2. Napoleon’s measures. Proclamation in Moscow. Effects of pillage on French discipline
3. Pierre: four weeks in captivity. Karatáev and a French soldier. The French leave Moscow. The drum. Pierre’s mental change; he recovers his grip on life. Exit of troops and prisoners. The road blocked. Pierre’s reflections
4. The Russian army. Dokhtúrov. News of the French having left Moscow reaches Kutúzov at night. His emotion. Cossacks nearly capture Napoleon at Málo Yaroslávets. He retreats by the Smolénsk road. A third of his army melts away before reaching Vyázma
Book Fourteen
1. National character of the war. A duelist who drops his rapier and seizes a cudgel. Guerrilla warfare. The spirit of the army
2. The partisans or guerrillas. Denísov, Dólokhov, Pétya Rostóv, and Tíkhon. A French drummer boy. A visit to the enemy’s camp. Attack on a French convoy. The death of Pétya
3. Pierre’s journey among the prisoners. Karatáev. His story of the merchant. His death. Pierre rescued
4. The French retreat. Berthier’s report to Napoleon. Their flight beyond Smolénsk
5. Why the French were not cut off by the Russians
Book Fifteen
1. The Rostóvs. Natásha’s grief. The news of Pétya’s death. Natásha leaves with Princess Mary for Moscow
2. Analysis of Kutúzov’s movements
3. Kutúzov at Krásnoe; his speech to the army. Encampment for the night: soldier scenes. Ramballe’s appearance with his orderly. The song of Henri Quatre
4. The crossing of the Berëzina. Vílna. The Emperor Alexander. Kutúzov; his failing health
5. Pierre. Illness and recovery at Orël. His new attitude to life and his fellow men. His affairs. He goes to Moscow; the town’s animation and rapid recovery. Pierre meets Natásha at Princess Mary’s. Love
First Epilogue
1. Discussion of forces operating in history. Chance and genius. The ideals of glory and grandeur. Alexander’s renunciation of power. The purpose of a bee
2. Death of old Count Rostóv. Nicholas in retirement. His mother. His meeting with Princess Mary. Their wedding; estate management in the country; their family life. Sony a sterile flower. Denísov. Nicholas’ name day
3. Natásha’s and Pierre’s family life. His return after a visit to Petersburg. The old countess in decay. Conversation about social tendencies, and indignation at reactionary trend of the government. Views of Pierre and Nicholas
4. The two married couples and their mutual relations. Natásha’s jealousy. Young Nicholas Bolkónski’s aspirations
Second Epilogue
A general discussion on the historians’ study of human life, and on the difficulty of defining the forces that move nations. The problem of free will and necessity
Some Words About War and Peace by Leo Tolstóy
Characters in War and Peace Arranged in Order of Their Appearance
The Principal Characters Arranged in Family Groups
Dates of Principal Historical Events
Notes to the Opening Chapters
Books One, Two, and Three of War and Peace deal with the campaign waged by Russia against the French in Austria, which ended with the battle of Austerlitz.
After the coup d’état of 18 Brumaire (November 9, 1799) Napoleon from a general in the service of the Revolutionary Directorate had become chief ruler of France under the title of First Consul. Three years later he became chief ruler for life, and two years after that (in December, 1804) was proclaimed Emperor of the French. Having already in his first Italian campaign in 17967-7 made himself, by the treaty of Campo Formio, master of northern Italy and the left bank of the Rhine, he strengthened and increased that position by the second Italian war in 1800. At first he encountered little serious opposition. Prussia and Austria, the neighbors most nearly concerncd in his seizures, having already been repeatedly defeated, were afraid of him, and by the partition of Poland found compensation for the territories he seized.
Only two important opponents faced Napoleon—England and Russia. The young Tsar, Alexander I, realized the danger to Europe of Napoleon’s ambitions but was hampered by the inertia of Prussia and Austria and at first proceeded cautiously, so that Napoleon first prepared to attack England. He seized Hanover, a possession of the British Crown, and in 1803 formed a great fortified camp at Boulogne where he could concentrate an army. In alliance with Spain he prepared a large fleet to cover the “Boulogne expedition” and make an invasion of England possible. The efforts of Admiral Villeneuve who was to have brought a fleet into the channel were, however, unsuccessful, and his fleet was destroyed by Nelson at Trafalgar in 1805. In 1804 an event had occurred which produced a great impression on the European courts and inclined them to action against Napoleon. Investigation of the Cadoudal-Pichegru conspiracy against Napoleon disclosed a connection with the Bourbons and, as was wrongly supposed, with their heir, L. A. M. de Bourbon Condé, Due d’Enghien. Napoleon had the Duke seized on Baden territory by French mounted gendarmes, who crossed the Rhine secretly and brought him to the castle of Vincennes near Paris, where he was shot after an irregular trial by a com- mission of French colonels acting under pressure.
