Young blood

War and Peace Week 8: Book 1 Part 3 Chapters 4 – 10

Welcome to week eight of War and Peace 2024. This week, we read Book 1, Part 3, Chapters 4 – 10. 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.

• Plot summaries for each character

These resources are free for all, thanks to the generosity of paying subscribers who support my writing and this slow book group. Paid supporters have access to All Tolstoy’s parties: every ball and banquet, reviewed, rated and ranked. You can also start your own discussion threads in the chat area. Thank you for your support!

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This week’s characters

Explore background and plot summaries for all this week’s characters:
Anatole • Prince Vasili • Marya Bolkonskaya • Nikolai Bolkonsky • Mademoiselle Bourienne • Liza • Tikhon • Count Rostov • Countess Rostova • Natasha • Sonya • Anna Mikhailovna • Vera • Petya • Boris • Nikolai Rostov • Berg • Andrei Bolkonsky • Prince Dolgorukov • Bilibin • Prince Adam Czartoryski • Weyrother • Denisov

Bonus: All Tolstoy’s Parties

After going AWOL for a few weeks and not replying to my emails, our entertainment correspondent has sent me this latest despatch from the front line of Saint Petersburg high society. To be honest, I don’t know what to make of it. He’s well off-brief, and I’m considering replacing him. You can’t get the staff these days. Oh well, here it is, with my apologies, for paying subscribers:

Vampiric Vasilis

This week’s theme: Young blood

Her son’s growth towards manhood at each of its stages had seemed as extraordinary to her as if there had never existed the millions of human beings who grew up in the same way. As twenty years before it seemed impossible that the little creature who lived somewhere under her heart would ever cry, suck her breast, and begin to speak, so now she could not believe that that little creature could be this strong, brave man, this model son and officer, that judging by this letter, he now was.

I have described War and Peace as an encyclopedia of human feeling. And this is why it is a book to return to throughout your life. At twenty, I had nothing in common with Countess Rostova. I understood her feelings abstractly, like a schoolboy solving a quadratic equation. At forty, with two children of my own, I find myself marvelling at the extraordinary miracle of these little creatures expanding each day a little more into the universe.

It’s worth taking these tender thoughts with us as we continue through the novel. We encounter characters like people, fixed in the moment. We think we know them. But we can barely conceive of all the people they’ve been. To think even Vasili Kuragin and Nikolai Bolkonsky were once defenceless little infants!

Remember that the countess once said that Natasha never keeps secrets from her? Nikolai’s letter contains gaps where he doesn’t tell his family about the terror and the disappointment and the homesickness. We know a little more than his mother. But we also take her fears with us as we return to war.

At the front, Nikolai meets up with Boris. They are childhood friends drifting apart. It is another common experience that cuts deep for many of us. Nikolai is all heart. Boris is all head. One yearns to show his courage. The other nurtures his ambition. And both find a role model in sour-faced Andrei. You may not like my face, he says. But I have ideals, courage, confidence and ambition. Let me show you.

At the council of war, the young and overconfident generals have triumphed over the cautious old guard. So Rostov has his second chance to show his valour. He desperately needs courage. So, no wonder he falls in love with the emperor. A child again, heading into darkness, far from home and the family who love him.

Chapter 4: Anatole advances

The Bolkonsky household meets Anatole and finds his effortless self-possession mesmerising. The old prince believes women should be free to choose, but cannot bear to think of losing his daughter. Anatole and Mademoiselle Bourienne are very pleased to meet each other, which Marya mistakes for mutual happiness about the anticipated marriage.

Sleepless Night, Self Portrait in Inner Turmoil by Edvard Munch. Source.

Footnote: Head and heart

What angered him was that the coming of these visitors revived in his mind an unsettled question he always tried to stifle, one about which he always decieved himself. The question as whether he could ever bring himself to part from his daughter and give her to a husband. The prince never directly asked himself that question, knowing beforehand that he would have to answer it justly, and justice clashed not only with his feelings, but with the very possibility of life.

It would be very easy in this chapter to dismiss Nikolai Bolkonsky as a cruel and selfish old man. This must be one of our instinctive reactions when we see the way he treats his daughter and everyone else at Bald Hills. But it would be a mistake. Tolstoy gives us this great opportunity to explore the inner conflicts in human nature. Bolkonsky’s principles run contrary to his feelings, and the fear of being abandoned makes him unbearable to live with.

