War and Peace day 4

Our first taste of battle
How did you guys like it? We saw the POV adjutants, cavalry charges, and funnily enough, the artillery

Other urls found in this thread:

polljunkie.com/poll/yagszq/war-and-peace
mega.nz/#F!4QVj1b4B!BMF7h3um_c5qWHQCP_aw6g
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

Is that you John Wayne?
..
...
..
Is this me?

This segment was amazing for character development. Rostov in particular I felt empathetic towards, his high dreams of being a part of the war and basking in glory are completely shattered here. The part where hes standing in the middle of the battlefield staring at the guy coming towards him and unable to react was one of the best things ive read. I didn't really care for him at first but now i just want him to be comfy honestly.

We see that the young characters all have really high expectations.
1). Andrei, thinking about what he's going to say and converse with the Austrian archduke, and instead he just answers a quick succession of questions, lasting what felt around 4 minutes

2) Andreis expectation of his own "Napoleon breakout battle" and instead just follows the general around and helps with the retreat of the artillery

Tushin, the artillery chief, was a great character, you really get to feel what it was like with war adrenaline pumping through you

Hey guys, I was considering starting war and peace a while ago. I mostly put it off because of the daunting length but when I decided I was definitely gonna put it on hold for longer was when I saw the character list and saw that I was going to have to remember a lot more crazy Russian names than I thought.

Is this a legitimate problem that anyone faces or did I just make a wrong rash decision?

Any comments about what book you guys are reading?

I'm reading Pevear and Volokhonsky Vintage classic, just bought it from by local bookstore, and so far I've found 1 spelling mistake
On page 102 they call Princess Marya "Prince Marya"

In the P&V translation, they keep they French parts intact, which I really like, because in this part you get to read a real letter from Napoleon which is cool

If you have that much trouble, have a notebook and take notes on who the people are and how they are described

The characters are introduced in small clusters, and you have a basic understanding of all 3 of the main families the first 150 pages

By then end of those ~150 pages, you have a comfortable introduction and several interactions between most of the characters

I'm a first time reader, the characters aren't that hard to keep track of. I haven't kept notes for each character, but I know who is who.

The only book I've read with several characters being introduced is Game of Thrones, and that seemed harder to keep track of everyone, because G R R Martin doesn't give the depth of attitudes in a realistic way as Tolstoy does

So don't be discouraged, go find a book and get a nice meal in you and join us for the read! Keeping track of characters isn't that hard!

so far its been ~4 central characters, and then plenty of others that they interact with for the chapter and sometimes reappear later on. For my first time reading W&P, the names havent been to big of an issue. The only thing thats confused me has been when characters will be called by first name, then switch to last name at another point. Not a big issue because the actions of the characters distinguishes them fairly easily.

Awesome, thanks for the help guys, I'll definitely pick it up sooner rather than later now.

Also is the P&V translation as bad as everyone says it is? I bought the p&v version a while ago before I heard all the hate for it but I'd go for a different one if it's that bad.

It is not bad at all. I've been keeping up with the reading, and reading has been smooth. You also get the French and German conversations in their original form, which is great (of course there are English translations at the bottom of each page, and as a fluent French speaker, the translations aren't bad).

The Vintage Classic also has a summary section, and good historical index at the end

The others are way too critical on this translation

P&V hate is a meme because they're the most popular modern day translators of Russian literature.

Of course it's not the same as reading it in Russian but as far as translations go it's perfectly fine.

Is today day 5 or day 4? Where should I stop reading today?

So the chart means that day 4 reading should end at Volume I part III. We should be at the part when Rostov is sitting by a fire with an injured arm, and the troops have retreated from the battle of Shöngraben, November 15, 1805

It's also called the battle of Hollabrunn by French historians, according to my Historical Index in the back of my book

Was Tolstoy against Romanticism? Are his other works like this in regards to the battle scenes? Both characters had great dreams that were shattered by the reality of war.

Nikolai and Andrei's expectations were turned on their heads in different ways. For Nikolai, he was just bludgeoned with the plain old dirty, brutal reality of war. It's hard not to think back to that scen when we first met him where he was tyring to explain to his father and everyone else his reasons for joining up. He really didn't understand what he was getting himself in for.

