r/ayearofwarandpeace

AKA Volume/Book 4, Part 1, Chapter 16

(Sorry I'm a little late today! All information for this post was copied from the War and Peace posting guide)

Historical Threads: 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | no post in 2023 | 2024 | 2025

Summary courtesy of /u/Honest_Ad_2157: The chapter begins with Andrei knowing he will die, stuck in the liminal space between life and death. He considers the two other times he was close to death, when he felt fear. He no longer understands that fear. He muses on the kinds of love. When Natásha relieves Sonya at the bedside, he observes her knitting, which she took up because she heard good nurses knit. He sees her taking care not to let the candlelight fall on his face, to not breathe too loudly, when she bends to pick up a fallen ball of yarn. They talk, he professes his love, asks her if he will live and she confirms that he will. She tells him to sleep. As he drifts off, he has thoughts of love keeping death away, but love having to return to the source of love, God, at death. He has a vivid dream of being healed, in bed, talking to folks, but there is a door behind which death lurks that he must get up and lock to keep death out. In a perfect description of sleep paralysis, Tolstoy recounts Andre’s battle getting to the door too late. This marks the change described by Natásha to Marya as happening two days prior to Marya’s arrival (see 12.15/4.1.15). He is dying. He performs rituals, including kissing Nikolushka goodbye and taking last Communion. He dies. His circle mourns. A longish chapter at 2179 words (Maude).

Links

Today's Podcast

Ander Louis translation of War & Peace

Medium Article by Denton

Discussion Prompts

1. Is this what you thought might happen to Andrei in the end?

2. Tolstoy dedicated quite a lot of space to this chapter, whereas he sometimes drops significant events quite brutally with only a sentence. Why do you think he chose to dedicate so much space to Andrei's death?

3. And finally: what was your favourite line in this chapter?

Additional Discussion Prompts

4. Wow. That was… a lot to take in. Is everyone ok?

5. What do you think about Andrei’s final truth -- that death is an awakening? How does this fit (if at all) with his other big moments of clarity - his tree and his great big sky?

6. The final section says that Count Rostov, “wept because he felt that soon he, too, would have to take that dreadful step.” Does this indicate a permanent change in the Count or is it a temporary bout of self-pity? What do you see in the future for Count Rostov and his family?

7. How do you interpret Natásha and Marya’s reaction to Andrei’s final days and his death. What is the ‘reverent emotion’ referenced in the final line?

Final line of today's chapter:

... They wept with a melting sensation of reverence gripping their very souls as they contemplated the simple and solemn mystery of death that had been accomplished before their eyes.

AKA Volume/Book 4, Part 2, Chapter 1

(All information for this post was copied from the War and Peace posting guide)

Historical Threads: 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | no post in 2023 | 2024 | 2025

Summary courtesy of /u/Honest_Ad_2157: Ok, we’re back to exposition on why the Great Man of history theory sucks. We infer simple causes when multiple causes exist. The scholars of Tolstoy’s time preferred causes which invoked human agency so they could assign credit to Great Men. We must reorient our view to history, rejecting the Great Man, as astronomers reoriented their view by rejecting the fixed position of the earth to embracing the fixed position of the sun. [And then rejecting that and embracing gravity.] The Russian army didn’t retreat along the Kalúga road because it was a genius move. It was where they could feed themselves; “even a dull boy of thirteen could have guessed that” [Maude]. The French Marshal Murat (2.14/1.2.14 & 9.4/3.1.4) lost contact with the Russian Army, limiting the French options, and forcing the Russians to turn south when contact was reestablished. Lanskóy (first mention) at the Council at Fili (11.4/3.3.4) had argued that the evacuation route planned by the council along the Nízhni road would separate the army from their supplies by the uncrossable river Oká (this argument was not portrayed in that chapter). The army ignored that plan for these many reasons, and historians retconned the results to literally make Great Men.

Links

Today's Podcast

Ander Louis translation of War & Peace

Medium Article by Denton

Discussion Prompts

"But why military writers, and everyone else after them, suppose this flanking march, which saved Russia and destroyed Napoleon, to be the profound invention of some one person--is very hard to understand. First of all, it is hard to understand what the profundity and genius of this movement consisted in; for it takes no great mental effort to figure out that the best position for an army (when it is not under attack) is where there are most provisions."

1. Do you think Tolstoy thinks this applies to every aspect of life? Or just military aspects? For instance, would he apply this questioning to his own success with W&P?

Final line of today's chapter:

... Only when the troops had already reached Tarutino, owing to countless differential forces, only then did people begin to assure themselves that they had wanted it and had long foreseen it.