All three Bolkonskys value their intellectual reasoning. Their thoughts lead them to different conclusions: the father to justice, the son to honour, and the daughter to self-sacrifice. But beneath their thoughts run strong emotional currents that they each seek to deny. These feelings have something to do with the need to love and be loved, and the repression of these feelings leads to all manner of strange and unpredictable behaviour.

Chapter 5: A different vocation

Everyone has a restless night, apart from Anatole. Marya realises her father disapproves of the whole matter. She disturbs Mademoiselle Bourienne and Anatole in the conservatory. She tells her father she will never marry and thinks to herself that she will help Mademoiselle Bourienne marry Anatole.

Tangent: Fall in love with life

The goal of the artist is not to solve a question irrefutably, but to force people to love life in all its countless, inexhaustible manifestations. If I were told I could write a novel in which I would set forth the seemingly correct attitudes towards all social questions, I would not devote even two hours of work to such a novel, but if I were told that what I write will be read in twenty years by the children of today and that they will weep and smile over it and will fall in love with life, I would devote all my life and all my strength to it. — Leo Tolstoy

Chapter 6: Somewhere under her heart

At the Rostovs, a letter arrives from Nikolai. He has been wounded and made an officer. Naturally, Anna Mikhailova finds out first from the count and promises to break it gently to the countess. Naturally, Natasha gets the news off Anna Mikhailova first and promises not to tell a soul. Naturally, she tells Sonya. And Petya. Sonya still loves Nikolai, but Natasha doesn't think of Boris at all. The countess has tender feelings, universally ordinary and personally extraordinary. They all write letters to Nikolai, and the count sends him a small fortune for a uniform. So it goes.

Footnote: First words

Nikolai’s first words are ‘pear’ and ‘granny’. A specific detail that the countess has not forgotten. It’s a tiny window into a world, twenty years ago. I can see the baby and the pear, and I wonder who the granny was and what she was like. This detail brings me closer to the countess and closer to Nikolai, when so much of what he’s doing this week is confounding and troubling.

Also, compare the spontaneous feelings of Nikolai’s mother, to Prince Vasili’s cold imitations:

‘Well, Lyolya?’ he asked, turning instantly to his daughter and addressing her with the careless tone of habitual tenderness natural to parents who have petted their children from babyhood, but which Prince Vasili had only acquired by imitating other parents.

Or, compare the love the countess feels for her son, with the consternation with which she studies her daughter Vera:

‘Why are you crying, Maman?’ asked Vera. ‘From all he says one should be glad and not cry.’
This was quite true, but the count, the countess, and Natasha looked at her reproachfully. ‘And who does she take after?’ thought the countess.

Vera, the black sheep of the Rostovs, might feel more at home with the Kuragins. Or would she?

American soldier writing a letter. Artist: Władysław T. Benda. Source: Library of Congress

Tangent: War letters

Many of us will have received messages from far-flung friends and relatives. We can tap into the emotions swirling around the Rostov house in this chapter. And many will also have waited anxiously for news of loved ones on military service or in conflict regions around the world.

• Do you have a story of a letter sent home from a place of danger?

We don’t get to read Nikolai’s letter. But you can read a letter sent home from the Battle of Waterloo and three letters from a French officer written in 1814. Letter writing became vital for Americans during the Civil War, as illiterate soldiers did all they could to get a message home.

During the First World War, two billion letters were passed between British soldiers and their families. You can read a selection of them here and listen to them here.

Chapter 7: Friendly fire

Boris and Berg have joined the main army with the Guards. Rostov goes to meet them to pick up the letters from his family and showoff to Boris. He's in debt and has bought two horses. Berg is boring, and Boris is unimpressed; he's staying sober to present himself to Andrei and get onto Kutuzov's staff. Rostov throws away a Letter of Recommendation to Bagration, boasts about his exploits and then insults Andrei. Afterwards, he can't decide whether he wants to challenge Bolkonsky to a duel or be his friend.

• Long time no see, Boris. How is everyone feeling about the little diplomat?

“His handsome, happy young face.” Alexander I. Source.

Chapter 8: Nikolai falls in love

The next day, a review is held of the entire army of 80,000 men. The Russian and Austrian emperors inspect the troops, and Nikolai Rostov falls head-over-heels in love with his sovereign. Dreaming of dying for their emperor, he and the other officers are more confident than ever of victory.

