"War and Peace" and Religion: Part One - The Bolkonskys

"My calling is different... my calling is to be happy with a different happiness, the happiness of love and self-sacrifice."

- Princess Marya Bolkonsky (I.3.v)

"Prince Andrei understood that [something] had been said about him, and that it was Napoleon speaking... but at that moment, Napoleon seemed to him such a small, insignificant man compared with what was now happening between his soul and this lofty, infinite sky with clouds racing across it."
- Leo Tolstoy (I.3.xix)

Day Count: 85

Page Count: 666

Forgive me, readers, for I have sinned. It has been fifty-three days since my last Tackling Tolstoy post... and that is nothing short of 'wrong'.

Life has picked up and how since my last entry - travel, potentially bad news, plays, and all manner of other happenings and non-happenings have impeded any hope of steady or regular progress on this blog. As you can see (both from the page count above and the Twitter posts to the right of  this page), my reading of War and Peace has continued, but the pacing I'd originally wanted to maintain has slowed considerably. I am still considerably ahead of my initial "three-pages-a-day" pacing (by 411 pages, to be precise), but I still feel like I could be close to finished by this point had I kept up with my initial reading schedule. (Let's be honest: it was never going to last, but it's always fun to dream, isn't it?)

This post is intended to be the first in a series of (two? three? FOUR?!) posts chronicling Tolstoy's use of religion in defining his characters in War and Peace. Man's quest for God often directly parallels (and, perhaps, is driven by) his quest for meaning and purpose. In creating some of the most human characters in literature, the men and women in War and Peace each struggle on their own individual searches for meaning which bring them one at a time and rarely accidentally into contact with the Divine. Their experiences differ and the nature of their experiences helps to shape and define the people they grow into. It has been fascinating to watch their growth throughout this first half of the novel and I can only assume that Tolstoy will continue to grow and develop them over the course of the book.

Firstly, though...

As a general word of warning, this post is going to contain some details about the plot of War and Peace. For those of you among my readership who are either reading the book or planning to one day, you might not want to read this section. If you've already read the book or are living vicariously through my reading of it, then by all means continue. Thanks!

*Ahem* Now that that unpleasant business has been taken care of, we can get down to brass tacks. ("Oh, I didn't bring any. I drove.")


There are scads of characters in War and Peace - a fact that I address and then never re-address (as a logically-thinking human being might assume I would) here. Among those characters that are most influential to the overall story of War and Peace, they belong to one of three (or four, depending on whether or not you count the Kuragins) prominent Russian families - the Bolkonskys, the Bezukhovs, and the Rostovs. My hope is to take each family in turn and discuss the ways in which faith directly affects them and their development in the story. Let us start with the 'first family' of War and Peace, the Bolkonskys.

Prince Nikolai Andreévich Bolkonsky is the patriarch of the Bolkonsky family, formerly an important person in society, now having withdrawn to his country home where he lives a life as regimented and orderly as a Swiss clock. He is cantankerous and bristling with most, set in his ways and either unwilling or unable to change for anyone or anything. His opinions are 'facts' and his word is bond.

It does not seem that he has a 'religion' or 'faith' to speak of, per se, other than what appears to be a belief in schadenfreude (which, for those of you who don't speak German - or haven't seen Avenue Q - is "pleasure derived from the misfortune of others"). Prince Nikolai's central preoccupation seems to be the torture of his only daughter, Princess Marya Bolkonsky. In fact, his entire life seems to revolve around making her miserable. Whether belittling her for taking longer than he would like at mathematics or becoming romantically linked to her young friend, Nikolai's behavior seems like an odd amalgamation of monstrous, contrary, and
senile.

Marya has become a favorite character of mine. While not as fully developed as others in her family, she is easily the most spiritual of all of Tolstoy's characters and bears the brunt of her father's attacks with more grace and humility than I've ever seen from anyone - real or fictitious. She is the soul of Christian charity - housing wandering believers (whom her father would just as soon chase away belligerently) and prays both feverishly and fervently over her brother when his own faith is shaken (which it almost constantly is - more on that later).

