PicoBlog

“Come here; part the bets!” So enters Dolokhov into our story, that “notorious gambler and duellist” with “clear blue eyes.” He bets an Englishman fifty imperials he can drink a whole bottle of rum while sitting on the outer windowsill. And, of course, he wins and is happy to let Pierre try his luck after him. Dolokhov is a 25-year-old infantry officer of “small means and no connections” who lives at great expense to Anatole, who looks up to him.

A wild night of rum, “actresses”, and an unfortunate incident with a bear and a policeman results in Dolokhov being reduced in the ranks. Marya Karagina mentions his mother, Marya Ivanovna Dolokhova, “a worthy woman.”

Having been reduced to the ranks for the incident with the bear, Dolokhov is now in Austria in a fancy blue coat. When ordered to change his attire, he says he will obey orders but will not endure insults. He stares down his commanding officer, who moderates his tone and requests that Dolokhov change his coat.

Dolokhov has every intention of glaring his way back into the officers’ ranks. He vows to show his courage in the next engagement and tells Zerkhov he won’t drink or gamble until he is reinstated. The regimental commander asks Dolokhov’s captain, Timokhin, about “his character”. Here we learn that he is sometimes “sensible, well educated and good-natured” and the next day, “wild”. We learnt the alarming news that “he nearly killed a Jew” in Poland.

Should we be surprised to learn that Dolokhov is with Bagration’s regiment on this suicide mission? Probably not. And he’s at the front taunting the French: “Devil skin your emperor.” His comrades don’t speak French, so they enjoy the spectacle.

He is fighting with Timokhin when they rescue the regiment from being outflanked by the French. He makes a point of showing the commander his “trophies”, a French sword and pouch, as well as his bayonet wound. “I remained at the front. Remember, your Excellency!”

Late in the day at the Battle of Austerlitz, we find Dolokhov on the edge of an icy pond, pursued by the French army. He is now an officer and wounded in the arm and on foot. He is the first to step onto the ice, calling at the others to follow. Many follow him, and the ice breaks. But we don’t see what happens to Dolokhov.

OK, so Dolokhov is alive and well and living with Pierre. According to Anna Mikhailovna, he has “compromised” Helene.

Who on earth arranged the seating plan at Bagration’s dinner? Dolokhov, with his new mate Rostov, is sitting opposite a glum-looking Pierre Bezukhov.

“To kill a man means nothing to him,” thinks Pierre, who admits he is afraid of Dolokhov. When Dolokhov makes a toast to beautiful women and then snatches a songsheet from Pierre’s hands, Pierre challenges him to a duel.

Later that night, he tells Nikolai how to fight a duel. Go in with the intention to kill. Don’t make a will or write letters. Expect to survive, and all will be well. Rostov will be his second in the duel.

The next morning, Dolokhov says, “No apologies” and no reconciliation. They take their pistols and go to the barriers.

Dolokhov is wounded and misses Pierre. Rostov and Denisov take him away. He thinks he is dying and can think only of his mother. He sends Nikolai to his family to prepare them:

Rostov went on ahead to fulfil the request, and to his great surprise learned that Dolokhov the brawler, Dolokhov the bully, lived in Moscow with an old mother and a hunchback sister, and was the most affectionate of sons and brothers.

Dolokhov recovers at home with his mother, who defends him to the hilt. He befriends Nikolai and provides him with this chilling self-portrait:

‘I know people consider me a bad man!’ he said. ‘Let them! I don’t care a straw about anyone but those I love; but those I love, I love so that I would give my life for them, and the others I’d throttle if they stood in my way. I have an adored, a priceless mother, and two or three friends—you among them, and as for the rest I only care about them in so far as they are harmful or useful. And most of them are harmful, especially the women.’

He says he has not yet met a woman with the "divine purity and devotion” that would make him give his life for. Not long after this, he meets Sonya. Natasha is the only person at the Rostov house who does not like him, and tells Nikolai that he has fallen in love with Sonya.

Dolokhov proposes to Sonya, and she refuses.

After Sonya’s rejection, Dolokhov stays away from the Rostovs. Then, before leaving for the regiment, he invites Nikolai to a farewell feast. There, between two candles, he challenges Rostov to cards. “Or are you afraid of me?” he asks as the stakes get higher. Dolokhov believes only fools trust in luck and brags about his reputation as a cardsharp.

The card game continues, but it is no game. Rostov mounts up a forty-three thousand rouble debt, to be paid tomorrow to the man with the red hands. “When did it begin?” Rostov asks himself as he tries to pinpoint the moment he slipped from happiness to misery. “And I did not realize how happy I was!” he thinks. Dolokhov makes it clear what this is about: Lucky in love, unlucky in cards. “Your cousin is in love with you.”

Dolokhov is back, styling himself as ‘The Persian’ and turning heads with his pal Anatole.

Anatole had been sent to Moscow by his father, who was keen to see him wed. He stayed with Pierre, took his money and spent it freely, mostly on gipsy-girls and French actresses. When Dolokhov turned up in town, he made use of Kuragin to attract rich men to his gambling set. Natasha is ‘first-rate… but not for us’, he warns Anatole. He reminds Kuragin that he has already once made the mistake of chasing unmarried young women. Two years ago, in Poland, a landowner forced him to marry his daughter.

Anatole is living with Dolokhov in his man cave, resplendent with bearskins, weapons and Persian rugs. He, Dolokhov, has arranged everything for Natasha’s abduction but still tries to talk Anatole out of this ‘dangerous’ and ‘stupid business.’ A troika driver called Balaga arrives, and Anatole instructs him to ride the horses ‘to death’ forty miles out of Moscow, where Anatole will wed Natasha.

Anatole puts on a jaunty sable cap and says his farewells. Dolokhov fetches a cloak for Natasha, and they all head to the Rostovs. A maidservant lets Anatole in, but Gavrilo, the gigantic footman, bars his path. We have been betrayed, shouts Dolokhov as the two make a hurried and desperate escape.

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