All 17 Uses of
wretched
in
War and Peace
- Tell me what this wretched war is for?" she added, addressing Prince Vasili, and without waiting for an answer she turned to speak to his daughter, the beautiful Helene.†
Chpt 1
- My wretched lawsuit takes all I have and makes no progress.†
Chpt 1 *
- A member of the Hofkriegsrath from Vienna had come to Kutuzov the day before with proposals and demands for him to join up with the army of the Archduke Ferdinand and Mack, and Kutuzov, not considering this junction advisable, meant, among other arguments in support of his view, to show the Austrian general the wretched state in which the troops arrived from Russia.†
Chpt 2
- "If we get to Vienna I'll get rid of it there but in these wretched little towns there's nowhere to spend it," said he.†
Chpt 2
- … Don't ruin a young fellow…. here is this wretched money, take it…."†
Chpt 2
- If we were in Vienna it would be easy, but here, in this wretched Moravian hole, it is more difficult, and I beg you all to help me.†
Chpt 2
- Their squadron remained in reserve and Nicholas Rostov spent that day in a dull and wretched mood.†
Chpt 3
- He did not even remember how formerly, on the strength of similar wretched logical arguments, it had seemed obvious that he would be degrading himself if he now, after the lessons he had had in life, allowed himself to believe in the possibility of being useful and in the possibility of happiness or love.†
Chpt 6
- "For God's sake, I implore you, come at once if you do not wish to make me and the whole family wretched," wrote the countess.†
Chpt 7
- Napoleon Bonaparte was despised by all as long as he was great, but now that he has become a wretched comedian the Emperor Francis wants to offer him his daughter in an illegal marriage.†
Chpt 8
- With a sinking heart, wretched as she always was now when she found herself in a crowd, Natasha in her lilac silk dress trimmed with black lace walked—as women can walk—with the more repose and stateliness the greater the pain and shame in her soul.†
Chpt 9
- What a wretched idea to go and bury themselves in the steppes when the French army is in Moscow.†
Chpt 11
- …of a terrible attack of angina pectoris, but in intimate circles details were mentioned of how the private physician of the Queen of Spain had prescribed small doses of a certain drug to produce a certain effect; but Helene, tortured by the fact that the old count suspected her and that her husband to whom she had written (that wretched, profligate Pierre) had not replied, had suddenly taken a very large dose of the drug, and had died in agony before assistance could be rendered her.†
Chpt 12
- He screwed up his eyes with a dissatisfied look as he gazed attentively and fixedly at these prisoners, who presented a specially wretched appearance.†
Chpt 15
- 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
- The farther they fled the more wretched became the plight of the remnant, especially after the Berezina, on which (in consequence of the Petersburg plan) special hopes had been placed by the Russians, and the keener grew the passions of the Russian commanders, who blamed one another and Kutuzov most of all.†
Chpt 15
- Having borrowed money from his brother-in-law, Nicholas tried to hide his wretched condition from him.†
Chpt 15
Definition:
-
(wretched) very badin various senses, including:
- unfortunate or miserable -- as in "wretched prisoners sleeping on the cold floor"
- of poor quality -- as in "wretched roads"
- morally bad -- as in "The wretched woman stole his wallet."