A word about names. One of the things that used to drive me nuts about Russian novels, and I went through a heavy Tolstoy/Dostoevky phase way back when, was trying to figure out who was who. Everyone had so many names; they were called so many things!

Everyone has a given name: Pyotr, Natalya, Andrei. In addition, they have their patronym, their father’s name, plus -ovich (“son of”) for men and -evna/ovna (“daughter of”) for women. The elder Prince Bolkonsky’s name is Nikolai, so Andrei’s middle name is Nikolayevich.

You would call a friend by both their given name and their patronym, i.e., Andrei Nikolayevich, and amongst the boys, you might use their patronym alone.

Last names are usually inflected, i.e. Bolkonsky for the men and Bolkonskaya for the women. You will see that Anna Karenina’s husband’s name was actually Karenin.

To make matters worse, in War & Peace, most of our character speak French as their first language, so our main characters are often Pierre, Natalie, and André. (Pierre is rarely referred to as anything else, except when he’s being spoken to by older characters.)

Then there are the diminutives, the nicknames. Natalya/Natalie/Natasha/Tasha are all the same person. Andrei’s sister Marya (Marie/Masha) calls him Andryusha, though no one else does.

And all of this depends who’s doing the talking. In one scene, Andrei can be called or referred to as Prince, Bolkonsky, the Prince, Prince Bolkonsky, Andrei, Andrei Nikolayevich, and Nikolayevich. Not to mention Your Excellency or Excellency.

This is why it’s handy to have a list of the characters handy. Trying to remember who Anna Mikhailovna is (Princess Drubetskaya, widowed mother of Boris Drubetskoy) can be trying indeed.

There is much skulduggery afoot at Count Bezukhov’s house. As the old man lies dying, all the forces in search of his fortune make their move. Apparently there is a recent will naming Pierre as the heir, which ordinarily would be meaningless since Pierre is illegitimate.

However, the Count has written a letter to the Emperor Alexander, asking him to confer legitimacy on Pierre. (The Emperor would do this without hesitating because Kiril Vladimirovich was a big big deal in the court of Catherine, aka The Great.) This would make the will enforceable. Prince Vasiliy finally gets the oldest Malmontov cousin to realize that they will inherit nothing if that letter is not destroyed.

Anna Mikhailovna, in the meantime, drags Pierre from the name day party at the Rostovs back to his dying father’s house. Apparently it was she who got Count Bezukhov to change his will in the first place, and she skillfully engineers Pierre’s presence. She even engages in a literal tug of war over the portfolio containing the letter, just long enough for the old man to kick off.

These scenes are remarkable because we get the full picture of a dark house, full of people who have gathered for this man’s death, none of them because they love him and are sorry at his passing. Many are curious bystanders; there is some clergy; and then the loving family members whose nerves are stretched to the breaking point as they try to cement their inheritance. They all know what the others are up to, and they strive mightily to prevail, all while trying to maintain a facade of civility in front of the outsiders.

In the midst of all this tension, Pierre is serene and clueless. People say and do things that puzzle him (although we are fully in the loop) and he simply acquiesces to their bizarre requests without understanding a thing that’s going on.

In the first of many such scenes, Pierre simply decides to give himself over to these outer forces, that things clearly are “meant to be.” This becomes a major theme for Tolstoy, the question of whether we can actually affect/effect our destiny. He thinks not, on the whole.

 

Bald Hills is the Bolkonsky estate, some 200 miles west of Moscow. (Think Bald Hills = Tara, only without the emotional attachment to the place. And the armies are heading the other way, toward the city. But I get ahead of myself.) Andrei is bringing Lisa there to stay for the remainder of her pregnancy. He’s off to war with General Kutuzov.

Prince Nikolai is crusty, and a bit eccentric, but not really cruel. (He was a big big deal in the court of Paul, but has been living in exile from the capitals for many years.) His daughter Marya is a religious girl. Hers is a difficult character for me. I cannot see her as anything but a mealy-mouthed wimp, but surely Tolstoy saw her as one of the preeminently sane ones? I can’t tell.

Still, she hits the nail on the head when she chides Andrei for abandoning his wife there: Lisa is a city girl, raised in Society, and how dreadful it must be for her to be dumped in such a far away place with such odd, non-sophisticated people. Doesn’t matter: Andrei’s gone in little more than 24 hours after arriving.

