APS TOGETHER
Day 45
War and Peace by Leo TolstoyVolume III, Part I, ix-xii. (From "Prince Andrei arrived in the general headquarters" to "'Here. What lightning!' they said to each other.")
October 29, 2021 by Yiyun Li
“Pfuel was one of those hopelessly, permanently, painfully self-assured men as only Germans can be.” Tolstoy really did not like the Germans! But any personal trait that deserves those three adverbs is… something.
I shall command no one!
“A good commander not only does not need genius or any special qualities, but, on the contrary, he needs the absence of the best and highest human qualities—love, poetry, tenderness, a searching philosophical doubt.”
Rostov’s promise to marry Sonya cannot be realized because of the war. Reminding me of Grace Paley’s story “Want.” Life’s only reliable trait is to offer ceaseless interruptions.
Daily Reading
Day 7
Volume I, Part I, xxi-xxiii. (From “There was no one in the reception room now” to “Go to the dining room.”)
Day 9
Volume I, Part II, i-iii. (From “In October 1805” to “the cornet turned and left the corridor.”)
Day 10
Volume I, Part II, iv-vii. (From “The Pavlogradsky hussar regiment” to “Put a stick between your legs, that’ll do you for a horse,” rejoined the hussar.)
Day 13
Volume I, Part II, xiv-xviii. (From “On the first of November” to “after the disordered French.”)
Day 16
Volume I, Part III, iii-iv. (From “Old Prince Nikolai Andreich Bolkonsky received a letter” to “raising her finger and smiling, she left the room.”)
Day 18
Volume I, Part III, viii-ix. (From “On the day after the meeting” to “remained for a time with the Izmailovsky regiment.”)
Day 21
Volume I, Part III, xvii-xix (end of Volume I). (From “At nine o’clock” to “handed over to the care of the local inhabitants.”)
Day 25
Volume II, Part II, i-iii. (From “After his talk with his wife” to “with joy and tender feeling.”)
Day 26
Volume II, Part II, iv-vii. (From “Soon after that, it was not the rhetor” to “an intimate of Countess Bezukhov’s house.”)
Day 28
Volume II, Part II, xi-xv. (From “Returning from his southern journey” to “Rostov noticed tears in Denisov’s eyes.”)
Day 29
Volume II, Part II, xvi-xxi (end of Part II). (From "In the month of October" to "’Hey, you! Another bottle!’ he shouted.”)
Day 40
Volume II, Part V, ix-xiii. (From "The stage consisted of flat boards" to "no answers to these terrible questions.")
Day 42
Volume II, Part V, xviii-xxii (end of Volume II). (From "Marya Dmitrievna, finding the weeping Sonya" to "now blossoming into new life.")
Day 45
Volume III, Part I, ix-xii. (From "Prince Andrei arrived in the general headquarters" to "'Here. What lightning!' they said to each other.")
Day 46
Volume III, Part I, xiii-xviii. (From "In an abandoned tavern" to "'And it seemed to her that God heard her prayer.")
Day 54
Volume III, Part II, xxv-xxviii. (From “The officers wanted to take their leave” to “worthily fulfilled his role of seeming to command.”)