I flew to San Francisco today so had a big chunk of time to read the book. I liked this passage from Volume One, Part Three, XIX on page 293. Prince Andrei has been mortally wounded. Napoleon has just walked by a field of dead and dying Russian soldiers. Napoleon had just asked him how he was. "... now, with his eyes fixed directly on Napoleon, he was silent... To him at that moment all the interests that occupied Napoleon seemed so insignificant, his hero himself seemed so petty to him, with his petty vanity and joy in victory, compared with that lofty, just, and kindly sky, which he had seen and understood, that he was unable to answer him.
Then, too, everything seemed so useless and insignificant compared with that stern and majestic way of thinking called up in him by weakness from loss of blood, suffering, and the expectation of imminent death. Looking into Napoleon's eyes, Prince Andrei thought about the insignificance of grandeur, about the insignificance of life, the meaning of which no one could understand, and about the still greater insignificance of death, the meaning of which no one among the living could understand or explain." Wow! -- Lola
Lola Baltzell
from page 233-234 of original text
collage, acrylic paint
made 5/21/10
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