War and Peace Volume 2 Book 5 Chapter 18

In which Rostóv visits the officers’ hospital ward and finds his acquaintance Denísov wounded and consumed by a stubborn resolve amid his comrades, who counsel a more pragmatic course. The chapter gently unveils the tensions between honour and survival as Denísov wrestles with the realities of a looming court-martial and the uneasy hope a pardon might bring.