Chapter Summaries: Dole: Pierre's reflections after the duel. His recollections of Ellen's behavior. "Right or wrong?" Pierre and Ellen. Pierre's righteous indignation. Separation.
Briggs: Pierre and Helene have a furious argument. He sends her away.
Maude: Pierre's separation from Helene
Pevear and Volkhonsky: Pierre's ruminations. He breaks with Helene and leaves for Petersburg.
Translations:
VI.
Pierre in latter times had seldom seen his wife eye to eye. In Petersburg, and their Moscow house had constantly been full of guests. On the next night after the duel, he, as he often did, did not go into the bedroom, but stayed in his father’s huge office, in the very room in which Count Bezuhov died.
He lay down on the sofa and wanted to fall asleep, so that to forget all that was with him, but he could not do this. Such a storm of feeling, thoughts, and memories suddenly went up in his soul that he could not only not sleep, but he could not sit in one location and should jump from the couch and with quick steps walk by the room. That he presented her for the first time after marriage, with open shoulders and a tired, passionate look, and immediately the same nearby her presented the beautiful, arrogant and firmly mocking face of Dolohov, how it was at the dinner, and that same face of Dolohov, pale, trembling and suffering, how it was when he turned and fell into the snow.
"How was it? — he asked himself. — I killed the lover, yes, killed the lover of my wife. Yes, this was. From what? How did I reach to this? — Because of how you married her," — was the response of an inner voice.
"But in the same am I to blame? — he asked. — In that you married and did not love her, in that you deceived yourself and her, — and he lively presented that minute after dinner at Prince Vasiliy’s, when he said those absent from him words: I love you.397 All from this! I then felt, he thought, I felt then that this was not in the right. And so it exited." He remembered the honey month, and red in these recollections. Especially lively, offensively and shamefully was for him the memory about how once, soon after his marriage, he at the 12th hour of the day, in a silk smock came from the bedroom into the office, and in the office caught the main manager, who respectfully bowed, looked at the face of Pierre in his bathrobe and smiled a little, how expressed this smile respectful empathy and happiness for their principal.
"But how much time I was proud of her, proud of her majestic beauty, her societal tact, he thought; proud that his house, in which she accepted all of Petersburg, proud of her inaccessibility and beauty. So here I am proud of?! I so thought that I did not understand her. How often, pondering at her character, I spoke to myself that I was to blame, that I did not understand her, did not understand this everlasting calmness, satisfaction and lack of all addictions and desires, but all the clues were in this scary word that she was a lecherous woman: I said myself this is a scary word, and all has become clear!
"Anatole drove to her to occupy her money and kissed her on her naked shoulders. She did not give him money, but allowed him to kiss herself. Her father, jokingly, excited her jealousy; she with a calm smile said that she was not so stupid, so that to be jealous: let him make what he wants to, she said about me. I asked her once, whether she does not feel the signs of pregnancy. She laughed contemptuously and said that she was not a fool so that to want to have children, and that from me she will not have children."
Then he remembered the rudeness and clarity of her thoughts and vulgar expression, inherent in her, despite her upbringing in higher aristocratic circles. "I am not some fool... go try yourself... get out."398 she said. Often, looking at her success in the eyes of the old and young men and women, Pierre could not understand, from what he did not love her. Yes I never loved her, spoke Pierre to himself; I knew that she was a lecherous woman, he repeated to himself, but did not dare admit this.
"And now Dolohov, here he sits in the snow and forcibly smiles, and dies, maybe, how feigned is the youth answering my remorse!"
Pierre was one of those people that, despite his external so called weakness of character, did not search for an attorney for his grief. He made into one and himself his grief.
"She to all, to all she alone is to blame, — he spoke to himself; — but what is from this? What for am I tied with her, what for did I say to her this: I love you?399 which was a lie and still worse than a lie, he spoke to himself. I am to blame and should carry... what? Shame of name, misfortune of life? Eh, all is nonsense, — he thought, — and shame of name, and honor, all conditionally, all whatever from me.
