On the eve of battle, feeling his whole life has been meaningless, Andrew is agitated and irritable.
Summary:
That evening, Prince Andrew was agitated and irritable. He expected a terrible battle tomorrow. Facing death, his life seemed useless and burdensome. The things which had always motivated him all his life, like patriotism and the love of a woman, now appeared illusory in the cold light of the coming battle. Andrew particularly thought of the three great losses in his life: Natásha, his father and Bald Hills, and the part of Russia now held by the French – all this lost. And when he died, he would be buried and forgotten. Pierre unexpectedly arrives for a visit. In his agitated state of mind, Andrew is cross with Pierre.
quote from the chapter:
Narrow and burdensome and useless to anyone as his life now seemed to him, Prince Andrew on the eve of battle felt agitated and irritable as he had done seven years before at Austerlitz.
He had received and given the orders for next day’s battle and had nothing more to do. But his thoughts-the simplest, clearest, and therefore most terrible thoughts-would give him no peace. He knew that tomorrow’s battle would be the most terrible of all he had taken part in, and for the first time in his life the possibility of death presented itself to him-not in relation to any worldly matter or with reference to its effect on others, but simply in relation to himself, to his own soul-vividly, plainly, terribly, and almost as a certainty. And from the height of this perception all that had previously tormented and preoccupied him suddenly became illumined by a cold white light without shadows, without perspective, without distinction of outline.
Book 10, Chapter 24
On the eve of battle, feeling his whole life has been meaningless, Andrew is agitated and irritable.
Summary:
That evening, Prince Andrew was agitated and irritable. He expected a terrible battle tomorrow. Facing death, his life seemed useless and burdensome. The things which had always motivated him all his life, like patriotism and the love of a woman, now appeared illusory in the cold light of the coming battle. Andrew particularly thought of the three great losses in his life: Natásha, his father and Bald Hills, and the part of Russia now held by the French – all this lost. And when he died, he would be buried and forgotten. Pierre unexpectedly arrives for a visit. In his agitated state of mind, Andrew is cross with Pierre.
quote from the chapter:
Narrow and burdensome and useless to anyone as his life now seemed to him, Prince Andrew on the eve of battle felt agitated and irritable as he had done seven years before at Austerlitz.
He had received and given the orders for next day’s battle and had nothing more to do. But his thoughts-the simplest, clearest, and therefore most terrible thoughts-would give him no peace. He knew that tomorrow’s battle would be the most terrible of all he had taken part in, and for the first time in his life the possibility of death presented itself to him-not in relation to any worldly matter or with reference to its effect on others, but simply in relation to himself, to his own soul-vividly, plainly, terribly, and almost as a certainty. And from the height of this perception all that had previously tormented and preoccupied him suddenly became illumined by a cold white light without shadows, without perspective, without distinction of outline.
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