In all the courts of Europe talk of “the martyrdom of the just one” was rife, but Alexander I was the only ruler who took action. The Russian ambassador left Paris, and the French ambassador left Petersburg. The conversations in June, 1805, in Anna Schérers salon, with which War and Peace begins, are full of indignation against Napoleon on account of this execution. He is spoken of as a murderer, as Antichrist, and a usurper; no one speaks of him as Emperor, though he had assumed the throne half a year previously. They did not even speak of him as Napoleon, but merely as Bonaparte, or even Buonaparte, with ironic reference to his not being French but Corsican, by birth.
In June, 1805, this “villain” had added to the villainies which revolted Europe. First, in March, he had formed a Kingdom of Italy and had himself crowned King of Italy at Milan, and a little later he annexed the Republic of Genoa to France and formed the principality of Lucca, which he gave to his sister Elisa and her husband. This is referred to as fresh news in the first sentence of the book.
Anna Schérer wants Prince Vasíli to say that there will be war with France. Her anticipation was correct. The negotiations Alexander I had begun with the other European powers were drawing to a head. In March a treaty, negotiated by Novosíltsev, had been concluded with England which aimed at compelling Napoleon to withdraw his armies from Hanover and Italy and to acknowledge the independence of Holland and Switzerland. In May, General Wintzingerode had been sent to Austria with a plan of action by a fresh alliance of England, Russia, Sweden, Austria, and Naples. Prussia, which hesitated, was to be drawn in almost by force. The details of this plan are given in Book One, Chapter 15, where old Bob kónski and Prince Andrew discuss it.
Napoleon, having learned of the preparations against him and wishing to destroy the coalition, unexpectedly proposed peace to England. England asked Alexander to act as intermediary and the latter sent Novosíltsev to Paris to act as his representative. But on reaching Berlin in June Novosíltsev heard of the seizure of Genoa and did not proceed to Paris. War was now inevitable, and it soon broke out, though Prussia (whose ministers, Haugwitz and Hardenburg, are referred to) still avoided it.
In the first draft of the novel Tolstóy mentions the Abbé Piatoli by his real name, but afterwards changed it to Abbé Morio, assigning him a more important part. Piatoli had been at one time tutor to Adam Czartoryski, a friend and adviser of Alexander I and in close touch with him at that period. Piatoli’s project of perpetual peace, in which a prominent position was allotted to Russia, interested Petersburg for a while. It had some influence on Alexander’s later plan of a Holy Alliance and should be counted among the many projects and suggestions that gradually led up to the League of Nations.
The old Prince Bolkónski, described in a later chapter, was drawn from Tolstóy’s grandfather, Prince N. S. Volkónski, a general of Catherine the Great’s time. Tolstóy’s father married his only daughter. Volkónski had no son, and Prince Andrew of the novel is a type created by Tolstóy, to which he attributed some aspects of himself as well as some characteristics of his elder brother, Sergius Tolstóy. Another side of Tolstóy is allotted in the novel to Pierre.
AYLMER MAUDE
1805
BOOK ONE
- Anna Schérer’s soiree
“WELL, PRINCE, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Buonapartes. But I warn you, if you don’t tell me that this means war, if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by that Antichrist—I really believe he is Antichrist—I will have nothing more to do with you and you are no longer my friend, no longer my ‘faithful slave,’ as you call yourself! But how do you do? I see I have frightened you—sit down and tell me all the news.”
It was in July, 1805, and the speaker was the well-known Anna Pavlovna Scherer, maid of honor and favorite of the Empress Marya Fedorovna. With these words she greeted Prince Vasili Kuragin, a man of high rank and importance, who was the first to arrive at her reception. Anna Pavlovna had had a cough for some days. She was, as she said,