While she is plain, she remains an eligible bachelorette due to her father's sizable wealth (none of which he plans to allot to Marya); however, her desires are not for marriage. After a brief and unfortunate flirtation with Anatole Kuragin (the unrepentant "ladies' man" of War and Peace), Marya realizes that perhaps she is not meant to be happy within the bonds of marriage, but rather with a life lived through compassion, charity, and self-sacrifice. In fact, she does not seem to seek marriage after this point, spending her time teaching her young nephew and caring for her ailing (though increasingly irascible and irritable) father.

Her brother, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, is one of the principal characters of Tolstoy's epic. In many ways, he is the most heroic character so far in the story and, in many ways, he is the most pitiable. Andrei appears at the beginning of War and Peace as a man who's faith has been shaken, if not entirely lost. While Tolstoy does not immediate give us the reason, it gradually begins to become clear - Andrei consistently misplaces his faith, i.e. he places his faith in people.

At the beginning of the novel, Andrei has become disillusioned with marriage, his relationship with his own wife having become frivolous and trivial, based on little more than mutual attraction. He becomes obsessed with the coming war and especially enamored with Napoleon Bonaparte. However, after a heroic display at the battle of Austerlitz - after which he is taken as a prisoner of war by Napoleon's men - Andrei becomes enraptured by the infinity of the sky, next to which even his idol Bonaparte looks pale and tiny.

This is the first truly 'spiritual' experience we see Andrei having. His disillusionment returns, however, after the death of his wife and the birth of his son. He withdraws into a deep depression, allowing his son Nikolai to be raised by his sister Marya. After a brief foray in politics, which serves to illuminate Andrei only for a season, he is disillusioned again until a chance encounter with Miss Natasha Rostova.

Natasha seems to remain Tolstoy's feminine ideal and she captures not only the heart of the reader, but of every male character in the novel as well. Andrei is no exception. Becoming enamored with her redeems him, but with Andrei, such atonement is often short-lived. While not going into too many details, Andrei's second chance at love ends with his now-typical disillusionment and his returning to government service for the first time since the birth of his son.

The Bolkonskys seem to be the second-most dysfunctional family in War and Peace (second, perhaps, only to the Kuragins), mainly because their spiritual house is far from 'in order.' Personally, I hope that Andrei and his sister are both able to find their peace in the end.

UPDATE (4/2/2011): As I was reading War and Peace last night and this morning, I realized that I was definitely able to make an update to this entry... so I'm making one.

Six days after the initial entry, I realized as I was reading that an update was necessary. Princess Marya Bolkonsky, easily the most pious and faithful person in War and Peace to date has had a major crisis of faith. Even in the midst of her most uncertain and trying times, Marya has always been able to take solace in the Lord and in prayer... until the death of her father. After suffering a stroke while attempting to organize his private militia against the French, Prince Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky died... but not without finally making peace with his daughter.

In what has been one of the most touching scenes I've read yet in literature, the old prince (as Tolstoy often calls him) calls his daughter to his side and, with much effort, communicates his love for her and his regret at his treatment of her for so long. Prior to this action, Marya had - in her most private moments - wished for her father's death, but in the face of this revelation, she felt closer to him than she had felt before: "She could not understand anything, or think about anything, of feel anything except her passionate love for her father, a love which, it seemed to her, she had not known till that moment" (III.2.viii).

Upon her father's death, with the imminent threat of Napoleon's armies bearing down on her location, Marya is wracked with guilt at her once persistent desire for her father's demise: "...her vague thoughts were concentrated on one thing: she was thinking of the irrevocability of death and of her own inner loathsomeness, which she had not known about till then, and which had shown itself during her father's illness. She wanted but did not dare to pray, did not dare to address herself to God in the state of soul she was in" (III.2.x).

In this moment, the pious Marya is confronted with her own humanity and, in the face of it, cannot bear the weight of her sin. Rather than crying out to God, as she otherwise might, she - for the moment - remains content (after a fashion) wallowing in her own self-pity and self-loathing.

Oddly enough, it is an act of charity that shakes her out of this stupor. At realizing the peasants (muzhiks) have been without food for awhile now, Marya rallies to attempt to share with them from the stores of grain her father left behind and urges them to escape the oncoming French armies by traveling with her to Moscow. To her dismay and surprise, the muzhiks refuse her charity - whether out of a sense of pride or something other, Tolstoy never overtly states. I cannot imagine this refusal of her charity will inspire Marya, but will likely further burden her.

