When, in War and Peace, young Nikolai Rostov first rides, into action with his fellow hussars against the French at Austerlitz, he feels that the longed-for time has come 'to experience the intoxication of a charge', about which he has heard so much. At first he is indeed elated, but then the unseen enemy suddenly becomes visible, Rostov's horse is shot under him, there is 'around him nothing but the still earth and the stubble'. Frenchmen approach. 'Who are they? Are they coming at me? Can they be running at me? And why? To kill me? Me whom everyone is so fond of?' His family's love makes it seem impossible that these people intend to kill him. Then as a Frenchman bears down with fixed bayonet, Nikolai flings his pistol at him and runs for the nearest bushes, possessed by 'a single unmixed instinct of fear for his young and happy life'.

LRB 20 June 1985 | PDF Download