The War & Peace Readalong: Week Three

This past weekend has been hectic but fun: I've eaten my way through multiple Lunar New Year celebrations starting on Thursday and sat around to watch the Oscars on Sunday night. As a result, I feel similar to the post-Christmas/Thanksgiving lethargy I get during the holiday season.  I'll have get back to working off all the weight I've probably gained!

1) Are you managing to keep all the characters straight in your head?

I've been having trouble with names, especially all the guys in the military. I have a notebook of names and brief descriptions that I flesh out as I get to know more about them.  I could save time by consulting this wikipedia page as my go-to cheat-sheet, but I find that writing the names down help me keep them in my head a little longer.

2) Have your tactics that we discussed in Week One changed since beginning this book?

My tactics haven't changed much - I'm still taking handwritten notes to help process my thoughts.  Instead of waiting until the weekend to get all my reading done, I read in short bursts here and there, so it feels more like I'm reading a serial rather than an intimidating tome.

3) Aww, poor Pierre. Do we feel sorry for him or is it his own fault for marrying for lust?

Pierre is a doofus... but I do feel sorry that he married Helene-the-gold-digger.  It was bad enough that he had to deal with all the rumors about Helene's affair with Dolokhov, and then he was forced to endure Dolokhov's insulting toast.  Though I found him to be an idiot immediately after he was introduced in the book, most of the idiocy is just naivete and not having a confidante-bro be real with him.  It was easy to see why he would end up being strung along Vasili/Helene's whims.  It's unfortunate that he only came to his senses after the duel, but at least he cut his losses and moved on to St. Petersburg a bit wiser (let's hope... see question 5).

4) Do you think Dolokhov will get his comeuppance - not only for sleeping with Helene, but for basically bankrupting Rostov?

What goes around comes around!  I sure hope that Dolokhov-the-con-man gets what's coming to him!  Just like the previous question, while I place 98% of the blame on Dolokhov being an evil man, 2% of it goes to Rostov for gambling in the first place.  He knew that his family was having financial problems, yet he chose to be irresponsible and live beyond his means.

5) Who knew the FREEMASONS were part of War & Peace!? How do you feel about this?

Going into this book, I did not know that the Freemasons were going to be involved in War & Peace! I honestly don't know what to make of it, but I'm glad that Pierre used his time with them to heal and gather the courage to tell off Vasili at their confrontation!  However, I was concerned that his new-found contentment left him vulnerable to those who saw an opportunity to yet again take advantage of his wealth and bliss.  

6) Do you think Tolstoy dislikes women as much as he seems to, or is it a form of satire? 

I believe he was just trying to accurately portray how women were treated during that time, but with a sexist lens congruous to his time. NOT COOL, Tolstoy.  However, it does seem that he's heavy-handed and over-the-top at times, so maybe he IS being satirical... *shakes magic 8-ball..."Reply hazy try again"*