Book 14, Chapters 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

CHAPTER 11

 Petya begs Denisov to let him ride out to the heaviest part of the battle. Denisov agrees and Petya follows Dolokhov. He gets too excited, though, falls off his horse and is shot in the head. Meanwhile, Pierre is among the captives that are rescued that day.

CHAPTER 12

Pierre sees how the French army keeps deteriorating. He realizes that nothing is perfect and one hundred percent good in life, so why be unhappy? His prisoner friend, Karataev, becomes ill and Pierre refuses to interact anymore.

*Perhaps Pierre does not want to see Karataev anymore since he used to be a source of happiness and strength for him and, now that he's sick, his mortal side shows and scare Pierre.*

Important Quotes

 "Pierre did not know why, but since Karataev had begun to grow weaker it had cost him an effort to go near him."

Pierre: " He had learned that as there is no condition in which man can be happy and entirely free, so there is no condition in which he need be unhappy and lack freedom."

CHAPTER 13

Pierre goes up to Karataev as he's telling one of his stories. It is about an old man who is wrongfully convicted of murder. He takes the punishment though, because he claims that it's God's will, and dies happily.

Important Quotes

 [Pierre]: "His feeling of pity for this man frightened him and he wished to go away, but there was no other fire, and Pierre sat down, trying not to look at Platon."

Platon:  "How am I? If we grumble at sickness, God won't grant us death," replied Platon, and at once resumed the story he had begun."

[Old merchant in the story]:  '"am being punished for my own and other men's sins. But I have not killed anyone or taken anything that was not mine, but have only helped my poorer brothers. I was a merchant, my dear brothers, and had much property. 'And he went on to tell them all about it in due order. 'I don't grieve for myself,' he says, 'God, it seems, has chastened me."

CHAPTER 14

Pierre notices that Platon is staring at him, trying to get him to come over and talk. However, he ignores his look. Later on, he hears a shot from where Platon was sitting and sees two French soldiers running away with a gun. Platon's dog begins to howl miserably.

CHAPTER 15

Pierre thinks of the meaning of God and existence. Life is God, God is life. He thinks of Platon and that last look he gave him. Finally, the Russian soldiers come to free the prisoners. Denisov carries Petya's dead body to bury him. 

Important Quotes

Pierre: "Life is everything. Life is God. Everything changes and moves and that movement is God. And while there is life there is joy in consciousness of the divine. To love life is to love God. Harder and more blessed than all else is to love this life in one's sufferings, in innocent sufferings."

CHAPTER 16

The French army is in bad condition and Napoleon can't do anything to help.

Important Quotes

Napoleon: "And though they pretended to be concerned about the army, each was thinking only of himself and of how to get away quickly and save himself. "

CHAPTER 17

It's every man for himself now as the Russians are in hot pursuit of the French.

CHAPTER 18

Napoleon, some historians wish to believe, was a grand leader. However, he was the first to abandon his army and flee to save his own life.

Important Quotes

 "regarding this period of the campaign the historians, who attributed the actions of the mass to the will of one man, would have found it impossible to make the story of the retreat fit their theory. But no! Mountains of books have been written by the historians about this campaign, and everywhere are described Napoleon's arrangements, the maneuvers, and his profound plans which guided the army, as well as the military genius shown by his marshals."

 "Greatness," it seems, excludes the standards of right and wrong. For the "great" man nothing is wrong, there is no atrocity for which a "great" man can be blamed."

CHAPTER 19

Tolstoy describes how the Russians pursue the French.

Important Quotes

 "If the aim of the Russians consisted in cutting off and capturing Napoleon and his marshals—and that aim was not merely frustrated but all attempts to attain it were most shamefully baffled—then this last period of the campaign is quite rightly considered by the French to be a series of victories, and quite wrongly considered victorious by Russian historians."

"The Russian army had to act like a whip to a running animal. And the experienced driver knew it was better to hold the whip raised as a menace than to strike the running animal on the head."