I love the scene between Andrei and his father when he says goodbye. Prince Nikolai is very upset and cannot force himself to conceal his distress, even though he’s actually supportive of Andrei’s decision. Like many of us, he converts that anxiety into anger and takes it out on everyone else. He stalks into the front hall and glares at Marya and Lisa, who has fainted. “Is he gone?” he snarls. “Good!” And slams the door.

Thus ends Part 1.

Part 1 was Peace. Part 2 is War. We are in Austria, watching the Russian army assemble, waiting for the Austrian army to defeat Napoleon. In the first six chapters, we see Andrei, Nikolai Rostov, and Dolokhov (a companion of Pierre’s demoted for his role in the drunken shenanigans in Petersburg, they tied a policeman to the back of a bear and threw them both in the Neva), all in their new surroundings. They’re all getting on with it, eager for combat to begin.

Andrei in particular is a new man, freed from what he sees as a stifling society existence and a millstone of a wife. He is an adjutant to General Kutuzov himself, thanks to a letter from his father.

We also meet a whole host of new characters, including Nikolai’s bunkmate, Denisov, who has a speech impediment: “Ah, Wostov, bwing me the bwandy!”

Kutuzov, a wily old coot if there ever was one, is not so eager for comabt. He’s been asked to bring the Russian army on down to join the Austrian General Mack, but he’s stalling. Sure enough, Mack turns up at his headquarters, injured and soundly defeated by Bonaparte. Kutuzov’s hand has been forced: time to move the army.

In these first six chapters, we begin to get an idea of what Tolstoy’s take on war is going to be. The first thing we see is Dolokhov’s regiment scrambling to get ready for a review by Kutuzov himself. The orders were not very clear: did “in marching order” mean the way they arrived, or does the General want dress uniforms? They spend all night getting their dress gear ready, but 30 minutes before the General gets there, an adjutant rides up to double-check and tells them they guessed wrong. For reasons of his own, Kutuzov wants the Austrian commanders to see them bedraggled and foot-weary from their long march.

If in a calm situation no one can transmit orders with any hope of their being reliably understood, what’s going to happen when the cannons are going off and everyone’s being shot at? Doesn’t look good for those who think that history is made by men of genius like Napoleon and Mikhail Ilarionovich.

First of all, a grievous miscalculation on my part: it would take a few more than three chapters per day to finish this book in a month. It’s closer to ten, about 45-50 pages a day. I failed to remember, when I checked the number of chapters making up Book I, that each book is divided into Parts. I was actually seeing just the number of chapters in Part 3, not all of Book I.

Still, not an overwhelming task.

The scene shifts back to Moscow and we get to meet the Rostov family. These are nice people, the jolly Count Ilya, his quiet wife, and their children: Nikolai (who’s going into the army); Vera, a bit cold; Natalya, who’s thirteen and whose name day we are celebrating; and Petya, the little boy. There’s also Sophie, their cousin, in total love with Nikolai.

Natasha, who is our third main character, is in love with Boris Drubetskoy, whose mother’s scheming back in chapter 2 has achieved its goal: he’s now an officer and heading out with the army. He returns her love, but insists they wait till she’s sixteen before doing anything about it.

The main topic of gossip in Moscow is Pierre’s behavior in Petersburg, which has gotten him exiled to Moscow, and the impending death of his father, Count Kiril Bezukhov. It seems that the direct heir to Kiril Vladimirovich’s fortune is none other than Prince Vasily Kuragin, who has come down from Petersburg to watch the old man die himself and to make sure the old fool doesn’t leave his fortune to the bastard Pierre.

Tolstoy now gives us a lesson on money: even though he describes the Rostovs as Princess Drubetskaya’s “rich relatives,” it’s clear by the end of chapter 14 that they are not as flush as they might be, portending problems for their children’s marriage prospects, and remember that both Nikolai and Natasha are in love with people poorer than themselves.

And around Count Bezukhov’s deathbed are gathering some pretty voracious vultures: Prince Vasily; three nieces who are unmarried and clearly nursing their uncle for a hoped-for inheritance; Princess Drubetskaya, who drags Boris from the Rostovs to the Count’s house (the Count is Boris’s godfather) and who immediately attaches herself to the dying man like a pious leech.

