2015年2月23日月曜日

War and Peace - Week 3


Wow, the chapters for week three were pretty exciting! So much happened! I have said this in various comments, but I raced through the reading and finished it all on Wednesday. Of course, this means that unlike last time when I had literally just finished reading before I started writing the post, I have had more time to get mixed up about who did what, but never mind!

I was planning on writing a longer post tomorrow for week three's reading, but I don't think I will have enough time to unfortunately. Maybe I should just face facts and realise that I will never be able to write a decent length post about it? Oh well!


1) Are you managing to keep all the characters straight in your head?

All of the important ones, yes, I think. I didn't have any moment this week where I realised halfway through that the character they were talking about was completely different to the one that I thought they were talking about. Phew!

2) Have your tactics that we discussed in Week One changed since beginning this book?

This week's chapters were so enjoyable that I didn't need to make much of an effort to read them, but I have actually decided to focus on trying to get all of my war and peace reading done early in the week so I can definitely finish on time, and so I can squeeze another book in towards the end of the week if I want to! It worked amazingly well last week, so I am going to try and do it again this week. Although this week I also have sorting out a new passport and taxes to contend with, so we may have a repeat of week 2. Hmm.

3) Aww, poor Pierre. Do we feel sorry for him or is it his own fault for marrying for lust?

I sort of feel sorry for him, but on the other hand he does just seem to be a complete idiot. I really hope that by the end of the book he will have a good friend (not Andrei!) who will point out when people are taking advantage of him or tricking him in some way.

4) Do you think Dolokhov will get his comeuppance - not only for sleeping with Helene, but for basically bankrupting Rostov?

Yes. I hope so, anyway! Although I find it hard to feel sorry for Rostov, because he, like Pierre, just seems to be a bit stupid. Although he is supposed to be pretty young so I guess he can be forgiven for carrying on even though it was more his family that he was getting into trouble, rather than himself. Silly Rostov.

5) Who knew the FREEMASONS were part of War & Peace!? How do you feel about this?

I had no idea! I don't know! I wonder how it is going to end up, because at first I thought they were going to take advantage of Pierre and somehow trick him out of all of his money, but so far that doesn't seem to be the case, and they do actually seem to be changing Pierre for the better, maybe. I'm not sure.

6) Do you think Tolstoy dislikes women as much as he seems to, or is it a form of satire?

Again, no idea! Hehe. I expect though that the attitudes shown in the book are more general attitudes that were prevalent at the time more than anything else, and that if it is a satire then he probably deserves a gold star for being light years ahead of most other men at the time! I think I might have to wait until the end of the book to comment properly on this one.


Other random notes:

Early on in the reading I was feeling a little bit sorry for Andrei, but then he was going on about the difference between the aristocracy and the people who work for them and I wanted to reach into the book and punch him, so BOO ANDREI! Stupid Andrei.

6 件のコメント:

  1. Hanna's Super Useful Prompts to the rescue! :)

    I have to admit, it was really nice to be able to read something else this week as well. I read The Rosie Project from Wednesday to yesterday and it seems very light in comparison!

    I think it says a lot about our opinions of the Freemasons that we both assumed they were going to try to con Pierre out of his money! To be fair, he DID sign a lot of his property over to them...

    Oh, right! Andrey's 'you're doing them a disservice by educating them' spiel. I'd forgotten about that. Moron.

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    1. The prompts are super useful! :D

      Other books, yay! I am really really enjoying War and Peace, but I think that having something to break up a book this long does help! I read The Martian, which is pretty far away subject wise from War and Peace, it was good to have a break from it! And now I am excited about getting back to it, which will happen tomorrow as my reading tonight was dedicated to tax related stuff. Yippee.

      Hehe, it does say a lot about our opinions of them! Yeah, I still think that it might turn out that they were conning him all along. Maybe... Poor stupid Pierre!

      Andrei is THE WORST! Urgh.

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  2. I totally agree about Pierre - I keep hoping that he'll meet someone that'll make him realise that he's being a stupid doormat and give him some practical advice on how to actually achieve something that he wants to. I thought when he became a Freemason he'd find some people to talk some sense into him but then they just filled him up with ideas and sent on his way! I suppose at least he's trying to be good other than some people we might mention *cough*Andrew*cough*

    I think I felt sorry for Andrew/Andrey/Andrei for about two chapters just after Lise died and he seemed to be acting like a human and then he was an arse about the serfs and I remembered how much of a plonker he was. I hope that eventually he realises that he's being a tool and gets better but I suspect not :|

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    1. I do think out of all of the idiots in this book Pierre is the most sympathetic one - he is trying really hard to do the right thing, but just seems to be failing all of the time. Because he's stupid. But yeah, at least he is trying!

      Haha, yeah, I felt sorry for him a bit too, then I jumped right back on the Andrei hating wagon. Urgh!

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  3. Glad that we're all caught up now - hooray! Best of luck with filing all your forms! Managing paperwork is not fun task, that's for sure.

    Aw, I hope Pierre ends up with a friend with enough common sense for the two of them. He really needs someone to be frank and realistic with him! Same thing with Rostov - boy, do they know how to pick 'em, eh?

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    1. Yay for being caught up! Although I seriously think that I will probably get behind this week, sigh!
      I think if my freelancing goes well I will hire an accountant as soon as I'm convinced that I am financially stable enough to do so. This tax stuff is making my head hurt! Oh well, at least it is relatively easy this year!

      Hehe yes, Maybe if they became friends they would be good influences on each other? Or like two idiots together would make somebody who is not quite so stupid? I don't know. Silly Rostov, silly Pierre!

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