David Pierce,

Sorry it took so long to respond. All I mean to say about Tolstoy’s theory of history and Andrei’s story is that, just as Tolstoy argues that there are multiple explanations for a historical event, many unseen and unnoticed, so too there are many reasons for a person’s behavior, many unseen and unnoticed. So perhaps if Andrei could have refrained from taking the most obvious explanation for Natasha’s improprieties, he might not have decided to chase after Anatole and join the army and get fatally wounded at Borodino.