War and Peace Thursday: Book 1, part 1

[osprey_archer]

I have finished Part One of War and Peace! Part one of book one, that is, so this is less impressive than it sounds.

So far my favorite character is Marya Bolkonskaya, plain and intensely religious (she begs her brother to take a locket-like icon with him as he goes off to fight Napoleon; I'm calling it right now, this icon is going to catch a bullet and save his life), whose stern, remote father makes her so nervous that she weeps when he gives her a daily geometry lesson.

I realize this all makes her sound like a total sad sack. I can't quite explain my devotion - she's very sweet, sincerely sweet - but nonetheless, it's there.

I've always had a thing for intensely religious characters, anyway. When we read Adam Bede in AP English I fell head over heels for Dinah, the Methodist preacher girl, to the bafflement of my classmates. I wrote a paper that was basically "Dinah! Isn't Dinah the best?" and it didn't get a very good grade because I guess I was supposed to be a bit more analytical about why Dinah is the most awesome.

Comments

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

I love Marya. Well, I love just about everyone in this book, including Marya's grumpy father and her awful brother and (especially) her awful brother's unhappy wife. But Marya! She might stay your favorite throughout, though I predict you will also develop strong feelings about Sonya (I have strong feelings about Sonya)

(I have strong feelings about every character)

Hope you're enjoying War and Peace!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Marya's poor sister-in-law! Prince Andrei is such an asshole to her. Why does he drag her out to his ancestral home in the middle of nowhere and leave her there when she's pregnant? He couldn't at least arrange for her to go back to her own people to give birth?

And he just stands there and stares with disdain as she cries, like she's an errant child that he's refusing to humor. What a jerk.

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

Her own people are the worst, as evidenced by everything about her, so it would be wrong for Andrei to send her there. Here at least she'll have the salutary moral influence of his dad and sister, and won't have any fun be surrounded by friends the baleful influence of people who actually seem to like her shallow Petersburg society.

The thing is, she's genuinely, justifiably terrified of giving birth, but he thinks she's still coquetting, or at least is determined to pretend he does. He's been disappointed in her and it's completely cut him off from sympathy; he's like Nora at the end of The Dollhouse, horrified to have been sleeping with a stranger all this time. And she has no idea what she did wrong (I'm not sure even Andrei knows) and he's just given up completely and forever on trying to explain or confide in her about anything.

WELCOME TO TOLSTOY.