This chapter had quite a lot going on and went from Peace to War with several interesting character evolutions. First off, the whole business with Pierre and Helene. Now that Pierre has a fortune, he seems characterized by a more malleable will, opposite his assertive, albeit awkward, intellectualism at the beginning of the book. Or perhaps the author is portraying his money as easing that abrasiveness? I'm not sure yet. Only that Pierre is coming off much less sure of himself now that he has so many resources and the "courtship" of Helene seems perfunctory and amusing in that Pierre seems so easily led about it all. Helene, also, comes off differently here than at the start. In the first chapters, she was portrayed as an ethereal beauty, well-favored by all and when she spoke, it was rare but measured in its import. In this section, she comes off less intelligent and almost desperate in her lures to catch the now extremely eligible and desirably rich Pierre. All of the assumptions of the match will it into being without too much intentional action. The players merely drift into the marriage pact and the social maneuvering bordered on hilarious.

Shifting to the battlefield, though, the action grew more focused and urgent. Price Andrew (Bolkonsky) is finding his groove and maturing and setting the young callow youths from earlier on his path -- Boris and Rostov -- provides dynamics and interactions for the reader to view several concurrent perspectives of the emotions and actions wrought by War. Bolkonsky's inclination to mentor Boris evinces both a favoring of experiences close to his own as an adjutant and Boris' own emergent maturity. His dust-up with Rostov wherein they duel over different roles and feelings about battle provides a view from two spectrums of going to war -- the idealistic soldier youth still romantic about fighting for a nation and the elder, diplomatic man who has seen battle, its conflicting receptions, and its longer-ranging impacts. The irony of how the section ends is not lost on me -- Bolkonsky actually doing something heroic in battle, rushing to take up the felled standard, and getting injured and captured by the French, disillusioned and dismissive of the French attempts to call him a "hero" versus Rostov's intense boy-crush on the ideal the Emporer represents, his fantasies of saving him, and then him coming late to a battle already fought, seeing the Emperor felled and needing help, yet passing him up because he's so intimidated by the ideal, he does not go help the man. And when another takes up that task, Rostov merely envies and regrets from a distance. It's an interesting way to end the section with these two different consequences and reactions to that same battle. And it leaves me wanting to know what happens next, which is a good thing.

Re: the reading, I am sometimes jarred by the shifts in POV. It's definitely an omniscent POV narrative voice, but there are times, in the thick of battle, when the Author inserts himself saying "we" and "us" and "our great nation" as if the patriotism of the characters forces him to come out from behind the screen to join them. I always pause in those moments, disoriented. I'm getting used to Tolstoy doing this, but I'm not sure why he did so -- if it's an intentional jarring perhaps for the reader to be thrust into the action as part of the "we" or of his intentionally letting us know he is forgetting himself to insert himself into the tale. It's a minor aesthetic thing I picked up on, but definitely lingers for me. I do like how he shifts characterizations as the story moves along. It makes each section fresh for me because I discover new layers of character and motivation and behavior and for a long novel, that's important to keep things lively and interesting. I'm still trying to get a sense of what the narrative is illuminating (or uncovering) in terms of how the women are portrayed. So far, it's been focused on the wiles of women to ingratiate themselves into favor for social, political or wealth gains. Anna Pavlova is still a bit of a cipher for me, albeit a seemingly intelligent and savvy one. Little Natasha earlier on charmed me with her independent forthrightness, especially when she got a kiss from Boris, but we have not seen her since. Boris' mother did the whole Machievellian thing with Pierre and Count Vasilli, which portrays her as wily or mercenary, depending on how one wishes to interpret it. I felt it was intended to come off mercenary to the other characters, yet I found her wily. I'm interested to see how these portrayals evolve as the story goes on.

What are other folks' thoughts of how reactions to battle are being portrayed as well as how the women seem to be portrayed in the novel so far?