TOLSTOY, Count Leo Nikolayevich - War and Peace

TOLSTOY, Leo:  (Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy)War and Peace

Great Books Vol. 51

BOOK ONE
Each visitor performed the ceremony of greeting this old aunt whom not one of them knew, not one of them wanted to know, and not one of them cared about; Anna Pávlovna observed these greetings with mournful and solemn interest and silent approval. The aunt spoke to each of them in the same words, about their health and her own, and the health of Her Majesty, "who, thank God, was better today." And each visitor, though politeness prevented his showing impatience, left the old woman with a sense of relief at having performed a vexatious duty and did not return to her the whole evening.
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, , BOOK ONE, chapter 2

Nothing is so necessary for a young man as the society of clever women.
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  BOOK ONE, chapter 4

“I hope this will prove the last drop that will make the glass run over," Anna Pávlovna continued.
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, BOOK ONE, chapter 5

"That's what comes of a modern education," exclaimed the visitor. "It seems that while he was abroad this young man was allowed to do as he liked,”
 Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  BOOK ONE, chapter 10

"Cousinage- dangereux voisinage;” (Cousinhood is a dangerous neighborhood.)
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  BOOK ONE, chapter 12 

When starting on a journey, or changing their mode of life, men capable of reflection are generally in a serious frame of mind. At such moments one reviews the past and plans for the future. - Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, Great Books Vol. 51, BOOK ONE, chapter 27

“Tout comprendre, cést tout pardoner.” (To understand all is to forgive all.)
 Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, , BOOK ONE, chapter 28  

“If you, sir, choose to make a buffoon of yourself,” he said sharply, with a slight trembling of the lower jay, “I can’t prevent your doing so; but I warn you that if you dare to play the fool in my presence, I will teach you to behave yourself.”
 Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, BOOK TWO, chapter 3

“Don’t you understand that either we are officers serving our Tsar and our country, rejoicing in the successes and grieving at the misfortunes of our common cause, or we are merely lackeys who care nothing for their master’s business.”
 Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  BOOK TWO, chapter 3

But a freak of fate made the impossible possible.
 Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  BOOK TWO, chapter 14

“I don’t vish [sic] to destroy my men for your pleasure!”
“You forget yourself, Colonel. I am not considering my own pleasure and I won’t allow it to be said.”
 Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, BOOK TWO, chapter 19

He looked at the approaching Frenchmen, and though but a moment before he had been galloping to get at them and hack them to pieces, their proximity now seemed so awful that he couldn’t not believe his eyes.  “Who are they? Why are they running? Can they be coming at me? And why? To kill me? Me  whom everyone is so fond of?” He remembered his mother’s love for him, and his family’s, and his friends’, and the enemy’s intention to kill him seemed impossible. 
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  BOOK TWO, chapter 19

The foremost Frenchman, the one with the hooked nose, was already so close that the expression of his face could be seen.
 Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  BOOK TWO, chapter 19

One single sentiment, that of fear for his young and happy life, possessed his whole being. Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  BOOK TWO, chapter 19

Something always drew him toward those richer and more powerful than himself and h he had a rare skill in seizing the most opportune moment for making use of people.
Leo Tolstoy,  BOOK THREE, chapter 1

As there is no one to fall in love with on campaign, he's fallen in love with the Tsar.  Leo Tolstoy,  Book THREE, chapter 10

And Rostóv got up and went wandering among the campfires, dreaming of what happiness it would be to die - not in saving the Emperor's life (he did not even dare to dream of that), but to simply die before his eyes. He was really in love with the Tsar and the glory of the Russian arms and the hope of future triumph. And he was not the only man to experience that feeling during those memorable days preceding the battle of Austerlitz; nine tenths of the men in the Russian army were then in love, though less ecstatically, with their Tsar and the glory of the Russian arms.  Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book THREE, chapter 10

Everything seemed so futile and insignificant in comparison with the stern and solemn train of through that weakness from loss of blood suffering, and the nearness of death arouse in him. Looking into Napoleon’s eyes Prince Andrew thought of the insignificance of greatness, the unimportance of life which no one could understand and the still greater unimportance of death, the meaning of which no one alive could understand or explain. 
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, Book THREE, chapter 19

How good it would be to know where to seek for help in his lie and what to expect after it beyond the grave!  Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book THREE, chapter 19

What was worse of all for his relations was the fact that there was still a possibility of his having been picked up on the battlefield by the people of the place and that he might be now be lying, recovering or dying, alone among strangers and unable to send news of himself.  Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book FOUR, chapter 7

I have met loving, noble, high-minded men, but I have not yet met any woman – countesses or cooks – who were not venal.  Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book FOUR, chapter 10

What were losses, and Dólokhov, and words of honor?... All nonsense! One might kill and rob and yet be happy…
 Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book FOUR, chapter 15

But as soon as he thought of what he should say, he felt that Prince Andrew with one word, one argument, would upset all his teaching, and he shrank from beginning, afraid of exposing to possible ridicule what to him was precious and sacred. Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book FIVE, chapter 12

I cannot do it, General. I cannot, because the law is stronger than I. . Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book FIVE, chapter 20

