2015年4月7日火曜日

War and Peace - Week 9


Hello!

I accidentally fell behind with War and Peace BUT I managed to catch up and am only sort of late this week. Huzzah! I actually quite enjoyed reading a lot of it in one chunk as I did over the past week and a half, and although I am also looking forward to finishing it, I think I'll be a bit sad when it's over!

1)  With the multiple deaths, this week started to feel a little more like Tolstoy was starting to wrap up some of his characters' stories. How do you feel about the way Helene's death was dealt with compared to Andrew's?

Helene's death was so... glossed over. I feel like the only characters who actually get decent deaths in this book are men, which is annoying but oh well. It came out of nowhere for me, and I think she may have just died to make it easier for Pierre to go off and marry someone else.

2)  I certainly wouldn't go so far as to call myself a Pierre fan but his experiences as a prisoner were quite moving. How do you think Pierre is going to fare as we approach the end of the novel?

I actually think I like Pierre the most out of everyone in the novel. He does completely unnecessary things (like going off to war and just riding around seeing what was going on and getting in everyone's way... why?!), but in general I find his bumbling around quite endearing! I really hope he is heading towards a happy ending, even if that means marrying Natasha (which at this point is sort of inevitable, no? All the obstacles have disappeared!) who I am not a huge fan of, but if it makes Pierre happy I don't mind.

3)  Now the competition's opened back up, who are you backing for Nicholas Rostov's future wife, rich heiress Mary or devoted Sonya?

I dislike Rostov so don't think he really deserves either of them! However, it does seem like unless Sonya suddenly stumbles into a fortune he is going to end up with Marya, and that would make her happy it seems. I feel sorry for Sonya but at least she does have the Rostovs in general, whereas Marya has pretty much nobody at this point. Much as I dislike Nicholas I think he would actually treat Marya nicely, which is much better than if she had ended up with that annoying idiot (whose name I am blanking on, you know who I mean!!)

4)   The Rostovs have always been my favourite family in War and Peace and seeing them from Mary's perspective was a little bit sad.  How is everyone feeling about how things are going for them?

I feel bad for them. They do seem to always want to try and do the right thing and other people just take advantage of them. I feel like they might be happier in general to just give up a lot of their money and be a poor but happy family! I think that it will work out for them in the end though, hopefully! Although I still think that one of the Rostov boys might die. Have we actually heard anything about Petyr (is that his name??? Argh! I am not doing well today) since he joined the army?


Not much longer to go now!!! I am going to do my best to not fall behind again.

4 件のコメント:

  1. Ooh, I'm always falling behind and posting late, so I completely understand what you're going through right now! I'm looking forward to finishing

    I noticed that too, about the deaths. The women's deaths (Lise, Helene) are oh-so-convenient so Andrew and Pierre are free to go about their lives. Then, when Andrew dies, his death scene gets more screen time than those two, combined.

    ...and yeah, whatever happened to Petyr?!

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    1. Petyr, where are you?!?!? I really thought that was going to be a main thing going forward in the novel! Oh well, I probably would have ended up just as annoyed with him as I get with the other Rostov boy, hehe.

      I think reading this that it is very obvious that Tolstoy is male, and just doesn't think that women are as important as men. Sigh.

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  2. Yey - YOU'RE BACK!! I'm so glad that you're caught up (and extremely impressed) and that we'll finish together :)

    I'd totally forgotten about the Pierre-Natasha thing!! Oh, I *really* hope that isn't where Pierre ends up. After Helene, he really shouldn't end up married to Natasha. But then, he did seem to genuinely love her so maybe you're right and he should get a chance at being happy. I seriously doubt Natasha's ability to be successfully fulfil the role of anybody's chance at being happy but what do I know? :)

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    1. Woohoo!!! :D I am impressed with myself too, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do it or not!

      Hehe, maybe if Natasha was with Pierre it would make her into a more tolerable person too? I don't know. I'm not sure it would be the way to go for long term happiness, but if Pierre could just find happiness and some kind of fulfilment in life by the end of the novel I would consider that a win.

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