This poorly drawn pierre captures pierre better than any art I’ve ever done of him

Some interesting facts on the development of War and Peace from my reading of R.F. Christian’s Tolstoy’s War and Peace: A Study 

#1: Bolkonskys

lawful good: andrey

neutral good: andrei

chaotic good: andre

lawful neutral: andrushka

true neutral: andré

chaotic neutral: andryusha

lawful evil: andrew

neutral evil: andrej

chaotic evil: andy

Natasha Rostova by D. Shmarinov (I think, the article was in Russian)

That looks like one of the Nikolayev illustrations! :) There’s a lot of them floating around on the internet. Here’s a few more:

Sources: 1, 2, 3

(The first two of these pages have illustrations by other artists, too! See the ones labeled Николаев. Also, a Google image search for николаев, «война и мир» will turn up plenty more.)

there’s a lot of good stuff here

Andrei “I’ve never had a day of fun in my life.” Bolkonsky is very bad at ice skating.

so,

so i was listening to great comet again and i noticed something really interesting in the ball in particular, and since i’m a weird music nerd with a thing about leitmotif, it was a given that this was something i was going to notice

the song starts with anatole’s narration “waiting at the door/waiting at the door/waiting”, and it’s very clear that this section is in simple meter (i think it’s ¾ but i can’t be sure) but then when we get into natasha’s inner thoughts “i am seized by feelings of vanity and fear” we switch into complex meter, most likely 6/8. it makes sense that natasha’s thoughts here would be in complex meter because No One Else, her big ‘i want’ number, is also in complex meter. so right away we’re set up with the idea that natasha’s meter is complex, and conversely, anatole’s meter is simple meter.

the song continues with natasha’s narration, and in accordance with that, in complex meter, until Anatole’s next big chunk, beginning “gaze in my eyes/i love you”. what’s interesting about this section is that the accompaniment is still in complex meter, as are parts of what anatole is saying, but we also get him doing duplets, or simple meter on top of the complex meter of the accompaniment. these can be heard most clearly at “don’t lower your eyes i love you/i am in love dear/i am in love” but throughout that section. what’s interesting about that is that musically speaking, it reads like anatole trying to overpower her meter with his, and only really succeeding in causing musical confusion.

natasha continues in her own meter “don’t say such things/i am betrothed/i love another” and anatole follows her into complex meter in their next exchange: “don’t speak to me of that/when i tell you that i am madly, madly in love with you?/is it my fault that you’re enchanting?” Having failed to musically overpower natasha, he next tries to speak to her in her own language, as it were. what’s really interesting is that in her next line, “i’m so frightened”, natasha switches into anatole’s meter, doing duplets over the complex metered accompaniment. his musical assault has tripped her up.

the next section, with natasha and anatole interrupting each other, is all in simple meter, giving the sense that musically, natasha has lost her footing and is in anatole’s meter out of confusion more than anything else.

the kiss comes next, leaving natasha in simple meter as she narrates her inner turmoil in the section “burning lips pressed to mine” as she processes what’s happened. it’s important to note that she’s, by her own words, still not on a good footing mentally. she’s in anatole’s meter not of her own volition. when she does recover her footing in the next section, “but i love him” she’s back in triple meter, meaning that whatever she does next, it’s her own choice.

so then when she sings the next line, “i will love you, anatole” in simple meter, anatole’s meter, it means that she’s making the deliberate choice to do so. she’s not acting as a frightened little girl, but making a choice as an adult.

@phantomswrath @thulianpink

I keep thinking about how Tolstoy’s characters use language in War and Peace, ESPECIALLY all the code-switching between Russian and French. (This is one of the big reasons I decided I have to try to read the book in the original. As much as I lovelovelove Dunnigan’s translation and think it reads gorgeously, she translates a lot of the French within the dialogue and hides some of the code-switching. So now I’m reading the original and the Dunnigan translation in parallel.)

Here are some interesting language things I’ve noticed so far:

1. Some high society characters seem to speak way more French than Russian: Ippolit Kuragin, Julie Karagina, Lise Bolkonskaya. Ippolit’s first appearance involves him telling a story in terrible Russian (I.i.4). I haven’t seen Tolstoy explicitly comment on Lise’s Russian yet, but it’s been mentioned several times already that she usually speaks French.

