War & Peace Podnotes, A Study Guide

The guests at Anna Pavlovna's event are leaving. The horse carriages and coats are readied by the footmen. Prince Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov enjoy briefly interacting with one another. They are two of the great characters of literature and throughout the novel they are not together all that often, so these are special moments.Tolstoy gives a physical description of Pierre: uncommonly tall, stout and large reddish hands. Whenever entering or leaving a room, he does so clumsily. At the party, instead of his own hat, he grabs the three-cornered hat of a General. He has a huge heart to go along with his frame. A level of favor seems to follow him, like many a Bible character with a pure essence. Tolstoy was heavily influenced by Scripture.Prince Andrei has no interest in conversing with the society crowd - but he has a warm affinity towards Pierre and looks forward to conversing with him after the soirée.The scene shifts to Andrei's study, where Pierre picks out Julius Caesar's Commentaries.