Excellent, enjoyed this immensely. I remember you being similarly effusive on Dolokhov being a “good person” in another video. After a double-take I did wonder if Tom Burke Effect was in play, because the 2016 BBC adaptation has by far the most sympathetic portrayal of Dolokhov and TB was very charismatic in the role. However, Dolokhov in the novel is a malevolent agent of chaos and destruction, quite selfish and ruthless in manipulating the people around him, albeit with some redeeming(ish?) qualities. A question for you: if Dolokhov had not fallen - genuinely and devotedly - in love with Sonya, would you still be so willing to consider him “good”? Related, does it make a difference that so ruthless a “villain” is only able to love such a pure, loyal and selfless angel? Her, and only her? There’s probably a trope named for this dynamic. Speaking of Rostovs, have you seen the recent TV adaptation of A Gentleman in Moscow?
Actually no, though I do love Tom Burke I’ve had this opinion of him since I was young! It’s that scene where he bursts into tears over his mother and Nikolai goes to his house and finds out he’s a devoted son and sibling. That got me thinking and I re-analysed him. I think there’s a lot of Tolstoy in Dolokhov, especially his younger self, and In my opinion think he is a great example of what happens when you take a tender hearted person and put them into the army like that. It crushes a lot of what’s good and turns those emotions to the extreme and numbs him. We see that with like how he and denisov talk about the prisoners. There’s no doubting he’s a good soldier. how those values and qualities equatable with being a good or bad person is up to the reader I guess. And I think it’s his drive to support his family and feel like he has it all on his shoulders that leads him to do a lot of what he does, and he could quite easily have chosen a different path and that kind of character is so interesting to me 👀 He is kind of a Byronic antihero, every so often we see the cracks showing and the goodness poking through underneath- Sonya being one example and I think that time showed him what that version of his life could be like, but he’s too self sabotaging and like if he can take advantage of someone’s bad decisions he’s going to. I can’t remove Sonya from the equation because that’s so crucial to the understanding of his character given his history with women. I also think that my feelings about aristocracy play into this 😂 and some of the other characters, like I’m not the biggest fan of Nikolai so their incident doesn’t like massively affect my opinion of Dolokhov 🫢 As to a gentleman in Moscow, I haven’t yet! I think it’s on a service I don’t have, so I’m going to figure out a way I can watch it 😂
It’s a penguin edition translated by Anthony Briggs 👍🏽 I remember it being THE new acclaimed translation in the mid to late 00s and I first read the book in 2010 ish?
![Jessie Buckley & Aisling Loftus War and Peace interview [ with subtitles ]](/img/1.gif)
This was a journey! I had to re-film this because of audio and other techie issues but its finally here! i hope you enjoy it!
thank you for this😭 i opened the character intro page and nearly cried
@@ihxnf OMG 😂😭 it looks so intimidating doesn’t it 😭
Your Dolokhov character description at the end sold me🙃
Thanks for this. I'm about 170 pages in and the only real challenge so far is keeping track of who's who.
its so difficult isnt it! i'm thinking of doing one for Anna Karenina also but i'm trying to work out if its needed lol
Amazing. Just what i needed. Thank you!
Your voice is incredibly soothing! I have to admit War and Peace is definitely one I am intimidated by 😂
omg thats so kind of you! I hope this helped!
Thumbs up for Dolokhov and Tom Burke! Loved him in the novel, as well as in the BBC adaptation.
after making this i reaaally want to watch it again!
Hi Liberty, did you happen to see the comment I left on your twitter post about this video?
No I must have missed it!! I’m going over there now to have a look!
Excellent, enjoyed this immensely.
I remember you being similarly effusive on Dolokhov being a “good person” in another video. After a double-take I did wonder if Tom Burke Effect was in play, because the 2016 BBC adaptation has by far the most sympathetic portrayal of Dolokhov and TB was very charismatic in the role. However, Dolokhov in the novel is a malevolent agent of chaos and destruction, quite selfish and ruthless in manipulating the people around him, albeit with some redeeming(ish?) qualities.
A question for you: if Dolokhov had not fallen - genuinely and devotedly - in love with Sonya, would you still be so willing to consider him “good”? Related, does it make a difference that so ruthless a “villain” is only able to love such a pure, loyal and selfless angel? Her, and only her? There’s probably a trope named for this dynamic.
Speaking of Rostovs, have you seen the recent TV adaptation of A Gentleman in Moscow?
Actually no, though I do love Tom Burke I’ve had this opinion of him since I was young! It’s that scene where he bursts into tears over his mother and Nikolai goes to his house and finds out he’s a devoted son and sibling. That got me thinking and I re-analysed him.
I think there’s a lot of Tolstoy in Dolokhov, especially his younger self, and In my opinion think he is a great example of what happens when you take a tender hearted person and put them into the army like that. It crushes a lot of what’s good and turns those emotions to the extreme and numbs him. We see that with like how he and denisov talk about the prisoners. There’s no doubting he’s a good soldier. how those values and qualities equatable with being a good or bad person is up to the reader I guess.
And I think it’s his drive to support his family and feel like he has it all on his shoulders that leads him to do a lot of what he does, and he could quite easily have chosen a different path and that kind of character is so interesting to me 👀 He is kind of a Byronic antihero, every so often we see the cracks showing and the goodness poking through underneath- Sonya being one example and I think that time showed him what that version of his life could be like, but he’s too self sabotaging and like if he can take advantage of someone’s bad decisions he’s going to. I can’t remove Sonya from the equation because that’s so crucial to the understanding of his character given his history with women.
I also think that my feelings about aristocracy play into this 😂 and some of the other characters, like I’m not the biggest fan of Nikolai so their incident doesn’t like massively affect my opinion of Dolokhov 🫢
As to a gentleman in Moscow, I haven’t yet! I think it’s on a service I don’t have, so I’m going to figure out a way I can watch it 😂
I could talk about him all day as you see 😂
Which translation did you use?
It’s a penguin edition translated by Anthony Briggs 👍🏽 I remember it being THE new acclaimed translation in the mid to late 00s and I first read the book in 2010 ish?
For my re-read I’m going to try the Maude’s translation though 👍🏽