There were still a few people in Moscow but the city was empty. Moscow was like a dying queenless beehive.
Summary:
In this chapter Tolstoy describes an abandoned beehive in detail, using it as a metaphor for the abandoned city. When Napoleon reached Moscow it was like a beehive without a queen. He says that in a queenless hive no life is left although to a superficial glance it seems as much alive as other hives. Some bees will still remain in a deserted hive. Similarly, in various corners of Moscow there still remained a few people aimlessly moving about, following their old habits and hardly aware of what they were doing. But neither the evacuated city nor the deserted hive are “alive” in the sense of being normally functional. When with due circumspection Napoleon was informed that Moscow was empty, he looked angrily at his informant, turned away, and silently continued to walk to and fro. Moscow deserted! he said to himself. What an incredible event! He did not drive into the town, but put up at an inn in a suburb.
quote from the chapter:
Meanwhile Moscow was empty. There were still people in it, perhaps a fiftieth part of its former inhabitants had remained, but it was empty. It was empty in the sense that a dying queenless hive is empty. In a queenless hive no life is left though to a superficial glance it seems as much alive as other hives. The bees circle round a queenless hive in the hot beams of the midday sun as gaily as around the living hives; from a distance it smells of honey like the others, and bees fly in and out in the same way. But one has only to observe that hive to realize that there is no longer any life in it.
Book 11, Chapter 20
There were still a few people in Moscow but the city was empty. Moscow was like a dying queenless beehive.
Summary:
In this chapter Tolstoy describes an abandoned beehive in detail, using it as a metaphor for the abandoned city. When Napoleon reached Moscow it was like a beehive without a queen. He says that in a queenless hive no life is left although to a superficial glance it seems as much alive as other hives. Some bees will still remain in a deserted hive. Similarly, in various corners of Moscow there still remained a few people aimlessly moving about, following their old habits and hardly aware of what they were doing. But neither the evacuated city nor the deserted hive are “alive” in the sense of being normally functional. When with due circumspection Napoleon was informed that Moscow was empty, he looked angrily at his informant, turned away, and silently continued to walk to and fro. Moscow deserted! he said to himself. What an incredible event! He did not drive into the town, but put up at an inn in a suburb.
quote from the chapter:
Meanwhile Moscow was empty. There were still people in it, perhaps a fiftieth part of its former inhabitants had remained, but it was empty. It was empty in the sense that a dying queenless hive is empty. In a queenless hive no life is left though to a superficial glance it seems as much alive as other hives. The bees circle round a queenless hive in the hot beams of the midday sun as gaily as around the living hives; from a distance it smells of honey like the others, and bees fly in and out in the same way. But one has only to observe that hive to realize that there is no longer any life in it.
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