"Louis XVI was executed for that they said that he was dishonorable and criminal (had come into Pierre’s head), and they were right from their points of view, so the same as right as those, which for him were dying a martyrdom death and ranked him to the face of saints. Then Robespierre was executed for that he was a despot. Who is right, who is to blame? Nothing. But alive and live: tomorrow you die, as I could have died an hour to that backwards. And whether the cost of this suffering to live stays one second in comparison with eternity?" — but at that moment, as he counted himself reassured against such a family of reasoning, he suddenly presented her in those minutes, when he strongly only showed her his insincere love, and he felt the flow of blood to his heart, and should again get up, move, and break, and to tear across the things below his hands. "What for did I say to her:"Je vous aime? (I love you)" he all repeated to himself. And repeating this question for the tenth time, to his head came Molière’s: but for how did the devil incur him on this galley?400 And he bursted out laughing to himself.
At night he called the valet and told him to fit so to go to Petersburg. He could not stay with her under one roof. He could not represent himself, as he would now come to speak with her. He decided that tomorrow he will leave and will leave her a letter, which will announce to her his intention to forever part with her.
In the morning, when the valet brought in coffee, entering into the office, Pierre lied on the ottoman and with a disclosed book in his hand slept.
He woke up and for long scaredly looked around at the not in his forces to understand where he was.
— The countess ordered to ask, whether your excellency is at home, — asked the valet.
But Pierre did not have more time to decide in an answer, which to do, as the countess herself in a white, satin smock, sewn silver, and in simple hair (two huge braids in a diadem401 went around her pretty head two times) entered into the room calmly and majestically; only on the marble of her convex forehead was a few wrinkles of anger. She with her all-sustaining calmness did not begin to speak to the valet. She knew about the duel and had come to speak about it. She waited while the valet set up the coffee and got out. Pierre timidly through glasses looked at her, and, as a hare, surrounded by dogs, clutching its ears, continues to lie in the view of its enemies, so he tried to continue to read: but felt that this was pointless and impossible and again timidly looked at her. She did not sit, and with a contemptuous smile watched him, expecting while came the valet.
— This is still what? What have you done, I ask, — she said strictly.
— I? What have I? — said Pierre.
— Here the brave man is found! Well, answer, what is behind this duel? What would you like to prove by this! What? I ask you. — Pierre heavily turned on the couch, opened his mouth, but could not answer.
— If you do not answer, then I say to you... — continued Elen. — You believe all that is said to you. You have said... — Elen laughed, — that Dolohov is my lover, — she said in French, with her brute precision of speech, neglecting the word "lover", as it was all another word, — and you believed it! But what the same have you proved by this? What have you proved by this duel? That, that you are a fool, que vous êtes un sot, so this is known by all! To what does this lead? To that, for I am made a laughing stock throughout Moscow; to that, so if any said that you in drunkenness see, not remembering yourself, called onto to duel a man, whom you without foundations are jealous of, — Elen in all more and more an exalted voice and animated, — who is better than you in all relations...
— Ahem... ahem... — bellowed Pierre, grimacing, not looking at her and not stirring by one member.
— And why could you believe that he is my lover?... Why? Because of how I love his society? Should you have been smarter and more pleasant, then I would have preferred your.
— Do not speak with me... I beg, — hoarsely whispered Pierre.
— From what I am not to speak! I can speak and boldly say that rare is the wife who is with such a husband as you, would not take lovers (des amants) for themselves, but I did not do this, — she said. Pierre wanted to say something, looked at her strange eyes, which had expressions she did not understand, and again lied down. He physically suffered at this moment: his chest was embarrassed, and he could not breathe. He knew that he needed to do something, so that to stop this suffering, but that what he wanted to do was too fearful.
— We better part, — he spoke intermittently.
— Part, kindly, only should you give me state, — said Elen... — part, here scared!
Pierre jumped up from the couch and staggeringly rushed to her.