As stated earlier, it is my hope that Marya is able to find peace...

Meeting the Principal Players

"Nothing is so necessary for a young man as the company of intelligent women."

- Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, War and Peace (I.1.iii)

Day Count: 2

Page Count: 20

I'm twenty pages in at the start of the second day, which is well above the rate I need to be reading at to make it through War and Peace in a year! Establishing a good pace early is important, I think, as it will help establish a good momentum for the remainder of my reading. The book itself is 1215 pages (not including Tolstoy's "A Few Words Apropos of the Book War and Peace" which Pevear and Volokhonsky include in this volume as an appendix. (I'll very likely be reading that as well.) That means about three to three and a half pages a day to finish by December 31, 2011... so it looks like I'm making some good progress so far.

Secondly, a note with regard to format: I like the idea of starting every entry with a quote or two from the text that stands out to me - whether for its literary, artistic, or philosophical merit, I will leave for you, gentle reader, to decide. The quote may have something to do with what the given entry will be about; then again, it may not. The quotes will be followed by the volume number (capital Roman numeral), part number (Western numeral: 1, 2, 3, etc.), and chapter number (lower case Roman numeral), all separated by periods. This way, if you'd like to attempt to find the quote yourself (for those of you following along at home), you may do so.

I also would like to keep the readership (all one of you from the looks of my 'Followers' sidebar - "Hi, Kyle!") abreast of my progress. As such, I will be keeping a running tally of both how many days I've been reading and how many pages I've read in those days. This is more for my accountability than anything else.

With regard to the narrative: very little in the way of plot propulsion has happened so far, but I suppose I can forgive Tolstoy that 'indiscretion.' As he has 1200+ pages to begin the story, I can hardly fault him for not jumping directly into the action. In fact, I rather like it - it seems very much as though he is building a foundation of context and character, setting the stage for the bulk of the work that is to come. I remain patient at the outset, preparing myself for what I'm certain are greater things still to come.

The book opens on a conversation in preparation for a society party (a soiree, as Tolstoy says). Prince Vassily and Anna Pavlvona (the hostess) are discussing politics, which, indeed, most of the guests at this party seem to be obsessed with. Granted, the looming figure of Napoleon on the march through Europe is enough of a happening to spark many to heated discussion.

The hostess, Anna Pavlovna Scherer, is a pillar of society (by which Tolstoy seems to mean high society) and very much in command of the various guests and their conversations. All the while, she is the air of Russian social mores and pleasantries circa 1805. She is the hub around which a wheel of activity spins, pulling the other players of this tale into its wake.

I have thus far met only a handful of the rest of those whom I will call "The Principal Players".

• Pierre Bezukhov - The fat, bespectacled, illegitimate son of a Count. He has little knowledge of 'society life,' having been raised and educated "abroad." He is brusque and outspoken, more than happy to interject his own thoughts into any passing conversation both loudly and without regard for how others might receive them, much to the chagrin of Anna Pavlovna. He appears to be friends with Prince Andrei.
• Prince Andrei Bolkonsky - An attractive man of average height and build (also, apparently a prince). He is apparently bored with the entirety of the 'society life' in which he has been raised, almost to the point of contempt. I've seen very little of him, but he does not appear to think much of his wife, but does seem to think a great deal of Pierre, Anna Pavlovna, and Helene Kuragin.
• Liza Bolkonsky a.k.a. "the little princess" - Prince Andrei's pregnant wife. In terms of substance of character, there doesn't seem to be all that much to her, really. Much is said by Tolstoy about her beauty and she seems to know how to play the game of society and gets swept up in it rather easily. While her husband is bored with it all, she comes to life... but, oddly, seems content with her 'handwork' (I would assume some form of needlepoint?), which I'm guessing is due to her pregnancy. The phrase "silly little nit" comes to mind when I think of her. I wonder if there's more to her than meets the eye.

I've met a few other characters (Vassily, Helene, Ippolit, and the Viscount of Mortemart), but I prefer to wait until I've read a little more about them before I begin to profile them. I am interested in seeing the groundwork being laid. I do enjoy the party as a means of introducing the Principal Players, as it seems a very natural device for such exposition. You get it all in just the opening scene - all the Players, their interactions with one another, their thoughts on the issues of the day (which, at this point, seems to include only Napoleon), etc. Great beginning!