War and Peace

by Leo Tolstoy

The conversation struck him as interesting, so he stood there waiting for a chance to launch forth with his own ideas, as young people are wont to do.

:)

It will be a happy man who wins her. A man with no social skills would occupy a brilliant place in society beside her, don’t you think?

Lol, what a jab at Pierre. And to his face, too! Anna Pavlova is obviously after his money by pairing him off with Helene. What a vicious seed she’s planted in his young, vulnerable mind.

Hélène looked round at Pierre and treated him to one of the bright and beautiful smiles which everyone received from her. Pierre was so used to it, this smile that meant so little to him, that he virtually ignored it.

Oof.

He could sense the warmth of her body, the aroma of her perfume, and he could hear the slight creaking of her corset as she breathed.

What lovely imagery.

At that moment Pierre suddenly felt that Hélène not only could, but must, become his wife – it had to be so.

Ensnared!!

Pierre had decided that marriage to Hélène would be a disaster and he must avoid her and get away

Probably a good instinct.

that he could never recover his former attitude towards her, that he couldn’t possibly tear himself away from her and that even though it would all work out horribly he would have to unite his life to hers.

How awful that he’s been pressured by society into this disaster.

Then it suddenly seemed to him that he was the extraordinarily good-looking one, not Hélène, and that was why they were all looking at him, and there he was, revelling in the general admiration, sitting up straight, tilting his head and rejoicing in his happiness.

Pierre is so naive about money and manipulation. What a sweetie. :’(

‘Thank God!’ he said. ‘My wife has told me.’ He put one arm around Pierre, the other around his daughter. ‘My dear boy! Hélène! I am so very pleased.’ His voice quavered. ‘I was so fond of your father … and she will make you a good wife … God bless you both!’

Lol what fucking manipulation is this?!! Pierre, stand up for yourself!

Pierre held his fiancée’s hand in silence and gazed at the rise and fall of her superb bosom.

Lol @ male gaze writing

He looked on life as one long party that someone was bound to arrange for him.

Great character introduction.

your happiness in life depends on your decision.

‘My vocation is different,’ Princess Marya was telling herself. ‘My happiness will be in other people’s happiness, the happiness of love and self-sacrifice.

But he was at that stage of a young man’s life when he thinks he is too busy for that sort of thing and he is reluctant to tie himself down because freedom is so precious and necessary when there is so much to be done.

she’s a dissolute woman.

Pierre was one of those characters who seem on the outside to be weak but who do not share their troubles with other people. He worked through his troubles on his own.

‘We … er … we’d better … separate,’ he stammered out. ‘Yes, let’s! As long as you look after me financially,’ said Hélène. ‘Separation! Some threat!’

Within a week Pierre had made over to his wife the title to all his estates in Great Russia, which constituted the larger part of his property, and had gone back to Petersburg alone.