Andrey Nikolayevich Bolkonsky
Encyclopedia
Prince Andrei Nikolaevich Bolkonsky (Russian: Андрей Николаевич Болконский Andrej Nikolaevič Bolkonskij) is a fictional character in Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...

's novel War and Peace
War and Peace
War and Peace is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in 1869. The work is epic in scale and is regarded as one of the most important works of world literature...

.

Laura Jepsen explains that unlike "many of the other characters for whom the author found living prototypes, Prince Andrey is entirely fictitious."

Brief background

At the beginning of the novel, the handsome and intellectual Andrei, disillusioned with married life and finding his wife preoccupied with trivialities, becomes an officer in the Third Coalition against his idol, Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...

. He leaves his pregnant wife, Lise, to live at Bald Hills in the countryside with his father and sister, while he goes to war.

Andrei is wounded at the Battle of Austerlitz. He has an epiphany while lying on the battlefield gazing up at the vastness of the blue sky, realising that he has the potential to be happy. Shortly afterwards, Andrei is rescued from the battlefield by Napoleon, who takes a liking to him. However, Prince Andrei is not listed among the dead or the officers taken prisoner, leading his father and sister to assume the worst. Neither inform Lise that he is unaccounted-for, fearing to cause her any anxiety in the final stages of her pregnancy. Andrei arrives, fully recovered, while his wife is in labour and sees her briefly before she dies in childbirth. The child, a boy, survives.

Disillusioned with war, Andrei spends the following years serving under his father. In 1809, Andrei is recalled to Petersburg, where he is formally introduced to Countess Natasha Rostova
Natasha Rostova
Countess Natalya "Natasha" Ilyinichna Rostova is a central fictional character in Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace.-Biography:...

 for the first time. Andrei wishes to marry Natasha, but his father expresses concern: he does not wish to see his son rush into a marriage with a woman half his age, and socially below him. Old Prince Bolkonsky demands that they wait a year before marrying. Andrei proposes marriage to Natasha, who happily accepts, though she is upset by the one-year wait. In the meantime Andrei decides to tour Europe.

In Andrei's absence, however Natasha develops an infatuation with the libertine Prince Anatole Kuragin and plans to elope with him. She is stopped by her cousin Sonya, who suspects that Anatole is already married to another woman.

Andrei's engagement with Natasha is broken off, and he receives news of the death of his father, Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky. He decides to go off and fight again in the war with Napoleon. At Borodino
Battle of Borodino
The Battle of Borodino , fought on September 7, 1812, was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the French invasion of Russia and all Napoleonic Wars, involving more than 250,000 troops and resulting in at least 70,000 casualties...

 he is hit by a grenade
Grenade
A grenade is a small explosive device that is projected a safe distance away by its user. Soldiers called grenadiers specialize in the use of grenades. The term hand grenade refers any grenade designed to be hand thrown. Grenade Launchers are firearms designed to fire explosive projectile grenades...

 and seriously wounded in the stomach. While in agony, he sees Anatole, whose leg is amputated due to war wounds, and realizes that he has the capability to forgive both Anatole and Natasha, and that he still loves her. He is driven back to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

, where Sonya (Natasha's cousin) notices him when the Rostovs are helping transport wounded soldiers. Eventually, Natasha discovers, and they are reunited. Although she tries to nurse him back to his health, his wounds are too serious, and Prince Andrei dies in Natasha's care.

External links

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