Editing War and Peace (section)

===Book Four===
[[File:Napoleons retreat from moscow.jpg|thumb|[[Napoleon Bonaparte|Napoleon]]'s retreat from Moscow. Painting by [[Adolph Northen]] (1828–1876).]]
After his capture, Pierre believes he will be executed. In the end he is spared, but witnesses the execution of other prisoners with horror. Pierre becomes friends with a fellow prisoner, Platon Karataev, a Russian peasant with a saintly demeanor. In Karataev, Pierre finally finds what he has been seeking: an honest person of integrity, who is utterly without pretense. Pierre discovers meaning in life simply by interacting with him. After witnessing French soldiers sacking Moscow and shooting Russian civilians arbitrarily, Pierre is forced to march with the Grand Army during its disastrous retreat from Moscow in the harsh [[Russian Winter|Russian winter]]. After months of tribulation—during which the fever-plagued Karataev is shot by the French—Pierre is finally freed by a Russian raiding party led by Dolokhov and Denisov, after a small skirmish with the French that sees the young Petya Rostov killed in action.

Meanwhile, Andrei has been taken in and cared for by the Rostovs, fleeing from Moscow to [[Yaroslavl]]. He is reunited with Natasha and his sister Maria before the end of the war. In an internal transformation, he loses the fear of death and forgives Natasha in a last act before dying.

As the novel draws to a close, Pierre's wife Hélène dies from an overdose of an [[abortifacient]] (Tolstoy does not state it explicitly but the euphemism he uses is unambiguous). Pierre is reunited with Natasha, while the victorious Russians rebuild Moscow. Natasha speaks of Prince Andrei's death and Pierre of Karataev's. Both are aware of a growing bond between them in their bereavement.