— I will kill you! — he shouted, and grabbing from the desk a marble board, with a still unknown to him force, made a step to her and swung at her.
The face of Elen was made fearful: she screeched and bounced off from him. The breed of his father affected him. Pierre felt enthusiasm and the beauty of madness. He threw the board, broke it and, with open hands approached Elen, and shouted: "out!!" in so terrible of a voice, that all of the house with horror heard this shout. God knows what Pierre would have done in this moment, if Elen would not have run out of the room.
In a week Pierre gave his wife power of attorney in control of all his Great Russian estates, what formed more than half of his state, and one left in Petersburg.
397. "Je vous aime" ("I love you")
398. allez vous promener, (you go for a walk,)
399. "Je vous aime" ("I love you")
400. mais que diable allait il faire dans cette galère? (but what the devil was he going to do in this difficult situation?)
401. en diadème (in diadem)
Time: the night after the duel. the following day in the morning. A week later (within a week in Dunnigan).
Mentioned: Dolokhov at the dinner, the duel, when Pierre said "Je vous aime", Pierre's honeymoon, when Anatol asked Helene for money and kissed her, when Pierre asked if Helene was pregnant, when Louis XVI was executed, when Robespierre was executed.
Locations: Count Bezukhi's house.
Mentioned: St. Petersburg, Moscow, the house of Prince Vasili, Great-Russian (Great Russia in Maude, Dunnigan, and Mandelker.)
Pevear and Volkhonsky: Going to Pierre’s side of the reaction, “tormenting” is the operative word. He goes to where his father died and can’t sleep as his memories rush past him, perhaps like they did for Andrei and Rostov in the previous part. Pierre does historicizing, tracing back the actions that lead him to this moment and to this action. But notice that he starts blaming his wife for his issues. But we also get, via the inner monologuing, the filling in of the gaps of his story, with the Anatole incest and his wife telling him she would not have his children. Emphasis on her being a “depraved woman”, the inverse of the monologue when he saw that he would inevitably marry her.
Briggs: Pierre and Helene have a furious argument. He sends her away.
Maude: Pierre's separation from Helene
Pevear and Volkhonsky: Pierre's ruminations. He breaks with Helene and leaves for Petersburg.
Translations:
VI.
Pierre in latter times had seldom seen his wife eye to eye. In Petersburg, and their Moscow house had constantly been full of guests. On the next night after the duel, he, as he often did, did not go into the bedroom, but stayed in his father’s huge office, in the very room in which Count Bezuhov died.
He lay down on the sofa and wanted to fall asleep, so that to forget all that was with him, but he could not do this. Such a storm of feeling, thoughts, and memories suddenly went up in his soul that he could not only not sleep, but he could not sit in one location and should jump from the couch and with quick steps walk by the room. That he presented her for the first time after marriage, with open shoulders and a tired, passionate look, and immediately the same nearby her presented the beautiful, arrogant and firmly mocking face of Dolohov, how it was at the dinner, and that same face of Dolohov, pale, trembling and suffering, how it was when he turned and fell into the snow.
"How was it? — he asked himself. — I killed the lover, yes, killed the lover of my wife. Yes, this was. From what? How did I reach to this? — Because of how you married her," — was the response of an inner voice.
"But in the same am I to blame? — he asked. — In that you married and did not love her, in that you deceived yourself and her, — and he lively presented that minute after dinner at Prince Vasiliy’s, when he said those absent from him words: I love you.397 All from this! I then felt, he thought, I felt then that this was not in the right. And so it exited." He remembered the honey month, and red in these recollections. Especially lively, offensively and shamefully was for him the memory about how once, soon after his marriage, he at the 12th hour of the day, in a silk smock came from the bedroom into the office, and in the office caught the main manager, who respectfully bowed, looked at the face of Pierre in his bathrobe and smiled a little, how expressed this smile respectful empathy and happiness for their principal.
