Wow. I'm struggling to remember the good times now, fellow Tolstoyers! I know that there was a happier time when I was enjoying reading this book (maybe even just a week ago?!) but I'm feeling the burn now. I'm tired of reading Tolstoy's long over-stretched beast metaphor and I don't want to read about what Napoleon did or didn't intend. I just want to know what's going on with the characters that I actually liked!
I'll be honest - this week's reading did not light my world on fire and my knowledge of Russian history is not spectacular. Bear that in mind while you're perusing the prompts...
1) The only bit of this week's war-themed escapades that I really took in was a small section where it got interesting and the Russians started getting ready to attack the French but then got confused because they couldn't find somebody or other so they did it the next day and botched it again because they went crazy and just started trying to beat on some French people. Does anybody feel as though they're learning?
2) Clearly Tolstoy's not a Napoleon fan - as far as Tolstoy's concerned, he's lucky at best. Thoughts?
3) According to Shmoop, Pierre's only been in prison for four weeks. And in four weeks he's decided to completely re-write his personality while shedding some pounds. I've been surprised by how well Tolstoy has portrayed the French's treatment of their prisoners. Maybe he's not so biased after all? [I realise that's not technically a question but I'm late so we're going with it]
4) This might be a ridiculous question given that some of you may not be flying by the seat of your pants and only just staying caught up (like nobody around here, obviously) but is anybody else worried that the final two books are going to be all about Napoleon trudging back across Russia and that we're only going to get back to the characters we actually care about in retrospect when we hit the Epilogues?!
