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I'm nearly finished with the body of the novel. I'm up to the part where Dolokhov and Denisov are chasing the French out of Russia.

Tolstoy needed another tragedy, and Petya was a perfect candidate for sacrifice.

🦹‍♂️ Supervillain Tolstoy

....Petya rushes into battle ahead of the cossacks to either prove his bravery or just to see action. There was absolutely no need for him to rush ahead of more experienced fighters into the fray of bullets. Yet he was so excited to see some action that he put himself in harms way unnecessarily.....

Take a look at this....it is astonishing! It is a depiction of the numbers in Napoleon's army during the march towards and then away from Moscow.

Take a look at this....it is astonishing! It is a depiction of the size of Napoleon's army during the march towards (in red) and then away from (in black) Moscow. Click link for bigger picture.

Take a look at this....it is astonishing! It is a depiction of the size of Napoleon's army during the march towards (in red) and then away from (in black) Moscow. Click link for bigger picture.

Back from the conference. As promised, here are a couple of comments on the chapters describing Petya's last days.
--You may remember that the night before he is killed, he has this interesting experience of hearing some cosmic music (vol. 4, part 3, ch. X); scholars have argued that this is a pretty accurate description of Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Petya is said to be very musical and compared to Natasha; Nikolai, too, as we know, has musical sensitivity (recall him being transported by Natasha's singing after his card loss to Dolokhov). Tolstoy wasn't a Romantic but he continues the Romantic tradition of linking music to intuition, irrationality, prophecy, etc., which is why I think he gives this musical sensibility to the Rostovs.

--Speaking of Dolokhov, he continues to play an almost demonic role in destroying the Rostovs: making Nikolai lose big, helping Anatol' with (nearly) kidnapping and dishonoring Natasha; and now, figuratively killing Petya. Petya is absolutely enamored with Dolokhov's image as a hero and, while trying to emulate and impress him, gallops to his death.

--I find it fascinating how Tolstoy describes Petya's actual death; he uses his technique of defamiliarization again (although in a less extended form than in the opera section). Instead of telling us right away that Petia is mortally wounded, Tolstoy shows us the effect of him being shot but it takes us some time to realize it. He describes it as if Petia is just riding the horse funny, but he’s already dead (or almost dead). Tolstoy even writes, “Petia galloped,” and grammatically it seems that Petia is still alive, still has agency, still galloping, but he’s clearly no longer in control of the horse, it's just his body.

There are more things to talk about, like Petya's friendship with the French drum boy, etc. In general, it seems to me that Petya is reminiscent of the younger Nikolai but he never gets to "grow up." He's one of the more minor but memorable characters, I'd say.

(All of this is not meant to be a lecture but just some thoughts/findings. Feel free to disagree or ignore).

I finished the main body of the novel. TS, you mentioned it was unnecessary to read the epilogue, but I think I should to find out more about the future of Natasha and Pierre, and Nikolai and Maria. I just am taking a break for a week or two.

I find that even despite the fact that the novel is very long, some things seemed to occur and wrap up rather quickly. Petya's scene is an example of this. He gave him a chapter or two, very late in the novel, and he came and went....just like that.

I just finished the novel. I will look at the Epilogue later. I am a little disappointed in the ending, or lack thereof. However, I am glad I have read this great novel. Thank you for introducing me to it. Okay, now on to "Anna Karenina." Or "The Count of Monte Cristo?"