War & Peace Part 2

Countess Rostova: · A thin oriental type of face, worn out with childbearing- she’d had 12 Chapter 10 Introduced to the Rostov’s who are the rich cousins of Anna Mikhaylovna and where she stays with her son Boris whilst in Moscow. It is St Natalia’s day and name day for the countess and the youngest daughter. During receiving well wishes we hear about the rest of the night we left Peirre They put the bear in the carriage with them and went off to visit and “actress” and ended up tying a policeman to the back of the bear and putting it in a channel. Chapter 11 The “children” come tumbling into the sitting room and we get our first glimpse of Boris and the Rostov’s son of the same age, Sonya, the Rostov’s niece and others. Chapter 12 Sonya is enamoured with cousin Nicholas. Nicholas is following cousin Boris into the military service. Natasha is in love with Boris. Countess Vera is a lot more prudent. Chapter 13 Follow Natasha (12-13) out of the sitting room who waits in the shrubbery of the conservatory watching first Boris leave and then Sonya coming out sobbing followed by Nicholas who consoles her with a kiss. This inspires Natasha to find Boris, pull him into the shrubbery and kiss him where upon he assures her that in 4 yrs he will ask for her hand in marriage. Chapter 14 Countess Vera is sent from the sitting room so that the 2 older women can talk, she finds the 2 couples and starts to harass them about the decorum of their actions and being found in this way, she is seen to be a hard nosed bitch. Anna and the countess are talking about how Anna has managed Boris’ appointment with Prince Vasili (describing the encounter with much more positivity on his part) and how she is going to go to Count Bezukhov (boris’ godfather) to beg money for his outfitting. Her widowhood and a lawsuit that is crippling her financially are alluded to. Chapter 15 Anna Mikhaylovna drags her son Boris to the residence of the dying Count Bezukhov and finds Prince Vasili baring the way to entry with the count. She starts repeating that its her uncle and she should be here for him in a nursing capacity and wins a small victory but muscling out on of the princesses. Boris is sent off to invite Peirre to the Rostov’s for dinner with Prince Vasilis assurance that he would at least like him out of the was (both for the evening and out of the way of his inheritance) Chapter 16 One of the princesses had a mole on her lip which made her the prettier of the two. Since his arrival from Petersburg, Pierre has been barred from seeing the count. Boris reassures Peirre that they have no intention of asking his father for money. Chapter 17 Countess Rostova asks her husband for the money to give to Anna to outfit Boris and gets it. But there are hints they are going to be in a bad way soon too from Dimitri Chapter 18 the Rostov’s dinner We meet Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova Le terrible dragon who is known for speaking her mind and being blunt. They go into dinner and Sonya is again miffed at Nicholas for speaking to Julia Karagina again. Pierre is once again oblivious to the social graces that he is stepping on, sitting in everyone’s way, talking in monosyllables, and getting well on his way to being drunk in the dinner. Chapter 19 The dinner continues and the German Hassar who has been drinking heavily starts to get quite animated on the manifesto of war that has been delivered and why the war is necessary. They are interrupted by Marya asking what all the noise is about when she in turn is interrupted by the young Natasha demanding loudly to know what will be for sweets. Chapter 20 Moving to after dinner entertainment the children are encouraged to sing, when Natasha noticies that Sonya is not with them. After a search of the usual haunts, she is found crying about what vera has said about her and Nicholas not being allowed to marry. Natasha cheers her up and the dancing begins. Natasha is asked to employ pierre in the dance by her mother, the countess, the act of which makes Natasha feel very adult. We are then pesented with the amusing sight of the count and Marya dancing the Daniel Cooper. With the count entertaining everyone by being most animated for a plump man and most of Marya’s animation coming from her face as she too was a big woman. Amusing all the guests and even all the serfs of the household. Chapter 21 the death watch As the dinner guest dance the 6th anglish the count had his 6th stroke. Prince Vasili corners the oldest of the princesses and convinces her that not only has the count written an new will for Pierre to inherit everything leaving them nothing, that it will not be invalidated by his illegitimacy as he has written to the emperor to legitimise him but that he will have it done. It comes out that it was the princes anne mikalovena that, a year ago, came to sully them to the count and spurned him on to change his will.