2. In contrast, Marya Dmitriyevna always speaks Russian (I.i.15). And that makes sense, given her blunt manner and disregard for social niceties. The first time she appeared in the story, I immediately decided that I like her. She does her own thing, doesn’t care about fitting in with society, and society has come to both respect and fear her. It’s interesting that they call her le terrible dragon, instead of the equivalent in Russian.

3. I’ve seen two instances so far where Andrei pointedly shifts into Russian to show his disdain for frivolous people: with Ippolit (I.i.5), and Zherkov (I.ii.3). He seems comfortable with both languages, and often pretty aware of how he switches between them. But Tolstoy describes him unconsciously shifting completely into French when talking military strategy with his father (I.i.23) – I’m guessing this means he’s read more books on the subject in French.

4. Shinshin, Countess Rostova’s eccentric bachelor cousin, is another character who seems very aware of his own code-switching. He’s only made one appearance so far (the Rostovs’ party, I.i.15-16), but he has the most fascinating speech patterns of ANYBODY – shifting freely between Russian folk expressions and very flowery French, often with a wink at his listeners. He’s being clever and entertaining and he knows it. I think he’s basically doing a sort of aristocratic 19th-century Russian equivalent of what TV Tropes calls “Sophisticated As Hell”.

5. The Kuragins apparently speak some English! I’m curious about how/where they would have learned it, and just how much they know. Early chapters show Anatol translating for an Englishman (I.i.6), and Ippolit randomly exclaiming “Capital!” at Anna Pavlovna’s soirée (I.i.4).

6. I was surprised to discover that Pierre and Andrei address each other with different levels of formality. Pierre addresses Andrei as вы (formal “you”), and Andrei addresses Pierre as ты (informal “you”). This is one of those things that just plain don’t translate into modern English. I guess it makes sense: Andrei’s older and a somewhat higher social class. But I was still surprised, and this makes me view their friendship a little differently.

7. And then I just love the way Tolstoy periodically comments on how his characters say things. Like: Anna Mikhailovna stressing the first syllable in her son’s name (“BO-ris”) to show affection, or the way the German officer at the Rostovs’ party speaks without palatalization (I had to read his dialogue out loud! not sure I’d ever heard German-accented Russian before), or the way m-lle Bourienne leans on a trilled “r” as if enjoying the sound of her own voice, and of course Denisov’s habit of never pronouncing an “r”.

dave malloy is only 42? i always just figured he was like. idk born to a farm maiden and a bard in the 15th century

мне понравилось, как сократили завершение этого монолога в советской экранизации

I loved this art so much I typed up the highlighted part into google translate until I had enough to search the book for in English and find the passage translated: Ah dear heart, lately it’s become hard for me to live. I see that I’ve begun to understand too much. And it’s not good for man to taste the tree of knowledge of good and evil…well it won’t be for too long! (tr. Pevear and Volokhonsky)

I hope you don’t mind this addition I just wanted to share this art: I really liked it!

Болконские, Курагины и Наташа с Соней

I have some fic I haven’t posted to Tumblr so while I’m here I’m posting a mini master list? I say mini because I never actually write anything.

Akhrosimova (if this is updated as a series like I planned I’ll note that) Marya, Ilya; 1775; w&p

Count Bezukhov’s Son Pierre, Andrei; 1800; w&p

Until They Both Fell Asleep Andrei, Princess Marya; 1806; w&p

We Write Letters (co-written with theparadigmshifts) Natasha, Pierre; 1812; great comet + w&p

That Dreadful Last Step Natasha, Pierre; 1813; w&p

How Can Anyone Sleep? Andrei; 1812 (presumably? timeline is confusing, maybe 1811), w&p

Character Lineup of my designs for War and Peace Combination of faces from adaptations and straight from my mind, this is mostly what I would see when I read the book, though it shifts a lot.

Pierre: tomorrow you must get out of Moscow!

Anatole:

hi i know the epilogue sucks and we all try to block it from our memory but i think we need to acknowledge the fact that w/ this line tolstoy basically just said “hey everyone, marya bolkonskaya is a lesbian”

dave malloy in a dark alley: alright. what’s next

the high school lit teacher who has been paying him off to compose based on books people should have read for class but didn’t: it’s moby dick, david