As for Andrei, by the end of this section I got the impression that he's frustrated and disillusioned with army politics as much as the fighting itself. It's true he never gets an opportunity for his Toulon moment but he does get to see real bravery when he rides up to he artillery men. But afterwards, far from being commended Tushin would have been reproached without Andrei's intervention and even then he can't make them understand what those men did. Similarly no one talks openly about Zherkov's nerve failing him, or the staff-officer who went to the artillery before Andrei. The only reason Dolokhov's afforts are acknowledged is because he begs for the higher ups to take notice of them. The performance after the battle is almost more important than during it.

I think in war and peace, Tolstoy's depiction of the battles is very much informed by his own experience. I've hear some people call him the first war journalist.

Dolokhov is literally me tbqh

Got a real notice me senpai vibe from him

Poll: polljunkie.com/poll/yagszq/war-and-peace

Downloads (ebooks and audiobook):
mega.nz/#F!4QVj1b4B!BMF7h3um_c5qWHQCP_aw6g

Audiobook reading by Alexander Scourby (google it if you need the file): c56063307dfb59ef87f9aed222c06ef296723ebe

If anyone wants the epub for a different English edition let me know. If you have other ebooks I should add to the folder, please post them.

But I mean, if I want to be up to date for tomorrow's thread, at what point should I stop?

I just read the part where Pierre got married

For day 5 (tomorrow) you should stop reading when you get to chapter 9 of book three.

When looking at reading guide for a given day, you are supposed to read UP TO (not including) the specified place in the book.

Sorry that should be chapter 9 of part three.

Day 4's reading was Book One Part Two Chapter 10 up to (but not including) Book One Part Three Chapter 1, pages 163-213.

Words read on day 4: 21,651
Time taken: 51 minutes

Total words read so far: 88,337
Total words in book: 563,286
Total time taken so far: 3 hours 43 minutes
Approximate total reading time: 25 hours

>funnily enough, the artillery
Why is that funny?

It is funny because when one usually lists various POV characters, they don't include inanimate objects.

Thats not funny at all.

>that fall of the Vienna's bridge
I couldn't believe this was real, but it really happened. And then the Russian Army tries to do the same thing. Everybody gets "macked".

Pic related is what i get from Prince Bagration. He just uses "Very good" instead of "This is fine".


Captain Tushin's delirium was the best part from today's read for me. I can't tell what the fuck this guy was feeling in my own words, because Tolstoy already expressed that with the best possible description.
What i can say is that I was reading with a smile in my face while Tushin was in Berserk Mode, but then i felt a little sadness after the battle stopped, some melancholy.

I'm starting to see myself in Andrei. Now he's getting to know the amount of bullshit that happens in the army politics. In my opinion, it's a little similar with the bullshit from Russian's high society, but with a lot more of vulgarity. Stripped of the romantic vision of war, Let's see where he is going to focus. We know that Nikolay will focus on his home and family, but this can't be the case with Andrei, he was already sick of it.

Remember, Your Excellency!

Well you asked why. I can't make you find it funny.

>undoes bandage to show head wound

Glad to do our best, your Ex’len-lency!

>I can't make you find it funny.
I wish you could

>but this can't be the case with Andrei, he was already sick of it.

I supposed it could be the case, if he decides that even the monotonies of home life were better than what he's doing now, eh?

True. We will have to see.

>Your Excellency, you show such excellent excellency excellence, Your Excellency!

I need to read that part again where that guy kept dropping "Your Excellency".

It takes me 2 hours hah, I don't read often enough

It's great to see you and your posts every thread

I'm thinking on watching the series during my reading.
Does anyone have any idea about how this can be done without getting spoilers from the series? Can I watch the first episode already?

There are 6 episodes from the series but 5 main sections of the book. I would wait for Volume II of the book before tackling an episode

I wouldn't watch the series because it ruins my imagination of the scenes and characters that I have established myself, but don't let that discourage you!

I will wait for Volume II and if the series seems inaccurate I'll just drop it.
Thanks!

>I wouldn't watch the series because it ruins my imagination of the scenes and characters that I have established myself

Same. Their choice for Pierre was really came out of left-field.

Dano is great, but not how I had envisioned Pierre at all.

>New Thread
>New Thread
>New Thread

still mad you fuckers didn't wait until christmas