APS TOGETHER
Day 70
War and Peace by Leo TolstoyVolume IV, Part II, viii-xii. (From “Napoleon enters Moscow after the brilliant victory” to “Pierre felt that this view obliged him.”)
November 23, 2021 by Yiyun Li
Proclamations and public announcements are good tools for novelists. “Historie d’un conscrit de 1813” has a fabulous passage about the Grande Armée’s loss and Napoleon’s health, which is as good as Tolstoy’s writing.
The notice terminated with these words: ‘The health of his Majesty has never been better.’ This was indeed one great consolation to us; unhappily, this consolation could not bring back to life the 300,000 men buried in the snow, and the people went away very, very sad.—Historie d’un conscrit de 1813, Erckmann-Chatrian
That dog, purplish (P/V) or lavender-grey (Briggs), is freedom at its freest state!
Its not belonging to anyone, and the absence of a name and even of a breed, even of a definite color… Everything was an object of pleasure for it.
Dear old Pierre. I love him so much that I cannot help but imagine him losing his freedom again and being exiled to Siberia after the Decembrist Revolt. And yet he would prevail.
All Pierre’s dreams were now turned to the time when he would be free.
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.”)