Collage 427

Lucy Arrington
from page 109-110, Volume 2 of original text
collage, acrylic paint
made 3/10/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 687-688

Here Tolstoy gives us a glimpse of war from the point of view of the women...

Princess Marya feared for her brother... was horrified by the idea of people killing each other, but she did not understand the significance of the war.

Julie, now Princess Drubstskoy, wrote from Moscow:

We pass our time as we can; but in war as in war. Princess Alina and Sophie sit whole days with me, and we, unfortunate widows of living husbands make beautiful conversations over the lint (bandage material), only you, my friend, are lacking.

Collage 426

This quote is taken from The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova:

It is a gradation of towns, of architecture, of gradually receding minarets blended with the advancing church domes, of the very look of forest and riverbank, so that little by little you begin to believe you can read in nature itself the saturation of history. Does the shoulder of a Turkish hillside really look so different from the slope of a Magyar meadow? Of course not, and yet the difference is as impossible to erase from the eye as the history that informs it is from the mind. Later, traveling this route, I would also see it alternately as benign and bathed in blood-- this is the other trick of historical sight, to be unrelentingly torn between good and evil, peace and war.

--Chapter 38, page 288.

The passage describes the route from Istanbul to Budapest, but could also describe some of the contested lands in War and Peace.

Lynn Waskelis

from page 107-108, Volume 2 of original text
collage, ink, pigment
made 3/10/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 684-687

Collage 425

Here's a passage from Volume III, Part Two, Chapter I.

"In historical writings about the year 1812, French authors very much like to speak of how Napoleon sensed the danger of extending his line, how he sought a battle, how his marshals advised him to stop at Smolensk, and to bring forth other similar arguments to prove that even the danger of the campaign was supposedly understood; and Russian authors like still more to speak of how from the beginning of the campaign there existed a Scythian war plan of luring Napoleon into the depths of Russia, and one ascribes this plan to Pfuel, another to some Frenchman, another to Toll, another to the emperor Alexander himself, pointing to reports, projects, and letters that indeed contain hints at such a way of action. But all these hints at the forseeing of what happened, both on the French and on the part of the Russians, are now put forward only because events justified them. If the events had not occurred, those hints would have been forgotten, as thousands and millions of contrary hints and suppositions that were current then, but turned out to be incorrect, are now forgotten. There are always so many suppositions conjectures about the outcome of every event which takes place that, however it ends, people will always be found who say: "I said back then that it would be like this," quite forgetting that among their numberless suppositions, there were some completely contrary."

Just yesterday I heard a clip on the radio, a Republican presidential contender blasting the current Administration for all that has gone wrong over the course of the last few years. As if all that has passed could have been steered a different way -- as if the contender could have had perfect foresight and could have made different choices. The Buddha got this one right 2500 years ago -- how there are so many seen and unseen forces at work and that the best course of action is to see clearly what is happening and to make wise and loving choices based on what one is confronting.To think that we can control and predict events in our individual lives is the cause of much suffering, much less on the level of war and politics.

In this piece, you can see Moscow on the left, still intact before the fires set by Napoleon's army. -- Lola

Lola Baltzell
from page 105-106, Volume 2 of original text
collage
made 3/10/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 683-684

Collage 424

Lucy Arrington
from page103-104 of original text
collage, acrylic paint
made 3/10/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 682-683

Napoleon sets out on a course that will lead to the destruction of the French army in the depths of the Russian winter.

"No one will dispute that the cause of the destruction of Napoleon's French forces was, on the one hand, their advance late in the year, without preparations for a winter march, into the depths of Russia, and, on the other hand, the character that the war took on with the burning of Russian towns and the hatred of the foe aroused in the Russian people."

Collage 423

There are a few uses of the number "10" in this passage.

We are in Volume III, Part One, Chapter XXII. Just before the fall of Moscow. The nobility is gathered together and they are asked to donate ten men per thousand to serve as soldiers. This is prior to the freeing of the serfs which took place in 1861 so presumably these "donations" are serfs. The sovereign gives a short speech of thanks to the nobility, then speaks with the merchants for about ten minutes. Pierre is present and is very moved. Pierre is so sentimental and easily influenced by others, so when he learns that one man has given a regiment, he gives a thousand men and their maintenance.

Natasha's younger brother has been wanting to enlist, and after witnessing the sovereign's speech, he not only agrees but helps Petya sign up. -- Lola

Lola Baltzell
from page 101-102, Volume 2 of original text
collage, ink
made 3/10/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 680-682

Collage 422

There goes Moscow! -- Christiane

Christiane Carney Johnson
from page 99-100, Volume 2 original text
collage, watercolor
made 4/6/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 678-680

Collage 421

There goes Pierre! -- Christiane

Christiane Carney Johnson
from page 97-98, Volume 2 of original text
collage, watercolor
made 4/6/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 677-678