Lost in Lualand

Have actually locked in on War and Peace, lately, although I feel like my thoughts on this book are basically just going to alternate between "this idiot (affectionate)" about Pierre and "this idiot (derogatory)" about Nikolai for the next however many months. (I'm 1.25 months and 20% in, so... six months?) As it is, the narrative has briefly checked in on all characters on the "peace" side of the plot: Pierre has had his head immediately turned by wealth and flattery and been social-pressured into a marriage with the beautiful but incompatible Helene Kuragina; on the Bolkonsky family estate, Vasili Kuragin tried to marry off his wastrel son Anatole to poor Princess Mary and Prince Andrei's poor, doomed wife Lise is having a bad time being pregnant and isolated with her husband's weird family while he's off fighting the French; the Rostovs received a letter from Nikolai and the younger ones had a conversation full of dramatic irony in light of their turns of fate later in the novel. Now we're back to the War, where Nikolai Rostov has racked up debts, keeps being rude to people for no particular reason, and has a raging crush on Emperor Alexander, while his childhood friend Boris Drubetskoy is busy networking.