Collage 668

Kutuzov and Napoleon

Two military leaders as different as war and peace. Tolstoy mocks historians who praise Napoleon's leadership ability and belittle those of Kutuzov, and argues that it was Kutuzov who was the leader who better understood what was happening around him and how little of those events he actually controlled.In Lola's text for the next collage, No. 669, she writes "some passages (whole chapters!) are difficult to respond to visually. (Unless you are Otto and love history!)" Frankly, I find these pages tedious, and only a little more tolerable than most of the second epilogue (see, for example, collages number 742 and 743).  -- Otto

Otto Mayr
from page 591-592, volume 2 of original text
collage
made 12/5/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 1083-1084