Like many gay people who go to the theatre, I was deeply affected by the Broadway musical Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 when I saw it at the Imperial Theater this past January. In particular, I was intrigued by the character of Pierre Bezukhov. Who was this “sad old man living out his final days in Moscow,” who “sees a sickness in the world that everyone knows but pretends that they don’t see” and “has no sex”? What was the nature of his feelings for the dashing, equally depressed, young officer Andrei Bolkonsky? I had to know more.
Immediately after the show, I bought an ebook of War and Peace, the iconic novel on which Great Comet is based. Unfortunately, as it turns out, I lead a very busy life, and War and Peace is a very long book. As such, I have yet to reach any of the novel’s major plot points or even meet any of its major characters; according to Google Books, I am 0.053% of the way through reading it. However I am pleased to report that Tolstoy has not failed to deliver a generous number of references to Pierre’s social isolation, loneliness, and tender feelings for his male friends. Here are a sampling of the passages I have highlighted so far.
#1: The first moment when Pierre and Andrei interact
#2: When Andrei advises Pierre never to get married
#3: When Andrei’s wife leaves the room crying because of how much time Andrei is spending with Pierre, and Andrei continues to tell Pierre not to get married
#4: When Pierre is shown to be hated and ostracized by his entire extended family for no specified reason (i.e. because he is gay)
#5: When Pierre meets a cute boy
The Niche 
this is literally the best thing ive ever read. im 61 pages into war and peace and god damn.
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you’re a beautiful genius and just yeah this is beautiful now I need to read the book AAAAAAAHHHIEEEEE
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Oh Pierre 😀 Also, I’m reading it in Hungarian: Pierre always uses formal with Andrei but Andrei uses informal with him.
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I love this but. It is not true that all his extended family hate Pierre for no specified reason. The most recent notable thing Pierre did was get kicked out of Petersburg for too much partying, and also tying a policeman to a bear and throwing the bear in a river. Like you’re right but the police bear incident is not nothing. (Also he’s a bastard, and a favorite so more competition for the impending inheritance) (But the bear thing was most recent, probably what they’re speaking of here, and just fucking outrageous)
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Also Pierre is very silly and friends with Anatole who is The Worst and refuses to get a job and is not good at the whole complex social machinations during parties stuff and just generally you are very right on every other point but at this point the two princesses have a LOT of other reasons to hate Pierre
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How about at the end of chapter 1 in book 6, Andrew think I no about his attraction to the young girls at Rostrof’s estate is puzzled and “Andrei clasping his hands behind his back, would walk long up and down the room, sometimes scowling, sometimes smiling, thinking over the preposterous, inexpressible, mysterious, almost criminal ideas connected with Pierre…..
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