The Value of Things

War and Peace Week 35: Book 3, Part 3, Chapters 12 – 18

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Welcome to Week 35 of War and Peace 2024

This week, we have read Book 3, Part 3, Chapters 12 – 18.

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Sukharev Tower in Moscow by Alexei Kondratievich Savrasov. Source.

This week’s theme: The Value of Things

The Rostovs are taking an insufferable amount of time packing their lives into boxes and onto carts. In the febrile mood of end-times Moscow, carts are worth far more than their contents. A peasant’s horse fetches 500 rubles. Fancy furniture is now worthless.

Everyone is getting out. Everyone except Pierre.

All around the world, today and since forever, families have faced this moment. What to take and what to leave behind. Some are given no time to choose, stealing out the backdoor in the night. Others have nothing to take and nowhere to go.

So, the Rostovs are fortunate, privileged refugees. However, the heartache is the same.

Each plays their part in the departing:

Natasha is a little older, maybe wiser. But still all-or-nothing. She throws her full heart into packing the carpets and the tapestries, the china and bronzes. She always took herself seriously, and now the world must do so too.

The count will make a mess of things. He always does. But this time, his big, soft heart is right: Empty the carts of china. Make space for wounded men.

The countess is overcome. With a vinegar compress, she has taken to her bed. She can’t think of these poor soldiers when her sons are in danger. And like most of us in times like these, she’s forgotten these soldiers are also someone’s sons.

Berg is oblivious to the catastrophe. He knots his handkerchief to remind him about the chiffonier and the cart, and to bag a bargain while the city burns.

Sonya meticulously takes note, writing down everything they must leave behind. Chances are they won’t see any of it again. But if they do, they’ll have her to thank.

On the road out of the city, the book’s three main characters unknowingly cross paths. Andrei, hidden in a carriage. Pierre, in peasant disguise. Natasha, carrying the torch of Rostov joy. It’s a fleeting moment of sliding doors. Imagine if Natasha jumped down to join Pierre. Or suppose he got in beside her and escaped this cursed city?

But no. ‘I don’t know myself,’ stammers Pierre. ‘Tomorrow… But no! Goodbye, goodbye! It’s an awful time!’

And with that, Bezukhov is off to market to buy himself a gun.

Moscow by Aristarkh Lentulov. Source.

Chapter 12: Rostov Reprise

The Rostovs wait until the very last day to leave Moscow. The countess was waiting for her dearest Petya, but now he has arrived, they are delaying until everything is packed. Sonya, sad and silent over the news of Nikolai and Marya’s meeting, throws herself into packing. Elsewhere in the house, spirits are high, as Natasha and Petya sense ‘something extraordinary was happening’.

Ilya Rostov • The Countess • Petya • Natasha • Sonya

The Rostov Boys

After all those chapters fretting about where our characters are, we now know where Nikolai and Petya have been. Nikolai is far from Moscow and presumably out of serious danger. Petya was also out of harm’s way, southwest of Kiev. The countess is happy to have him back in Moscow, but this has inadvertently brought him much closer to action.

Rostov Joy Division

The Rostovs don’t need a reason to be happy:

They laughed and were gay not because there was any reason to laugh but because gaiety and mirth were in their hearts and so everything that happened was a cause for gaiety and laughter to them.

This is why some readers love them and why others find them infuriating. After blood and Borodino, I find them a blessed relief. Lubricated with her brother’s adoration, Natasha runs around like a joy-powered steam engine.

So perhaps, let’s not think too hard about how the count has left packing to the last minute; how the French army is at the gates; how, in trying to protect her dearest Petya, the countess has brought him close to the action; and how Sonya is silently swallowing a bitter pill.

There’s a lot of feeling on these pages; there’s a whole lot of life caught up in this ‘extraordinary’ something that is about to happen.

• Do the Rostovs understand the danger they are in?

• Can you relate to the excitement of being part of extraordinary events?

Transporting wounded soldiers during the Napoleonic wars. Source.

