Dannykenyon’s Reviews > War and Peace > Status Update

‘So others are even more afraid than I am!’ He thought. ‘So that’s all there is to what is called heroism! And did I do it for my country’s sake? And how was he to blame, with his simple and blue eyes? And how frightened he was! He thought I would kill him. Why should I kill him? My hand trembled. And they have given me a St. George’s Cross. I can’t make it out at all.’

“So they went through their memories, smiling with pleasure: not the sad memories of old age, but poetic, youthful ones—those impressions of one’s distant past in which dreams and realities blend—and they laughed with quiet enjoyment.”

“The Bible legend tells us that the absence of labour—idleness—was a condition of the first man’s blessedness before the Fall. Fallen man has retained a love of idleness, but the curse weighs on the race not only because we have to seek our bread in the sweat of our brows, but because our moral nature is such that we cannot be both idle and at ease.”

Back in the upper echelons of Russian society after the chaos of Austerlitz, Rostov is going off the rails meanwhile Pierre has found spiritual purpose via a cult. An indelible line:

“Who is right and who is wrong? No one! But if you are alive—live: tomorrow you’ll die as I might have died an hour ago. And is it worth tormenting oneself, when one has only a moment of life in comparison with eternity?”

Details of the battle of Schön Grabern are immersive and feel well grounded by the heroics of little Tushin. His deflation and confusion during the post-battle debrief with the elitist officers felt poignant.

Several main characters are starting to feel more fleshed out; I.e., Price Andrei’s moral compass, strength of character in the face of adversity, etc.