But we want the wolves to be fed and the sheep to be safe.
  Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book SIX, chapter 6

That is why it is a sin for men like you, Prince, not to serve in these times.
  Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book SIX chapter 6

…he had experienced the feeling of one who confidently steps onto the smooth surface of a bog. When he put his foot down it sank. To make quite sure of the firmness of the ground, he put his other foot down and sank deeper still, became stuck ion it and involuntarily waded knee-deep in the bog.
  Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, Book SIX chapter 7

 We often think that by removing all the difficulties of our life we shall more quickly reach our aim, but on the contrary, my dear sir, it is only in the midst of worldly cares that we can attain our three chief aims: (1) Self-knowledge- for man can only know himself by comparison, (2) self-perfecting, which can only be attained by conflict, and (3) The attainment of the chief virtue – love of death. Only the vicissitudes of life can show us its vanity and develop our innate love of death or of rebirth to a new life. 
  Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book SIX chapter 8

But whether because stupidity was just what was needed to run such a salon, or because those who were deceived found pleasure in the deception, at any rate, it remained unexposed and Hélène Bezúkhova’s reputation as a lovely and clever woman became so firmly established that she could say the emptiest and stupidest thins and yet everybody would go into raptures over every word of hers and look for a profound meaning in it of which she herself had no conception. .  Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book SIX, chapter 9

The tremulous expression on Natásha’s face, prepared either for despair or rapture, suddenly brightened into a happy, grateful, child-like smile.
  Leo Tolstoy,  War and Peace, Book SIX, chapter 16

Everything was just as it was everywhere else.  Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book SIX, chapter 20

Fallen man has retained a love of idleness, but the curse weighs on the race not only because we have to seek our bread in the sweat of our brows, but because our moral nature is such that we cannot be both idle and at east. An inner voice tells us we are in the wrong if we are idle.  Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book SEVEN, chapter 1

Reading these letters, Nicholas felt a dread of their wanting to take him away from surrounding in which, protected from all the entanglements of life, he was living so calmly and quietly.Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book SEVEN, chapter 1

Thoughts of home grew stronger the nearer he approached it – far stronger, as though this feeling of his was subject to the law by which the force of attraction is in inverse proportion to the square of the distance. 
 Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book SEVEN, chapter 1

In Moscow he felt at peace, at home, warm and dirty as in an old dressing gown. Moscow society, from the old women down to the children, received Pierre like a long-expected guest whose place was always ready awaiting him.
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, Book EIGHT, chapter 1

If I were not myself, but the handsomest, cleverest, and best man in the world, and were free, I would this moment ask on my knees for your hand and your love!
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book EIGHT, chapter 22

He was fearless, not because he had grown used to being under fire (one cannot grow used to danger,) but because he had learned how to manage his thoughts when in danger. He had grown accustomed when going into action to think about anything but what would seem most likely to interest him – the impending danger.  Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book NINE, chapter 14

-and that is why there are, and always will be, pseudo-healers, wise women, homeopaths, and allopaths. They satisfied that eternal human need for hope of relief, for sympathy, and that something should be done, which is felt by those who are suffering. They satisfied the need seen in its most elementary form in a child, when it wants to have a place rubbed that has been hurt. A child knocks itself and runs at one to the arms of its mother or nurse to have the aching spot rubbed or kissed, and it feels better when this is done.
  Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book NINE, chapter 16

“You’ll never get well like that,” she would say, forgetting her grief in her vexation,” if you won’t obey the doctor and take your medicine at the right time!”
 Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book NINE, chapter 16

In spite of the many pills she swallowed and the drops and powders out of the little bottles and boxes… youth prevailed. Natásha’s grief began to be overlaid by the impressions of daily life, it ceased to press so painfully on her heart, it gradually faded into the past, and she began to recover physically.
 Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book NINE, chapter 16

Natásha experienced a feeling new to her, a sense of the possibility of correcting her faults, the possibility of a new, clean life, and of happiness.  Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book NINE, chapter 17

It always seemed to her that everyone who looked at her was thinking only of what had happened to her. Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book NINE, chapter 18

From habit she scrutinized the ladies’ dresses, condemned the bearing of a lady standing close by who was not crossing herself property but in a cramped manner, and again she thought with vexation that she was herself begin judged and was judging others, and suddenly at the sound of the service, she felt horrified at her own vileness, horrified that the former purity of her soul was again lost to her.  Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, Book NINE, chapter 18

When they prayed for those who hate us, she tried to think of her enemies and people who hated her, in order to pray for them. She included among her enemies the creditors and all who had business dealings with her father, and always at the thought of enemies and those who hated her she remembered Anatole who had done her so much harm – and though he did not hate her she gladly prayed for him as for an enemy.  Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book NINE, chapter 18

She felt in her heart a devout and tremulous awe at the thought of the punishment that overtakes men for their sins, and especially of her own sins, and she prayed to God to forgive them all, and her too, and to give them all, and her too, peace and happiness. And it seemed to her that God heard her prayer.  Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book NINE, chapter 18