Chapter 13: The White Handkerchief

The countess has a headache. Natasha is bored. Sonya is busy. But look: Carts of wounded men have arrived outside, and the former housekeeper, Marva Kuzminishna, has volunteered to put them up in the Rostov house. Natasha thinks this is an excellent idea and tells her parents. Petya has heard there will be a battle tomorrow, and he intends to take part in it. His parents resolve to leave as soon as they can.

Sonya • Natasha • Petya • Countess Rostova • Ilya Rostov

Back to school

I get odd back-to-school vibes from these chapters. Our reading aligns with where we are in the seasons: it is late August, early September; you’re meant to be getting ready for the new term, but your heart isn’t quite in it. It’s the end of the summer holiday and the family has spent far too long in their own company.

Except it’s not a new term. Napoleon is coming.

The wounded have arrived from the battlefield. After the undefined excitement of the previous chapter, the horror of war has rolled into the street.

So, three cheers for Mavra Kuzminishna! Natasha, who can’t do anything by halves, invites all the wounded into the house. The count, who is incapable of saying no, gives permission. But it is the elderly housekeeper who initially suggested the idea.

And finally, I rediscover that Countess Rostova mostly exists to remind me that I am a parent. Petya’s plan to fight in an imminent battle for the city makes the countess ‘afraid of everything’. I can well believe it.

• Natasha has taken out the dress she wore to the ball where she met Andrei. How do you think her thoughts are affecting her mood?

• How do you think the servants feel about being left behind in Moscow?

A Gobelin tapestry from the famous Parisian manufactory. Source.

Chapter 14: Unnecessary Things

Madame Schoss brings home news of rioting in the streets. The family renew their packing in haste — even Natasha, who takes the lead in sorting the valuables from the unnecessary things. That night, another wounded man arrives. Marva Kuzminishna once again invites them inside. The man is Andrei Bolkonsky.

Natasha • Petya • Sonya • Count Rostov • Countess Rostova • Andrei

General Natasha

Thanks to Natasha's directions the work now went on expeditiously, unnecessary things were left and the most valuable packed as compactly as possible.

General Natasha marshals the troops and gets everything packed and ready to go.

I find myself looking around my room and my house, and wondering what things I would take in such a situation. I don't have Gobelin tapestries or Persian carpets, but there are plenty of sentimental things I would be sorry to leave behind.

I wonder whether it would be easier to take nothing? It's the endless decisions and time running out that is wearing down my nerves!

But Natasha has seized this moment. ‘Everyone expected some prank from her’ but Natasha is no child now. Whether it is precious objects or wounded men, she seems to know what to do.

And speaking of wounded men, here comes one more. A hopeless case in a carriage with a raised hood. It can't be? Can it? Oh, it is. Tolstoy, stringing out our hopes once more.

• Reports of Andrei’s death have been greatly exaggerated again! Did this surprise you, and what are your predictions?

Chapter 15: Moscow’s Last Day

The Rostov family are in their last chance saloon to escape Moscow. The value of horses and carts has gone through the roof, and the count’s majordomo is turning down requests to take the wounded. But the count gives way and orders carts to be unloaded. His wife is furious! Think of the children, she says. Natasha sees Berg arrive.

Ilya Rostov • Countess Rostova • Natasha

Fire sale

The first thing we learn in this chapter is that the value of things is changing fast.

The priceless objects in the Rostovs' old-fashioned house are becoming worthless. A peasant horse sells for a fortune, and the carts parked outside the count's house are more valuable than their contents.

In this chaos, we expect Count Rostov to do something financially ruinous. Something foolish. Well, yes, but it also turns out to be the right thing. Sometimes, the soft heart is right: unpack the carts; make space for men.

The countess has spent a lifetime resisting his reckless schemes. The reader is wrongfooted because now, for once, we don’t want her sensible streak to succeed. It's not his business, she says. His responsibility is to his children.

So in walks his child, wanting to help. ‘What business is it of yours?’ the count shouts at Natasha. It's unsettling to see the meek little man lose his temper, and it adds to the sense of Moscow’s desperate final hours.

