Collage 657

For more than a thousand pages, the reader has followed Pierre's ups and down. In his physical condition, Pierre is at the bottom, an unwanted prisoner encumbering a desperate and defeated company of French soldiers who are in full retreat, and have just shot Pierre's friend, Platon Karataev. Pierre appears to be in shock and on the verge of hallucinations, yet he is also in some kind of joyous delirium, quite at ease and prepared for whatever comes next. -- Otto

Otto Mayr
page 569-570, volume 2 of original text
collage
made 11/26/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 1065-1066