Feb 06, 2011 05:03
The setting is Russia, near the battlefronts with Napoleon and the Grand Armee. The Russian troops are anxious and excited about their upcoming first engagements, and while they sit and wait for orders, an old grey-haired, gin blossomed Captain is giving a bit of knowledge to a young Ensign.
from War & Peace, Part II, Chapter IV.
"I am writing to her ... You see, my dear boy, we are plunged in slumber, we are the children of dust and ashes until we love ... but love, and you are a god, you are pure, as on the first day of creation ..."