Eur-Opa!

I loved Part Three! The battle scenes were involving and still had many social and emotional elements to them, so a big improvement over the scenes in War, 'Scene 1'.

Also, I concur with Shannon: Rostov's homo-erotic thing for Emperor Alexander made my day. All he thought about was his physical beauty, his nobility, and how he longed to die in front of him. Not for any cause, mind you, no, just so that he would get noticed by Alexander. And then Rostov goes back into Moscow society on leave and dates girls. I was disappointed by this.

Prince Andrei is my new favourite character. At first I didn't like him because of the cold and almost hostile way he treated the people closest to him, much less people he did not particularly like. He made his opinions on society clear, and although I didn't fault him for not wanting to be involved in parlour room gossip and drama, the way he was so distainful of the mere mortals around did not endear him to me. In this chapter he plainly admits to loving success and professional accomplishments and glory more than anyone or anything else, but in the way he talks about it the read knows that HE knows that this is wack. His musings, or dare I say epiphany, on the beauty of the sky and what is truely important in life after his brush with death on the battlefield made me fall in love. He does finally meet Napoleon B. (who he has admired and spoke of respectfully) after being rescued by French medics, and finds that this "small, insignificant man" compares in no way to the "distant, lofty, and eternal sky". Ahhh, so dreamy.

So, I got a short burst of misplaced patriotism during the most recent battle of Austerlitz (in Moravia). According to Wikipedia, this was Napoleon's "greatest victory, where the French Empire effectively crushed the Third Coalation". And it took place not far from where my mommy was born and partially raised! Czechs represent! This battle caused the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, and they also got to defeat and basically bankrupt the celebrity Hapsburgs. Every time Tolstoy mentioned soldiers speaking Czech, or talked about Moravian villagers or Bohemian mountains, I got excited. I know that there was was no Czech nation at the time, as so much of Europe was the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but still, for this tiny lingusitic group (with a population of no more than 10 million today) to get recognition is always cool.

Shannon: Are you pleased that the footnotes have returned?

And finally, a big shout-out to fellow blogeuse Sonja, home from Bermuda and newly turned 24. Welcome to the club!

Duh duh duh duh
They said it was your birthday
Duh duh duh duh
It was my birthday too, yeah
Duh duh duh duh
They said it was your birthday
Happy birthday to you!

I know of no better way than to celebrate your birthday reading some good old W&P.

Also, thanks for setting the title-creativity bar Shannon. Without you I'd be labeling my posts 'Part n, Volume n' until the end of the book.

I am now officially recommending W&P to all readers of this blog who are into reading good novels. I know its size makes it scary, but the language is pretty accessible and it is a PAGE TURNER. Did you note my use of caps? It was completely deserving. Now I'm getting back in that terrible rut I always did in grade school of reading the book and then not wanting to do the book report. Replace 'book report' with blog, and consider that I'm reading Volume 2, Part 2, and blogging on Volume 1. Part 3. I'll try not to give away any plot points to my fellow blogeuses... and for now I won't except to say that Tolstoy is a goddamned genius of epic proportions. Yes, there is a reason why this book has been translated into 20+ languages and still being read today... and its not to inflict suffering on Russian lit majors. Oh, the plot twists. He plays with my emotions by pretending to kill off characters, then for realz kills off unexpected ones. And the characters are constantly growing and morphing. I can't say I like or dislike the same ones that I did when I started reading their stories. Take home message: This book is awesome. If you're not already reading it, I would highly you to.