• Has Count Rostov done the right thing? Do you sympathise with any of his wife’s objections?

Chapter 16: Precious Cargo

Berg has come to Moscow because everyone else has. He takes the opportunity to ask his father-in-law for a cart to carry away some fancy furniture. It is the last straw for the count. Meanwhile, Natasha flies into a rage, insisting that all the carts must be used to carry the wounded. Her mother submits, and everything is unloaded. Sonya dutifully makes a list of everything left behind.

Berg • Countess Rostova • Count Rostov • Petya • Natasha • Sonya

"The eggs are teaching the hen."

Isn't Berg just the worst?

He goes to Moscow not to check that his in-laws are OK but because everyone else is going, and he might as well do some antique shopping as the city burns.

I think it is that knot in the handkerchief that did it for me. So calm, cold and bland. He uses it as an aide-mémoire for a crass bit of materialism, taking advantage of his pushover father-in-law.

His handkerchief contrasts with Natasha’s own head covering worn for modesty when she offers to take in the wounded soldiers. When Berg is confused by her intense gaze, I feel like he is looking at the heart and soul of War and Peace, at something he cannot understand.

• What impact does Berg have on the Rostov family and the story?

• Who are you more like, Natasha or Sonya? And have you ever had to leave everything behind?

The Sukharev Tower by J.-B. Arnou. Source.

Chapter 17: Know thyself

In the early afternoon, everyone is ready to leave. Sonya discovers that Andrei is with them and tells Countess Rostova. They keep this information from Natasha. The convoy sets off. Near the Sukharev tower, Natasha spots Pierre in a coachman’s coat. He tells them he is staying in Moscow and there is to be a battle tomorrow.

Natasha • Sonya • Andrei • Pierre • Countess Rostova • Petya

Weird farewells

This is perhaps the only chapter in the book where its three main characters are all in the same place. But none of them know it.

Efim, the coachman, embodies the spirit of the procession, abandoning the city. Solemn but impatient. This is how I imagine an evacuation to look and feel like.

This is why we need Natasha and Pierre, who have completely contrarian responses to a crisis. Natasha, with her uncommon joy, beaming at her silly friend with ‘her kindly, slightly quizzical, happy smile.’ Pierre, serious and confused. Determined and hesitant: A walking paradox.

Natasha’s look fills Pierre ‘with enchantment’, but his weirdness enchants me. Both show there's more to life than Efim crossing himself in front of a church. For here is Natasha, who inexplicably asks to stay where it is most dangerous:

‘Ah, if only I were a man! I'd certainly stay with you. How splendid!’

Why do I like Pierre and Natasha most of all? I think it is because they gesture towards the vast, unpredictable and ridiculous range of human experience. They are never ordinary.

• Why have Sonya and the countess not told Natasha about Andrei?

• What is Pierre up to?

Chapter 18: Pierre’s Position

Many requests were made of Pierre the day he left his house for good. The only one he considered of any importance was to go to Bazdeev’s house to take care of his benefactor’s books. There, he finds Bazadeev’s mentally ill brother and his servant Gerasim. He spends a long time with the books before asking Gerasim to procure him peasant clothes and a pistol.

Pierre

A Napoleon complex

He felt that everything was now at an end, all was in confusion and crumbling to pieces, that nobody was right or wrong, the future held nothing, and there was no escape from this position.

Pierre’s exit is probably the only scene in the book that is described twice. Right at the beginning of the book, Pierre sneaks into his father’s house from a side entrance, feeling utterly out of place in that luxurious mansion. It seems appropriate that he leaves that house in the same manner.

Whatever his plan is, he and Tolstoy are keeping schtum. But listening to Pierre's thoughts, it is as though Napoleon came to Moscow especially to annihilate Pierre. It's all about him. And perhaps I want to touch his arm and say: Go, Pyotr Kirillovich, go. It isn't about you.

• What is Pierre planning to do with that pistol?

Thank you for reading

Thank you for reading and joining me on this slow read of War and Peace.

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