Footnote: Lovestruck

Appearances can be deceptive. Nikolai’s first glimpse of the emperor comes hot on the heels of two complicated courtships involving the beautiful but deadly Kuragins. Helene places her marble bosom close to Pierre’s short-sighted eyes so he cannot fail to fall in love with her. Marya is first struck by Anatole’s beauty and bearing.

Only later, spectacles removed, does Pierre notice Helene’s “altered, unpleasantly excited expression.” And in the dead of night, Marya imagines the devil behind a screen in a dark corner, with Antole’s “white forehead, black eyebrows, and red lips.”

Similarly, the god-emperor Alexander shows a human moment of hesitation in front of the hussars. It should act as a warning. But lovestruck Nikolai is already far too gone:

‘How can the Emperor be undecided?’ thought Rostov, but then even this indecision appeared to him majestic and enchanting, like everything else the Tsar did.

• Who are your heroes? How do they make you feel? Have they ever let you down?

The calvary charge. Scotland Forever! by Elizabeth Thompson. Source.

Chapter 9: Life’s unwritten law

The next day, Boris goes in search of Andrei, keen to use his brains to make a career. With Andrei, he learns about the unwritten law. Andrei takes him to Dolgorukov, who is in high spirits about an imminent battle. But before Dolgorukov can help Boris, he is whisked away, and Boris will not see either of them until the day of battle.

‘It is all very well for Rostov whose father sends him ten thousand rubles at a time, to talk about not wishing to cringe to anybody and not be anyone’s lackey, but I who have nothing but my brains, have to make a career, and must not miss opportunities but must avail myself of them!’

Adam Jerzy Czartoryski photographed in 1861 by Nadar. Source.

Tangent: The Polish king in exile

They followed Prince Dolgorukov out into the corridor, and met—coming out of the door of the Emperor’s room by which Dolgorukov had entered—a short man in civilian clothes with a clever face and sharply projecting jaw which, without spoiling his face, gave him a peculiar vivacity and shiftiness of expression. This short man nodded to Dolgorukov as to an intimate friend, and stared at Prince Andrei with cool intensity, walking straight towards him and evidently expecting him to bow or to step out of his way.

This was Prince Adam Czartoryski. Andrei calls him “one of the most remarkable, but to me most unpleasant of men… It is such men as he who decide the fate of nations.”

Czartoryski was a Polish nobleman in the service of the Russian Empire. He was a close friend of Tsar Alexander, who appointed him Minister of Foreign Affairs. Czartoryski played a key role in bringing together the Third Coalition against Napoleon and drew up a plan that would create an autonomous Polish state under the protection of the Russian empire.

In 1831, he took part in a failed uprising in Poland and fled into exile. Nationalists attempted to proclaim him King of Poland, a title he rejected. But for the rest of his life, he campaigned for an independent Poland. He died in 1861, the year this photo was taken. Poland remained partitioned by imperial powers until 1918.

Andrei, like Nikolai, is no fan of diplomats. And unfortunately, we don’t see much more of Czartoryski in War and Peace. But as always, Tolstoy gives us a tantalising thumbnail portrait with the suggestion of back stories and tales untold.

Chapter 10: Fall in love, buy a horse

Rostov is disappointed to miss out on the next battle, a minor victory at the town of Wischau. The hussars drown their grief, and Rostov buys one of the horses captured with the French cavalry. Rostov swoons when the emperor looks at him for two seconds. The emperor shudders at the sight of the wounded. “What a terrible thing war is.” Rostov wanders around, dreaming of dying for Tsar and country.

Leo Tolstoy with his brother Nikolai, 1851. Source.

“I’ve fallen in love or imagine I have; went to a party and lost my head. Bought a horse which I don’t need at all.” — Leo Tolstoy, January 25, 1851

I make this the fourth horse Nikolai has bought since leaving home. One, poor Rook, was killed at the battle of Schöngrabern. He has Denisov’s horse Bedouin, a Don horse bought from a Cossack, and a “fine French horse” taken from one of the prisoners at Wischau. Nikolai has a worrying weakness for buying horses he doesn’t need.

• What is the most extravagant thing you have bought that you didn’t need?

Thank you for reading

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And that’s all for this week. Thank you for reading, and goodbye.