All 47 Uses of
spectacle
in
War and Peace
- Although in female society Anatole usually assumed the role of a man tired of being run after by women, his vanity was flattered by the spectacle of his power over these three women.†
Chpt 3 (definition 1)
- The new decoration of the Premises contributed much to the magnificence of the spectacle.†
Chpt 6 (definition 1) *
- For them all, that old-fashioned house with its gigantic mirrors, pre-Revolution furniture, powdered footmen, and the stern shrewd old man (himself a relic of the past century) with his gentle daughter and the pretty Frenchwoman who were reverently devoted to him presented a majestic and agreeable spectacle.†
Chpt 8 (definition 1)
- These puffs of smoke and (strange to say) the sound of the firing produced the chief beauty of the spectacle.†
Chpt 10 (definition 1)
- The roar of guns, that had not ceased for ten hours, wearied the ear and gave a peculiar significance to the spectacle, as music does to tableaux vivants.†
Chpt 10 (definition 1)
- The terrible spectacle of the battlefield covered with dead and wounded, together with the heaviness of his head and the news that some twenty generals he knew personally had been killed or wounded, and the consciousness of the impotence of his once mighty arm, produced an unexpected impression on Napoleon who usually liked to look at the killed and wounded, thereby, he considered, testing his strength of mind.†
Chpt 10 (definition 1)
- One would have thought that under the almost incredibly wretched conditions the Russian soldiers were in at that time—lacking warm boots and sheepskin coats, without a roof over their heads, in the snow with eighteen degrees of frost, and without even full rations (the commissariat did not always keep up with the troops)—they would have presented a very sad and depressing spectacle.†
Chpt 15 (definition 1)
- If so much has been and still is written about the Berezina, on the French side this is only because at the broken bridge across that river the calamities their army had been previously enduring were suddenly concentrated at one moment into a tragic spectacle that remained in every memory, and on the Russian side merely because in Petersburg—far from the seat of war—a plan (again one of Pfuel's) had been devised to catch Napoleon in a strategic trap at the Berezina River.†
Chpt 15 (definition 1)
Uses with a very rare meaning:
- One of the next arrivals was a stout, heavily built young man with close-cropped hair, spectacles, the light-colored breeches fashionable at that time, a very high ruffle, and a brown dress coat.†
Chpt 1 (definition 2)
- Pierre looked solemnly at his audience over his spectacles and continued.†
Chpt 1 (definition 2)
- Pierre looked over his spectacles with naive surprise, now at him and now at her, moved as if about to rise too, but changed his mind.†
Chpt 1 (definition 2)
- Pierre took off his spectacles, which made his face seem different and the good-natured expression still more apparent, and gazed at his friend in amazement.†
Chpt 1 (definition 2)
- When Boris appeared at his door Pierre was pacing up and down his room, stopping occasionally at a corner to make menacing gestures at the wall, as if running a sword through an invisible foe, and glaring savagely over his spectacles, and then again resuming his walk, muttering indistinct words, shrugging his shoulders and gesticulating.†
Chpt 1 (definition 2)
- Pierre, in order to make Boris' better acquaintance, promised to come to dinner, and warmly pressing his hand looked affectionately over his spectacles into Boris' eyes.†
Chpt 1 (definition 2)
- The countess tried to make him talk, but he went on naively looking around through his spectacles as if in search of somebody and answered all her questions in monosyllables.†
Chpt 1 (definition 2)
- Pierre approached, looking at her in a childlike way through his spectacles.†
Chpt 1 (definition 2)
- "But really, hadn't I better go away?" he asked, looking kindly at her over his spectacles.†
Chpt 1 (definition 2)
- This action was so unlike her usual composure and the fear depicted on Prince Vasili's face so out of keeping with his dignity that Pierre stopped and glanced inquiringly over his spectacles at his guide.†
Chpt 1 (definition 2)
- Pierre looked at her over his spectacles.†
Chpt 1 (definition 2) *
- When Prince Andrew entered the study the old man in his old-age spectacles and white dressing gown, in which he received no one but his son, sat at the table writing.†
Chpt 1 (definition 2)
- "Oh, take those off…. those…." she said, pointing to his spectacles.†
Chpt 3 (definition 2)
- Pierre took them off, and his eyes, besides the strange look eyes have from which spectacles have just been removed, had also a frightened and inquiring look.†
Chpt 3 (definition 2)
- "It's because she was in love with that fat one in spectacles" (that was how Petya described his namesake, the new Count Bezukhov) "and now she's in love with that singer" (he meant Natasha's Italian singing master), "that's why she's ashamed!"†
Chpt 3 (definition 2)
- Pierre, who at his wife's command had let his hair grow and abandoned his spectacles, went about the rooms fashionably dressed but looking sad and dull.†
Chpt 4 (definition 2)