The only one unconcerned about the Bezuhkhov fortune (forty thousand serfs and millions!) is Pierre, who has been refused admittance to his father’s sickroom by his female cousins.

The Rostovs also lack a sense of appreciation for money. Princess Drubetskaya has told the Countess that she needs 500 rubles to pay for Boris’s uniform and doesn’t know where she’s going to get it. That’s the main reason she goes to pay her respects to Count Kiril Vladimirovich. But as soon as she’s gone, the Countess calls in her husband and fretfully asks for the sum. He doesn’t even ask what it’s for; he calls for his manager and instructs him to bring the money, “in nice new, clean notes,” to his mistress. It’s clear from the manager that the money is not really available, but he does it anyway.

When Anna Mikhailovna returns, the Countess forces the money on her, and they both cry:

They wept because they were friends, because they were both kindhearted, because, having been friends from childhood, they should now be concerned with anything so base as money, and because their youth was over… But their tears gave them both pleasure.

I find passages like this incredible, because Tolstoy taps into the emotional currents so directly and honestly, and yet there’s always that undercurrent of the omniscient narrator telling us not to fall too deeply into that river. These women are indulging themselves. We know that Anna Mikhailovna, for example, is not exactly kindhearted, and we know, or should feel some foreboding, that being unconcerned with “anything so base as money” is bound to be a problem sooner or later. If this were Dickens, both these women would be in the poorhouse by Book III.

Of course, if this were Dickens, he’d have us laughing our heads off at this scene.

First of all, in order to read War and Peace in a month, you only have to read about three chapters a day, and they’re short. The Wikipedia article is not a bad guide.

I am surprised at how well my old paperback has held up. It’s more than 30 years old, but the pages are in good shape and the binding is fine. Not bad for an old Signet Classic ($1.95). I’m still going to see if B&N have the new translation tomorrow.

In case your translation doesn’t have it, here’s the list of (main) characters from the front of mine:

• The Bezukhovs
  • Count Kiril Vladimirovich Bezukhov
  • Pyotr Kirilovich Bezukhov (Pierre) his illegitimate son
  • The Mamontov sisters (Pierre’s cousins)
    • Princess Katerina Semyonova
    • Princess Olga Semyonova
    • Princess Sophie Semyonova
• The Kuragins
  • Prince Vasily Sergeyevich Kuragin
  • Prince Anatol, his elder son
  • Prince Ippolit, his younger son
  • Princess Elena Vasilyevna Kuragina (Helene)
• The Bolkonskys
  • Prince Nikolai Andreyevich Bolkonsky
  • Prince Andrei Nikolayevich Bolkonsky, his son
  • Princess Marya Nikolayevna Bolkonsaya, his daughter (Marie, Masha)
  • Princess Lisa Bolkonskaya, Andrei’s wife
• The Rostovs
  • Count Ilya Andreyevich Rostov
  • Countess Natalya Rostova
  • Count Nikolai Ilyich Rostov, their elder son
  • Count Pyotr Ilyich Rostov, their younger son
  • Countess Vera Ilyinicha Rostova, their elder daughter
  • Countess Natalya Ilyinicha Rostova, their younger daughter
  • Sofia Alexandrovna, a cousin
• The Drubetskoys
  • Princess Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya
  • Prince Boris Drubetskoy, her son

Of course, the first person we meet is none of the above. It’s Anna Pavlovna Scherer, whose salon is the place to be seen in Petersburg. Everyone, just everyone, is there, and Anna Pavlovna declares in the opening paragraph her distaste for all things Bonaparte. It’s 1805, and the Corsican is causing much rumpus over in Europe, threatening to drag Russia into war. But Anna Pavlovna will have none of it at her party.

We meet Prince Vasily Kuragin, a smarmy courtier who is looking to marry off his rake of an elder son to some rich girl. Anna Pavlovna suggests Marie Bolkonskoya: good family, and loads of cash. She’ll see what she can do.

We meet Prince Vasily’s daughter Helene, who is so gorgeous that Tolstoy can barely keep his eyes off her. She also appears to be not very bright.

We meet Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, young, handsome, married to the adorable and pregnant Lisa. Andrei is one of our big three characters; his sister is the one Anna Pavlovna wants to marry off to the icky Anatol.

And finally we meet Pierre Bezukhov, the second of our main characters, recently returned to Russia after being educated abroad. He’s a large young man, not very polished, but quite amiable if a bit feckless.

