So how's it going Team Tolstoy?
Everyone warm enough?
The troika's been rattling along at a fair old lick here and congratulations to those who were upholding the tradition and singing along the way in the back seat....very... er... tuneful.
Despite a fragmented reading month with some Tolstoy-less travelling and a bit of a sad week too, I can report success and no problems picking the book up again after a reading gap, so I have really enjoyed reading Part One which in my edition is the first twenty-five chapters, taking me as far as p118.
My bookmark has never been far from my side as I've tried to lodge the characters and families various in my mind, and, largely thanks to the special and recognisable qualities that Tolstoy invests in each person, I'm getting there as I create my own first impressions on initial acquaintance... I'm wondering whether mine match yours, it would be interesting to compare.
I have Pierre down as the man with two size twelve left feet and he'll put them both in and consider the consequences afterwards, yet he's also quite capable of tripping very tenderly through some tricky moments. The words do seem to be into his head and out of his mouth before he has a chance to stop them and he seems clearly oblivious to the fact the ladies adore these slightly gauche and devil-may-care tendencies.
Prince Andrei, bit of a smooth-talker, confident, privileged, intense yet miserable in his skin and with the chatty but perhaps ill-matched and very pregnant wife Princess Lise, he seems quite desperate to head off to war.
The pushy mother with the acutely embarrassed son, now who can that be?
Of course, Anna Mikhaylovna, ambitious and impecunious and no slouch at putting on a show of whatever may be required whenever she needs some money, and then poor Boris. You can almost see him cringing as he backpedals furiously in the face of his mother's performance and what shenanigans around the death bed of Count Bezukhov as Pierre is declared the winner of the Battle of the Last Will and Testament.
The precocious and extrovert Natasha Rostov, still young and naive and a bit of a performer herself, not unused to being the centre of attention, everyone's darling but not mine yet.
I think the one who warms my heart the most so far has to be Andrei's sister, Princess Marya. Innocent and trusting and seeing the good in everyone around her, that moment when she gave Andrei her icon as he goes off to war was brimming with emotion, so much that even Mr Blase himself, Andrei couldn't help but be moved by it...and my thanks to Helen for this picture of an authentic war icon, not quite like Andrei's but worn and treasured by many soldiers.
The funniest character to date, the one who has amused me even more than Count Rostov and his Dad's Dancing moment at the ball (and not hard to see where daughter Natasha gets her centre stage personality from) is Prince Nikolay Bolkonsky.
He's my favourite.
Was there ever a man more prey to a grown up version of a Gina Ford Contented Baby regime than Prince Bolkonsky?
For those who don't know of it Gina Ford's is a very prescriptive routine for babies that states strictly what must happen almost minute by minute. Eat now, sleep then, play next and ridiculed by many, but never say never I used to say to mums when I visited them with their newborns, for those who need to get the chaos of life with a new baby under some sort of control, the Gina way can sometimes work like a miracle. Prince Nikolay likewise responds to cues and needs to know what will be happening next, if not every minute of every day, not only in his own life but with his daughter Marya's as well; if it's two o'clock Marya must be doing her clavichord practice and her father must be having his nap, but he will predictably be awake in twenty minutes.
Beneath that controlled exterior I have a feeling there is a strategically razor-sharp mind and a mass of contradictory emotion being kept strictly under wraps.
Well, who knows, I could be very wrong with all my first impressions, Tolstoy may have plans to wrong foot me as his characters grow and develop and are exposed to what we now know as history in the making, that will all be interesting.
Initially pledging to read every single solitary last word I will confess that about halfway through a lengthy letter in French from Julie to Marya I suddenly realised it might make sense to skip straight to the translation, just as the schoolgirl conversational level started to show some rather glaring gaps in the vocab, but that aside I have to say this is all pure pleasure.
So tell me, did you meet the same people I did... or were we at different parties?
And if you missed the start and want to hop on board the Team Tolstoy troika then it's never too late to get started and catch us up.
Next month's reading schedule for those like me on the Gina Ford approach to reading War and Peace:-) Part Two ~ Chapters 1-21 and back here on November 9th to compare our furs which we'll be needing by then, and could the singers in the back, (and I suspect one or two ringleaders there) perhaps pitch their songs a little lower, and here are the words of Kalinka so we can all join in...someone hum us an A would you...
Калинка, калинка, калинка моя!
В саду ягода малинка, малинка моя!
Ах, под сосною, под зеленою,
Спать положите вы меня!
Ай-люли, люли, ай-люли,
Спать положите вы меня.
Калинка, калинка, калинка моя!
В саду ягода малинка, малинка моя!
Ах, сосенушка ты зеленая,
Не шуми же надо мной!
Ай-люли, люли, ай-люли,
Не шуми же надо мной!
Калинка, калинка, калинка моя!
В саду ягода малинка, малинка моя!
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