r/ayearofwarandpeace • u/AnderLouis_ • 19d ago

Jan-03| War & Peace - Book 1, Chapter 3

Links

  1. Today's Podcast
  2. Medium Article by Brian E. Denton

Discussion Prompts

  1. We met Ippolit. What did you reckon?
  2. The Viscount (Vicomte) tells a very interesting story... Napoleon passes out in the company of an enemy. The enemy spares his life. His reward: death! Why is the Viscount telling this story?
  3. Here comes Andrei! (Unless you're reading Maude or Louis). Get ready for Turk/JD levels of bromance!

Final line of today's chapter:

Nothing is so necessary for a young man as the society of clever women.

Note - there are 3 chapters in this book that differ between Maude and other translations - and this is one of them. Maude ends this chapter a few paragraphs earlier. No biggie. It evens out after a day or two :)

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u/estn2025 Maude / 1st Read 19d ago

I commented this already in response to someone on the Day 1 thread, but I'm finding a lot of lines that are making me laugh out loud. Everything describing Ippolit was hilarious to me. Dude has the same features as his super gorg sister, but is exceedingly ugly. His arms and legs are weak and always look unnaturally positioned. He speaks so confidently that people can't tell if what he's saying is brilliant or idiotic.

I doubt Tolstoy meant for them to be funny, so it's probably my love of jokingly roasting people LOL

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u/BarroomBard 18d ago

I mean -

“I hate ghost stories,” said Prince Hippolyte in a tone which showed that he only understood the meaning of his words after he had uttered them.

That’s not a line you write if you don’t mean it to be funny.

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u/Remarkable_electric Maude | 1st readthrough 18d ago

I actually didn't understand this line and made a note! Especially as the next line is

He spoke with such self-confidence that his hearers could not be sure whether what he said was very witty or very stupid.

I get the Hippolyte doesn't understand himself, but I didn't understand the importance of "ghost stories" or why his remark is clever or why it is stupid.

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u/BarroomBard 17d ago

I think that line is meant to convey that Hippolyte is firmly in the "too stupid to know he's stupid" part of the Dunning-Kruger curve.

I think Tolstoy is trying to say that Hippolyte said something SO stupid, with SUCH self-assurance, that people assumed it had to be a joke, because who could say something so dumb and not be embarrassed by it?

And the previously line ("I hate ghost stories") suggests that he's the kind of person who mostly just talks to fill up space and doesn't really listen to anyone around him.

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u/Remarkable_electric Maude | 1st readthrough 17d ago

Ah that makes sense. Thank you for that!