Book 3, Chapters 16, 17, 18, 19

CHAPTER 16

 Andrew and Kutuzov walk along when, suddenly, the French attack them. Kutuzov is injured and none of the soldiers know what to do. Kutuzov keeps telling them to charge after the French who shot him, but none move. Finally, Andrew charges, realizing that this is his moment to prove his valor. Andrew falls on the field, looking up to the sky.

Important Quotes

Andrew: "And how happy I am to have found it at last! Yes! All is vanity, all falsehood, except that infinite sky. There is nothing, nothing, but that. But even it does not exist, there is nothing but quiet and peace. Thank God!..."

CHAPTER 17

Rostov is sent to deliver a message to the Emperor as Bagration stalls to enter into battle. On the way there, he sees a battle that has broken out. Boris is happy that he finally was able to be first in line to shoot while Berg, wounded, brags about how bravely he fought. Rostov notices other people firing, almost run down by the cavalry (which he considers fighting with for a second). Finally, word spreads that the allies, the Austrians and Russians, were firing at each other. 

Important Quotes

"Rostov hesitated whether to gallop after them or to go where he was sent. This was the brilliant charge of the Horse Guards that amazed the French themselves. Rostov was horrified to hear later that of all that mass of huge and handsome men, of all those brilliant, rich youths, officers and cadets, who had galloped past him on their thousand-ruble horses, only eighteen were left after the charge."

CHAPTER 18

News reaches Rostov that the emperor has been badly wounded. He sees the emperor lying in a ditch and prepares to deliver the message from Bagration to him, but can't. He is too consumed by admiration and fear for the emperor's life that he rides away. From the distance, he sees another soldier who has stopped to help Alexander and Rostov feels intense regret and self-hatred for not being in that soldier's place and helping the emperor. Meanwhile, the Russian army is not doing well and Dolokhov and only ten others make it out alive. The French continue to bomb them and the only way out is to cross a frozen pond. The pond holds for those on foot, but soon gives way as those on horseback try crossing. The French continue to fire. Some try to cross the cracked pond while others flee back into the French fire.

*Rostov, still young, thinks of the emperor as untouchable and perfect. To see such a man in pain is unthinkable and shocking to him since he regards him as a god*

Important Quotes

"Rostov considered, and then went in the direction where they said he would be killed."

"[Rostov] put his horse to a trot to avoid seeing all these suffering men, and he felt afraid—afraid not for his life, but for the courage he needed and which he knew would not stand the sight of these unfortunates."

"...besides, what can I say to him now, when my heart fails me and my mouth feels dry at the mere sight of him?" Not one of the innumerable speeches addressed to the Emperor that he had composed in his imagination could he now recall. Those speeches were intended for quite other conditions, they were for the most part to be spoken at a moment of victory and triumph, generally when he was dying of wounds and the sovereign had thanked him for heroic deeds, and while dying he expressed the love his actions had proved."

CHAPTER 19

 Andrew is picked up from the field by Napoleon's men as he is bleeding out. He realizes that everything is insignificant, even Napoleon, compared to the moments before death. He is taken to where the other wounded are, contemplating the significance of life. He wishes things could be as simple as the crucifix that his sister, Mary, gave him before he left for war.

Important Quotes

"That's a fine death!" said Napoleon as he gazed at Bolkonski.
Prince Andrew understood that this was said of him and that it was Napoleon who said it."

"He knew it was Napoleon—his hero—but at that moment Napoleon seemed to him such a small, insignificant creature compared with what was passing now between himself and that lofty infinite sky with the clouds flying over it. At that moment it meant nothing to him who might be standing over him, or what was said of him; he was only glad that people were standing near him and only wished that they would help him and bring him back to life, which seemed to him so beautiful now that he had today learned to understand it so differently."

"Looking into Napoleon's eyes Prince Andrew thought of the insignificance of greatness, the unimportance of life which no one could understand, and the still greater unimportance of death, the meaning of which no one alive could understand or explain."

Andrew: "it would be good if everything were as clear and simple as it seems to Mary. How good it would be to know where to seek for help in this life, and what to expect after it beyond the grave!"