"But how much time I was proud of her, proud of her majestic beauty, her societal tact, he thought; proud that his house, in which she accepted all of Petersburg, proud of her inaccessibility and beauty. So here I am proud of?! I so thought that I did not understand her. How often, pondering at her character, I spoke to myself that I was to blame, that I did not understand her, did not understand this everlasting calmness, satisfaction and lack of all addictions and desires, but all the clues were in this scary word that she was a lecherous woman: I said myself this is a scary word, and all has become clear!
"Anatole drove to her to occupy her money and kissed her on her naked shoulders. She did not give him money, but allowed him to kiss herself. Her father, jokingly, excited her jealousy; she with a calm smile said that she was not so stupid, so that to be jealous: let him make what he wants to, she said about me. I asked her once, whether she does not feel the signs of pregnancy. She laughed contemptuously and said that she was not a fool so that to want to have children, and that from me she will not have children."
Then he remembered the rudeness and clarity of her thoughts and vulgar expression, inherent in her, despite her upbringing in higher aristocratic circles. "I am not some fool... go try yourself... get out."398 she said. Often, looking at her success in the eyes of the old and young men and women, Pierre could not understand, from what he did not love her. Yes I never loved her, spoke Pierre to himself; I knew that she was a lecherous woman, he repeated to himself, but did not dare admit this.
"And now Dolohov, here he sits in the snow and forcibly smiles, and dies, maybe, how feigned is the youth answering my remorse!"
Pierre was one of those people that, despite his external so called weakness of character, did not search for an attorney for his grief. He made into one and himself his grief.
"She to all, to all she alone is to blame, — he spoke to himself; — but what is from this? What for am I tied with her, what for did I say to her this: I love you?399 which was a lie and still worse than a lie, he spoke to himself. I am to blame and should carry... what? Shame of name, misfortune of life? Eh, all is nonsense, — he thought, — and shame of name, and honor, all conditionally, all whatever from me.
"Louis XVI was executed for that they said that he was dishonorable and criminal (had come into Pierre’s head), and they were right from their points of view, so the same as right as those, which for him were dying a martyrdom death and ranked him to the face of saints. Then Robespierre was executed for that he was a despot. Who is right, who is to blame? Nothing. But alive and live: tomorrow you die, as I could have died an hour to that backwards. And whether the cost of this suffering to live stays one second in comparison with eternity?" — but at that moment, as he counted himself reassured against such a family of reasoning, he suddenly presented her in those minutes, when he strongly only showed her his insincere love, and he felt the flow of blood to his heart, and should again get up, move, and break, and to tear across the things below his hands. "What for did I say to her:"Je vous aime? (I love you)" he all repeated to himself. And repeating this question for the tenth time, to his head came Molière’s: but for how did the devil incur him on this galley?400 And he bursted out laughing to himself.
At night he called the valet and told him to fit so to go to Petersburg. He could not stay with her under one roof. He could not represent himself, as he would now come to speak with her. He decided that tomorrow he will leave and will leave her a letter, which will announce to her his intention to forever part with her.
In the morning, when the valet brought in coffee, entering into the office, Pierre lied on the ottoman and with a disclosed book in his hand slept.
He woke up and for long scaredly looked around at the not in his forces to understand where he was.
— The countess ordered to ask, whether your excellency is at home, — asked the valet.
But Pierre did not have more time to decide in an answer, which to do, as the countess herself in a white, satin smock, sewn silver, and in simple hair (two huge braids in a diadem401 went around her pretty head two times) entered into the room calmly and majestically; only on the marble of her convex forehead was a few wrinkles of anger. She with her all-sustaining calmness did not begin to speak to the valet. She knew about the duel and had come to speak about it. She waited while the valet set up the coffee and got out. Pierre timidly through glasses looked at her, and, as a hare, surrounded by dogs, clutching its ears, continues to lie in the view of its enemies, so he tried to continue to read: but felt that this was pointless and impossible and again timidly looked at her. She did not sit, and with a contemptuous smile watched him, expecting while came the valet.
— This is still what? What have you done, I ask, — she said strictly.
