War and Peace, Book 12: 1812, Chapter 4 summary
Book 12: 1812, Chapter 4 of 365 · 8 min to read the chapter
In Chapter 4, the narrator challenges heroic accounts of wartime conduct, while Nicholas Rostóv happily leaves his regiment to buy horses in Vorónezh. His successful purchase and enthusiastic welcome at the governor’s party show private pleasure continuing amid war, as local society admires him and encourages marriage.
What happens
- The narrator argues that private concerns drive useful action, while deliberate patriotic efforts often prove useless.
- Nicholas receives money and warrants before Borodinó and gladly leaves for Vorónezh to purchase replacement horses.
- After enjoying the journey away from army life, Nicholas visits the militia commander and the helpful governor.
- Nicholas buys seventeen stallions for six thousand rubles from a friendly landowner and returns for the governor’s gathering.
- The guests admire Nicholas, women flirt with him, and people begin trying to arrange his marriage.
- Nicholas dances freely and attends to an official’s wife, whose growing excitement contrasts with her husband’s gloom.
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What does Nicholas purchase from the landowner?
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