A Quiet Life in the Country

A Quiet Life in the Country

This post pertains to the last class, but is still, I think relevant to War & Peace as a whole. I am interested in the role of setting in this work. Last class we asked what qualifies as "real life," the warfront, or the homefront. We also discussed the influence of nature upon the characters, such as the comet Pierre sees, or the old oak tree that Andrew contemplates. I'd also like to draw our attention to the setting in general. Several scenes in War & Peace are divided between the country estates and the urban cities, Petersburg and Moscow. In Book 6, chapter 2, Andrew muses on the toll his relocation from Bogucharovo to Petersburg is taking on his piece of mind:

During the first weeks of his stay in Petersburg Prince Andrew felt the whole trend of thought he had formed during his life of seclusion quite overshadowed by the trifling cares that engrossed him in that city...The mechanism of life, the arrangement of the day so as to be in time everywhere, absorbed the greater part of his vital energy. He did nothing, did not even think or find time to think, but only talked, and talked successfully, of what he had thought while in the country. (378-9)

Is Tolstoy suggesting that a pastoral landscape is preferable to an urban one? I feel that we could also draw into this discussion the divisions between Moscow and Petersburg that are mentioned in the novel, such as in Book 6, chapter 6, where the Rostov family relocates and its social circle changes.