The Paris AtlasCharting the artists, works, and places worth returning to.

A character in War and Peace

Prince Andrew Bolkonski

A proud, clever officer who wants glory, finds it empty on the field at Austerlitz, and falls in love with Natasha.

What they want

He wants his life to mean something beyond himself, first through fame and later through love.

The book

War and PeaceLeo Tolstoy, 1869

Three young Russians grow up while Napoleon's armies march from Austerlitz to a burning Moscow and back out again.

View the book

Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Andrew is the son of a stern old general, old Prince Bolkonski, and the brother of Princess Mary. He is bored by his wife and by St Petersburg society, and he goes to war hoping for his moment of glory.

The book gives him that moment at Austerlitz and then takes away his belief in it. He comes back to life slowly, through an old oak tree, a girl at a window and a ball, and then loses it again.

How Prince Andrew Bolkonski Is Portrayed

Appearance, manner, and tone — as the book sketches them, in our words.

  • Leaving for the warIn Book I, Chapters XXV to XXVIII, he leaves his pregnant wife, Lise, with his father and sister at Bald Hills and goes off to serve under Kutuzov.
  • The flag at AusterlitzIn Book III, Chapter XVI, he snatches up the falling flag, runs ahead of his battalion, is hit, and lies on his back looking at the sky.
  • A small NapoleonIn Book III, Chapter XIX, Napoleon rides by and praises the wounded, and Andrew finds his hero petty beside the sky he has just seen.
  • Home too lateIn Book IV, Chapter IX, he reaches Bald Hills on the night Lise dies giving birth to their son.
  • The oakIn Book VI, Chapter I, he passes a huge bare oak in spring and decides it is right, that his life is finished. In Chapter III the same oak is in leaf.
  • Wounded at BorodinoIn Book X, Chapter XXXVI, a shell spins on the ground in front of him and explodes. In the dressing station he sees Anatole Kuragin's leg amputated and feels only pity.

Prince Andrew Bolkonski quotes

Lines spoken by or about Prince Andrew Bolkonski, each verified verbatim against the text and located in the book.

How is it I did not see that lofty sky before? How happy I am to have recognized it at last! Yes, all is vanity, all is falsehood, except that infinite heaven.
— Prince Andrew Bolkonski (thought) · Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace (1869), Book III, Chapter XVI, translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude
Yes, the oak is right, a thousand times right,
— Prince Andrew Bolkonski (thought) · Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace (1869), Book VI, Chapter I, translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude
Their ending, and the commentary — spoilers aheadHow the book leaves them, what happened after, and what the record says. Open when you're ready.

Natasha finds Andrew among the wounded the Rostovs are carrying out of Moscow, and she nurses him for weeks. They are reconciled. He dies in Yaroslavl, in Book XII, Chapter XVI, with Natasha and Princess Mary beside him and his young son brought in to say goodbye.

If you like War and Peace

Four books that share themes, tone, or setting with this one.

If you like Leo Tolstoy

Explore authors with a similar voice, perspective, and influence.

  • Illustrated portrait of Simone de Beauvoir

    Simone de Beauvoir

    French writer and philosopher whose novels, memoirs, and social analysis examined freedom, gender, responsibility, aging, and the material conditions that shape a life.

    View author
  • Illustrated portrait of Paul Bowles

    Paul Bowles

    American novelist and composer whose expatriate fiction explores dislocation, unstable intimacy, fatalism, and North Africa.

    View author
  • Illustrated portrait of Henry Miller

    Henry Miller

    The Brooklyn dropout who arrived in Paris broke at thirty-eight and wrote the exuberant, banned books that ended American censorship.

    View author
Back to War and Peace