Nicholas remains on active duty with the army as a matter of honor, although the Rostóvs want him to retire. He misses Sónya.
Nicholas remains on active duty with the army as a matter of honor, although the Rostóvs want him to retire. He misses Sónya.
Book 9, Chapter 12
Nicholas remains on active duty with the army as a matter of honor, although the Rostóvs want him to retire. He misses Sónya.
Summary:
The Rostóv family again asks Nicholas to retire from the army, but Nicholas feels he can’t do so with honor now that the army is at war. He writes Sónya, though, and tells her he dreams of his life with her after the war. The Russian army is falling back, destroying any provisions they cannot carry away. The retreating Russian troops also sometimes loot property from the local people. While there is tremendous angst in headquarters, the troops on the ground, try not to think about the big picture. The rains were heavy that year. Rostóv’s squadron is sometimes a bit difficult to control. Rostóv is told a tall tale about a Russian act of heroism in battle. Nicholas, now seasoned in military life, says nothing although the story sounds improbable to him. A young subordinate of Rostóv’s named Ilyín finds a tavern nearby, where the two go to escape the wet of their leaky shelter.
quote from the chapter:
The troops retired from Vílna for various complicated reasons of state, political and strategic. Each step of the retreat was accompanied by a complicated interplay of interests, arguments, and passions at headquarters. For the Pávlograd hussars, however, the whole of this retreat during the finest period of summer and with sufficient supplies was a very simple and agreeable business.
It was only at headquarters that there was depression, uneasiness, and intriguing; in the body of the army they did not ask themselves where they were going or why. If they regretted having to retreat, it was only because they had to leave billets they had grown accustomed to, or some pretty young Polish lady. If the thought that things looked bad chanced to enter anyone’s head, he tried to be as cheerful as befits a good soldier and not to think of the general trend of affairs, but only of the task nearest to hand.
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