Book 11, Chapters 30, 31, 32, 33, 34

CHAPTER 30

The Rostovs make their way out of Moscow slowly due to all the injured soldiers they bring along. Their servants watch Moscow go up in flames from afar.

CHAPTER 31

Sonya tells Natasha that Andrew is traveling with them among the wounded. This makes Natasha want to see him and she isn't at peace until she does. Each night, they hear a wounded man crying out in pain and Natasha knows it's him. She sneaks out to see him and they seem to greet each other happily.

CHAPTER 32

Andrew recalls how he was wounded and how he got where he is. He is consumed by one thought--loving ones enemy. He remembers Natasha and wishes to see her and, as he thinks this, she appears. She asks forgiveness and he tells her that he loves her more than before. She nurses him the whole time.

Important Quotes

Andrew: "His mind was not in a normal state. A healthy man usually thinks of, feels, and remembers innumerable things simultaneously, but has the power and will to select one sequence of thoughts or events on which to fix his whole attention"

 "Yes—love," [Andrew] thought again quite clearly. "But not love which loves for something, for some quality, for some purpose, or for some reason, but the love which I—while dying—first experienced when I saw my enemy and yet loved him. I experienced that feeling of love which is the very essence of the soul and does not require an object. Now again I feel that bliss. To love one's neighbors, to love one's enemies, to love everything, to love God in all His manifestations. It is possible to love someone dear to you with human love, but an enemy can only be loved by divine love.

" Though with the intimacy now established between the wounded man and Natásha the thought occurred that should he recover their former engagement would be renewed, no one—least of all Natásha and Prince Andrew—spoke of this: the unsettled question of life and death, which hung not only over Bolkónski but over all Russia, shut out all other considerations."

CHAPTER 33

Pierre is disgusted with himself for talking so much with the French soldier, Ramballe. He wants to continue to carry out him plan to kill Napoleon to prove to himself that he's a man of his word. On his way to kill him, he sees a family who has forgotten their child in the fire. He goes to help them save her, which gives him a sense of pride and youthfulness. Upon finding the child, though, he is repulsed and forces himself to not leave her behind.

Important Quotes
  
Pierre: "But as his chief aim consisted not in carrying out his design, but in proving to himself that he would not abandon his intention and was doing all he could to achieve it, Pierre hastily took the blunt jagged dagger in a green sheath which he had bought at the Sukharev market with the pistol, and hid it under his waistcoat."

Pierre:  "But Pierre did not know this; he was entirely absorbed in what lay before him, and was tortured—as those are who obstinately undertake a task that is impossible for them not because of its difficulty but because of its incompatibility with their natures—by the fear of weakening at the decisive moment and so losing his self-esteem."

CHAPTER 34

Pierre brings the little girl to safety and leaves her with some other peasants. As he sees French soldiers stealing from a Russian couple, he goes to fight them. As a result, he's taken prisoner.