.
So I hope you enjoy the next few weeks, as Andrei, Nikolai, Boris and the rest stop dreaming and face the reality of war.
That’s it from me this week. If you have any questions or thoughts on this week’s reading, join us in the comment for discussion.
What were your first impressions of Bald Hills and the Bolkonskys?
How do you feel about the change from ‘peace’ to ‘war’ at the start of Part Two?
And what were the highlights of the first month of War and Peace?
And if you are enjoying the read-along, please share with friends and family, and consider a paid subscription so I can keep running these book groups.
Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Aylmer Maude, note 93 in Oxford World’s Classics edition
Yiyun Li, Tolstoy Together: 85 Days of War and Peace
Yiyun Li, Tolstoy Together: 85 Days of War and Peace
To me the relationship between old Prince Bolkonsky and Marya is one of the most heartbreaking strands in the book. He clearly loves her and Andrei more than anything else in the world, but he is utterly unable to express it except through anger, and this anger has shaped Marya’s vision of herself. And Marya, to me, is the most compelling figure in the novel... along with Natasha... and Pierre... and Andrei... and...
I am definitely one whose eyes start to glaze over at the first sign of the word battalion, so I’ve struggled with these last couple of chapters and had to read them twice, trying to concentrate on who’s who. But I will take your advice, Simon, and let most of it breeze over me...except Zherkov, who I want to go away as soon as possible. How unlikeable he is!
The highlight of the book so far for me has just been Tolstoy’s understanding and exploration of the nuances of human behavior. I think I was expecting more of a historical epic, and I’m excited that, so far, the book seems to be much more about character.
The other highlight, honestly, has been watching everyone’s responses. I love the creativity the read has inspired - the Dolokhov painting is wonderful. But I’m also thankful for the peripheral research that everyone is doing, and writing about. It's fun to follow you down your rabbit holes - so thank you!