Right off the bat Tolstoy gets the entire novel going: Byzantine matchmaking, always for money; happy/unhappy marriages; social/political advancement; and the threat of Napoleonic conquest. The NYT blog has decided that the first thing they’re going to talk about is Tolstoy’s idea that great men don’t cause history, that Napoleon himself is just a cog in the machine, but if you’re just encountering the novel, that’s a little big to be starting with.

One of the things that amazes me most about Tolstoy is how within six chapters he gives us scenes in rather grand society, at Anna Pavlovna’s salon, that hint at a world very different from the one you and I live in: rank, privilege, who’s out and who’s in, and very very great wealth. His author’s eye travels the beautifully appointed rooms, tracking conversations while never letting us forget that every person is part of a great hive of society.

We begin to see, too, what part these people play. The Kuragins seem to be scheming and worthless: the crafty father, the indolent daughter, the slimy younger son. (Come on, Ippolit, Lisa is pregnant!) The Bolkonskys are virtuous and educated. The Drubetskoys are down on their luck but determined to rise again. Poor Pierre is clearly a fish out of water in this shark pool.

Another amazing thing is how Tolstoy then takes us directly into the heart of things. After we follow the Bolkonskys home, where Pierre has tagged along, we see Andrei and Lisa deeply unhappy for a variety of reasons: he feels trapped and stymied by his marriage; she feels rejected because he wants to go off to war with General Kutuzov and plans to send her to stay with his depressing family in the country. Both are miserable, and Tolstoy’s portrait of them and their relationship is etched in crystal.

It’s interesting, too, that I found myself unsure of Tolstoy’s attitude towards Lisa in the opening chapters. His description of her is a bit too precious, and I keep thinking he’s making fun of her, perhaps. But when she and Andrei get home, her misery is profound and touching, and Andrei comes off as callous.

Finally, Pierre emerges straight away as a complex character without a center, although he seeks desperately for meaning. It is his search for meaning that drives the novel. Innately good, but unable to discipline himself, we leave him in chapter six at an extremely wild party at Anatol Kuragin’s place. Drinking, gambling, and whoring, and Pierre likes it that way.

The floor is open for discussion.

There’s a new translation of War and Peace coming out this week, and the NYTimes is going to read it on their reading blog this month. I think I’m going to play along.

[Barnes & Noble had the book on their website, but of course did not have it just now when I did a quick run out to the new store. If I have to order these things, I’ll just do it throught Scott’s.]

I read W&P many years ago, in high school, I think, and I actually enjoyed it. I know I must have skimmed it, but it was a thrilling, sprawling book. It is as great as they say. This would have been the Constance Garnett translation, of course, and I still have that paperback copy.

I think I started reading it several times, because as one of the readers on the NYT blog says, Tolstoy plunges you right into the thick of the main characters’ society, with all those horrifically confusing names and patronyms and diminutives. I couldn’t keep track. But then one time, I must have broken through that wall, because I kept going and just finished it.

My friend Tim Gunn had read it before me, and his father had given him a map that he then shared with me of the main battles discussed, so that at least we weren’t confused geographically. And there were a couple of adaptations around that time, an eight-hour Russian version, and a British miniseries starring Anthony Hopkins as Pierre, so those both helped in sorting out who was who.

A couple of years ago I began to read it again, sort of as my summer reading project, and I found that it was truly amazing. I didn’t get very far in the book; who knows what distracted me that summer? Was there a new Harry Potter book? Probably.

Anyway, I’d like to try again, and I’d like to try this new translation. Since it’s not really available until Tuesday (I now notice in re-reading the B&N website), it’s odd that the NYT would begin their discussion already.

I’ll keep you posted.

In other news, of course, the venerable Smoke Signals, ECHS’s newspaper since before I began teaching there, has been shut down by what appears to be a fretful and not very surefooted administration. I highly recommend reading the Times-Herald account (along with two op-eds that got them in trouble) and then acting accordingly. The Coweta County School Board can be found here.

In other other news, I brushed up “Sir Christémas” and will mail it out tomorrow to the Outside the Bachs competition. Oddly enough, I think it works extremely well with organ, better than with the celesta and certainly better than using a piano. There’s one chord that keeps bugging me, but I’m resisting the urge to make it consonant.