War and Peace · Character
the civil servant
- Minor
- First seen · Book 1 · Ch. 261
He has the blank, burdened look of a man absorbed by the next awkward task, his whiskers and carefully arranged hair oddly precise against his rumpled labor. He moves trunks and garments without ceremony, seeming more like a function of the household’s commotion than its master.
- Gender
- male
- Age
- adult
- First appears
- Book 1 · Ch. 261
- Books
- 1
The civil servant appears in a brief domestic scene, shifting trunks and dragging garments while his family is nearby. Tolstoy marks him by his round shoulders, sausage-shaped whiskers, and expressionless face, but gives him no further personal history or arc.
Description
He is short and round-shouldered, with sausage-shaped whiskers and hair brushed smoothly forward over his temples beneath a square-set cap. His expression is notably blank. He wears the undress uniform of a civilian official, and his unassuming, practical presence is that of a man occupied with physical chores.
Connections
Family & partnersFriends & mentorsRivals
Pierre Bezúkhovrescuer and father of the child
Pierre helps the distressed civil servant’s family by searching a burning building and rescuing his youngest daughter.
Story so far
BOOK 1War and Peace
Appearances
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