- The unsolved problem that tormented him was caused by hints given by the princess, his cousin, at Moscow, concerning Dolokhov's intimacy with his wife, and by an anonymous letter he had received that morning, which in the mean jocular way common to anonymous letters said that he saw badly through his spectacles, but that his wife's connection with Dolokhov was a secret to no one but himself.†
Chpt 4 (definition 2)
- Pierre looked at her timidly over his spectacles, and like a hare surrounded by hounds who lays back her ears and continues to crouch motionless before her enemies, he tried to continue reading.†
Chpt 4 (definition 2)
- Without changing his careless attitude, Pierre looked at them over his spectacles unable to understand what they wanted or how they could go on living without having solved the problems that so absorbed him.†
Chpt 5 (definition 2)
- Pierre looked silently and inquiringly at him over his spectacles.†
Chpt 5 (definition 2)
- Pierre embraced him and lifting his spectacles kissed his friend on the cheek and looked at him closely.†
Chpt 5 (definition 2)
- "Really?" said Pierre, gazing over his spectacles with curiosity and seriousness (for which Princess Mary was specially grateful to him) into Ivanushka's face, who, seeing that she was being spoken about, looked round at them all with crafty eyes.†
Chpt 5 (definition 2)
- His eyes, looking serenely and steadily at Rostov, seemed to be veiled by something, as if screened by blue spectacles of conventionality.†
Chpt 5 (definition 2)
- And that stout one in spectacles is the universal Freemason," she went on, indicating Pierre.†
Chpt 6 (definition 2)
- A deep furrow ran across his forehead, and standing by a window he stared over his spectacles seeing no one.†
Chpt 6 (definition 2)
- Pelageya Danilovna Melyukova, a broadly built, energetic woman wearing spectacles, sat in the drawing room in a loose dress, surrounded by her daughters whom she was trying to keep from feeling dull.†
Chpt 7 (definition 2)
- Pelageya Danilovna, having given orders to clear the rooms for the visitors and arranged about refreshments for the gentry and the serfs, went about among the mummers without removing her spectacles, peering into their faces with a suppressed smile and failing to recognize any of them.†
Chpt 7 (definition 2)
- And suddenly that father whom she had judged would look for his spectacles in her presence, fumbling near them and not seeing them, or would forget something that had just occurred, or take a false step with his failing legs and turn to see if anyone had noticed his feebleness, or, worst of all, at dinner when there were no visitors to excite him would suddenly fall asleep, letting his napkin drop and his shaking head sink over his plate.†
Chpt 8 (definition 2)
- Marya Dmitrievna, with her spectacles hanging down on her nose and her head flung back, stood in the hall doorway looking with a stern, grim face at the new arrivals.†
Chpt 8 (definition 2)
- He felt the tears trickle under his spectacles and hoped they would not be noticed.†
Chpt 8 (definition 2)
- He became still more absorbed in his task when the Russian general entered, and after glancing over his spectacles at Balashev's face, which was animated by the beauty of the morning and by his talk with Murat, he did not rise or even stir, but scowled still more and sneered malevolently.†
Chpt 9 (definition 2)
- When Michael Ivanovich returned to the study with the letter, the old prince, with spectacles on and a shade over his eyes, was sitting at his open bureau with screened candles, holding a paper in his outstretched hand, and in a somewhat dramatic attitude was reading his manuscript—his "Remarks" as he termed it—which was to be transmitted to the Emperor after his death.†
Chpt 10 (definition 2)
- He had the letter taken from his pocket and the table—on which stood a glass of lemonade and a spiral wax candle—moved close to the bed, and putting on his spectacles he began reading.†
Chpt 10 (definition 2)
- On hearing that Prince Andrew had come, he went out with his spectacles on his nose, buttoning his coat, and, hastily stepping up, without a word began weeping and kissing Prince Andrew's knee.†
Chpt 10 (definition 2)
- "Oh!" said Pierre, looking over his spectacles in perplexity at Prince Andrew.†
Chpt 10 (definition 2)
- Pierre went to his groom who was holding his horses and, asking which was the quietest, clambered onto it, seized it by the mane, and turning out his toes pressed his heels against its sides and, feeling that his spectacles were slipping off but unable to let go of the mane and reins, he galloped after the general, causing the staff officers to smile as they watched him from the knoll.†
Chpt 10 (definition 2)
- She spoke in a soft, tremulous voice, and in the weary eyes that looked over her spectacles Sonya read all that the countess meant to convey with these words.†
Chpt 12 (definition 2)
- Davout, spectacles on nose, sat bent over a table at the further end of the room.†
Chpt 12 (definition 2)
- But before he had decided what to do, Davout raised his head, pushed his spectacles back on his forehead, screwed up his eyes, and looked intently at him.†
Chpt 12 (definition 2)
Definitions:
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(1) (spectacle) a notable or unusual event that attracts attention
-
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus) The term spectacles is also used to refer to eyeglasses.