Majicman Notes

The novel de­scribes the ut­ter dis­or­der and chaos of bat­tle. The or­ders of the gen­er­als on both sides of the Napoleonic war he chron­i­cles “were sel­dom car­ried out, and then only par­tially. For the most part the op­po­site hap­pened to what they en­joined. Sol­diers or­dered to ad­vance fell back on meet­ing grape-shot; sol­diers or­dered to re­main where they were, sud­denly, see­ing an un­expected body of the en­emy be­fore them, would turn tail or rush for­ward, and the cav­alry dashed un­bid­den in pur­suit of the fly­ing Russians.” Or­ders every­where, Tol­stoy writes, “fell vic­tim to the fear of death and a blind stam­pede in all di­rec­tions.” War, along with be­ing hell, is usu­ally marked by com­plete dis­array.

Add to the gen­eral chaos the role chance plays in it. 

Joseph Epstein, The Wall Street Journal

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