“Well, supposing N.N. has swindled the country and the Tsar, and the country and the Tsar confer honors upon him, what does that matter? She smiled at me yesterday and asked me to come again, and I love her, and no one will ever know it.” And his soul felt calm and peaceful. Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book NINE, chapter 19

“Providence compelled all these men, striving to attain personal aims, to further the accomplishment of a stupendous result no one of them at all expected—neither Napoleon, nor Alexander, nor still less any of those who did the actual fighting.” Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book TEN, chapter 1

“The artillery and baggage wagons moved noiselessly through the deep dust that rose to the very hubs of the wheels, and the infantry sank ankle-deep in that soft, choking, hot dust that never cooled even at night. Some of this dust was kneaded by the feet and wheels, while the rest rose and hung like a cloud over the troops, settling in eyes, ears, hair, and nostrils, and worst of all in the lungs of the men and beasts as they moved along that road.  Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book TEN, chapter 5

“This is painful, but, loving my benefactor and sovereign, I submit. Only I am sorry for the Emperor that he entrusts our fine army to such as he.” Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book TEN, chapter 5

“A good chessplayer having lost a game is sincerely convinced that his loss resulted from a mistake he made and looks for that mistake in the opening, but forgets that at each stage of the game there were similar mistakes and that none of his moves were perfect. He only notices the mistake to which he pays attention, because his opponent took advantage of it. How much more complex than this is the game of war, which occurs under certain limits of time, and where it is not one will that manipulates lifeless objects, but everything results from innumerable conflicts of various wills!”  Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book TEN, chapter 7

“So the histories say, and it is all quite wrong, as anyone who cares to look into the matter can easily convince himself." Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book TEN, chapter 19

“The sunshine from behind the hill did not penetrate into the cutting and there it was cold and damp, but above Pierre's head was the bright August sunshine and the bells sounded merrily.”
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book TEN, chapter 20

“On the eve of a day when God alone knows who of us is fated to survive, I am glad of this opportunity to tell you that I regret the misunderstandings that occurred between us and should wish you not to have any ill feeling for me. I beg you to forgive me.” Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book TEN, chapter 22

Though it was not clear what the artist meant to express by depicting the so-called King of Rome spiking the earth with a stick, the allegory apparently seemed to Napoleon, as it had done to all who had seen it in Paris, quite clear and very pleasing.  Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, Book TEN, chapter 26

Soldiers! This is the battle you have so longs for. Victory depends on you.   Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace,  Book TEN, chapter 26

VOCABULARY - War and Peace

Abash:  to destroy the self-confidence, poise, or self-possession of; disconcert; make ashamed or embarrassed: to abash someone by sneering.  

Allopath: A physician that used a system of medical practice called allopathy, which is the treatment of disease by use of remedies (drugs or surgery), having opposite effects to the symptoms, or producing effects different from or incompatible with those produced by the disease being treated

Beatific: blissfully happy.

Bluestocking: an intellectual or literary woman.

Caprice: a sudden change; especially : a sudden change in someone's mood or behavior.

Chary: suspiciously reluctant to do something.

Conscripted: enlisted (someone) compulsorily, typically into the armed services.

Deference: humble submission and respect.

Deferential: showing humble submission and respect.

Depose: remove from office suddenly and forcefully.

Depraved: morally corrupt; wicked.

Dilatory: tending to delay or procrastinate; slow; tardy. Intended to cause delay, gain time, or defer decision.

Duplicity: dishonest behavior that is meant to trick someone.

Execrable:  very bad

Expiate: to do something as a way to show that you are sorry about doing something bad.

Guerrilla warfare : irregular military actions (such as harassment and sabotage) carried out by small usually independent forces. Fighting in which small independent bands of soldiers harass an enemy through surprise raids, attacks on communications and the like. The use of hit-and-run tactics by small, mobile groups of irregular forces operating in territory controlled by a hostile, regular force.

Immutable: unable to be changed.

Insolent: showing a rude and arrogant lack of respect.

Intriguer: a. A secret or underhand scheme; a plot. b. The practice of or involvement in such schemes: 

Mirth: Gladness and merriment, especially when expressed by laughter.

Obsequious: overly obedient or attentive to an excessive or servile degree.

Pedantic: tending to be a person who annoys others by correcting small errors and giving too much attention to minor details.

Plenary: Unqualified, absolute. Meeting to be attended by all participants at a conference or assembly, who otherwise meet in smaller groups.

Plight: pledge or promise solemnly (one's faith or loyalty). be engaged to be married to.

Purloin: steal

Raconteur: skilled storyteller.

Samovar: a metal urn, used especially by Russians for heating water for making tea.

Sorrel: a light bright chestnut horse, often with white mane and tail. A brownish orange to light brown.

Taciturn: reserved or uncommunicative in speech; saying little, tending to be quiet.

Tremulous: shaking or quivering slightly, timid; nervous.

Vehemence: zealous; ardent; impassioned, expressing strong feelings, or shown by strong feelings or great energy or force.

Venal: showing or motivated by susceptibility to bribery.

Vicissitudes: a change of circumstances or fortune, typically one that is unwelcome or unpleasant.