War & Peace part 3 Book 1 Chapter 22-27

War & Peace part 3 Book 1 Chapter 22-27

via Tumblr http://ift.tt/2BDNBfD

War and Peace Part 1

My raw notes on my second reading of War and Peace By Leo Tolstoy War and Peace Book 1 1805 Characters with multiple names listed down the column Anna Pavlovna: · self-deprecating “if you’re not doing anything else please come and see me the invalid” · “despite her 40 yrs overflowed with animation and impulsiveness” doesn’t matter how old she gets she is forever a child or that is what she portrays · people she “serves up as a specially choice delicacy a piece of meat that no one who had seen it in the kitchen would have cared to eat” cutting comment on the aristocracy? · Prince Vasili · children: Anatole, Hippolyte, Helene Princess Bolkonskaya · on her upper lip, a delicate dark down · pregnant · the most fascinating woman in Petersburg Overwritten: “Prince Vasili did not reply, though, with the quickness of memory and perception befitting a man of the world, he indicated by a movement of his head that he was considering this information” he nodded… wtf Influence in society, however, is a capital which has to be economized if it to last” When Princess Drubetskaya was begging for his influence of the emperor to have her son (Boris) made a Guard Pierre vs vicomte V: “Liberty and quality, high-sounding words which have long been discredited.” Pierre seems like the well meaning buffoon that is only there to amuse the others, his appearance, large and bungling, picking up others possessions and not knowing the right courtly procedures, talking to the aunt etc. His opinions, his siding with Napoleon and agreeing that the execution was the right thing to do politically and that the French people will not fall back under the power of the rightful king willingly are all at odds with what the political opinions of his “betters” symbolised by the vicomte. Prince Hiployte is in love with princess bolkonskaya (the little princess) who I married to prince Andrew who doesn’t really seem to care for her, but won't be cuckolded. He is going to war, away from his new pregnant wife because the life he lives here (Petersburg) doesn’t suit him and she will be sent to the country for good measure. Prince Andrew solidifies this contempt for his little wife in an argument with her about his leaving for war and moving her to his father’s house in the country where she admits her fear, in front of Pierre. After promising Prince Andrew that he will no longer go around the Kurigins he heads straight there to see a scene of debauchery and drinking with a bear (Bruin) and a window being smashed out for a bet. End of session 1

War and Peace....Done!

I have finally finished last book of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.  I have to say, I’m a little proud of myself. Yes, I have been listening to most of it (I found an app that streams the Gutenberg recordings of books,) and I couldn't say I could give you an in depth analysis of all the military movements and battles contained within, but I can say I really liked it.

I liked it for the same reasons that I like some of the English classics like Pride and Prejudice and Emma and that ilk. I find the old world charm of the way they conduct themselves in "Society" incredibly attractive, beguiling and intriguing. The social structure was so well established and pervasively known by everyone that, although to us, it seems like a mysterious dance, but to these people, it was their life.

I had an emotional investment in Tolstoy’s characters. Who wouldn't have cried when the Princess Lisa Bolkonskaya died. It wasn't the death of the little princess with the fuzzy lip that made me cry but the truly heart wrenching description of the accusatory confusion on her face upon her death that gripped my heart and made me weep. “Why?” was her question in death, and that was heart breaking.

Being a little bit of a sucker for a happy ending, however, I did so enjoy the eventual joining of Princess Marya Bolkonskaya and  Nikolai Rostov.  With Nikolai’s act of devotion, he improved so many lives without compromising his morals of marring for money, (which he got anyway.)

Along this line, I felt the joining of Pierre Bezukhov and Natasha Rostova was a match made in heaven, to use I tiered, old phrase.  Both Natasha and Pierre needed someone to dote on and be doted upon.  Both deserved the happiness that they found in one another after all they had been through.

So, I cried, I laughed, I developed a deep emotional attachment to the characters and the journeys they underwent, and I can now say “I have read War And Peace”