— I? What have I? — said Pierre.
— Here the brave man is found! Well, answer, what is behind this duel? What would you like to prove by this! What? I ask you. — Pierre heavily turned on the couch, opened his mouth, but could not answer.
— If you do not answer, then I say to you... — continued Elen. — You believe all that is said to you. You have said... — Elen laughed, — that Dolohov is my lover, — she said in French, with her brute precision of speech, neglecting the word "lover", as it was all another word, — and you believed it! But what the same have you proved by this? What have you proved by this duel? That, that you are a fool, que vous êtes un sot, so this is known by all! To what does this lead? To that, for I am made a laughing stock throughout Moscow; to that, so if any said that you in drunkenness see, not remembering yourself, called onto to duel a man, whom you without foundations are jealous of, — Elen in all more and more an exalted voice and animated, — who is better than you in all relations...
— Ahem... ahem... — bellowed Pierre, grimacing, not looking at her and not stirring by one member.
— And why could you believe that he is my lover?... Why? Because of how I love his society? Should you have been smarter and more pleasant, then I would have preferred your.
— Do not speak with me... I beg, — hoarsely whispered Pierre.
— From what I am not to speak! I can speak and boldly say that rare is the wife who is with such a husband as you, would not take lovers (des amants) for themselves, but I did not do this, — she said. Pierre wanted to say something, looked at her strange eyes, which had expressions she did not understand, and again lied down. He physically suffered at this moment: his chest was embarrassed, and he could not breathe. He knew that he needed to do something, so that to stop this suffering, but that what he wanted to do was too fearful.
— We better part, — he spoke intermittently.
— Part, kindly, only should you give me state, — said Elen... — part, here scared!
Pierre jumped up from the couch and staggeringly rushed to her.
— I will kill you! — he shouted, and grabbing from the desk a marble board, with a still unknown to him force, made a step to her and swung at her.
The face of Elen was made fearful: she screeched and bounced off from him. The breed of his father affected him. Pierre felt enthusiasm and the beauty of madness. He threw the board, broke it and, with open hands approached Elen, and shouted: "out!!" in so terrible of a voice, that all of the house with horror heard this shout. God knows what Pierre would have done in this moment, if Elen would not have run out of the room.
In a week Pierre gave his wife power of attorney in control of all his Great Russian estates, what formed more than half of his state, and one left in Petersburg.
397. "Je vous aime" ("I love you")
398. allez vous promener, (you go for a walk,)
399. "Je vous aime" ("I love you")
400. mais que diable allait il faire dans cette galère? (but what the devil was he going to do in this difficult situation?)
401. en diadème (in diadem)
Time: the night after the duel. the following day in the morning. A week later (within a week in Dunnigan).
Mentioned: Dolokhov at the dinner, the duel, when Pierre said "Je vous aime", Pierre's honeymoon, when Anatol asked Helene for money and kissed her, when Pierre asked if Helene was pregnant, when Louis XVI was executed, when Robespierre was executed.
Locations: Count Bezukhi's house.
Mentioned: St. Petersburg, Moscow, the house of Prince Vasili, Great-Russian (Great Russia in Maude, Dunnigan, and Mandelker.)
Pevear and Volkhonsky: Going to Pierre’s side of the reaction, “tormenting” is the operative word. He goes to where his father died and can’t sleep as his memories rush past him, perhaps like they did for Andrei and Rostov in the previous part. Pierre does historicizing, tracing back the actions that lead him to this moment and to this action. But notice that he starts blaming his wife for his issues. But we also get, via the inner monologuing, the filling in of the gaps of his story, with the Anatole incest and his wife telling him she would not have his children. Emphasis on her being a “depraved woman”, the inverse of the monologue when he saw that he would inevitably marry her.
Pierre, perhaps importantly, keeps all this grief to himself.
Compares his actions or the way actions work, to the French revolution, looking at the contrasting executions of Louis XVI and Robespierre, and embracing nihilism. “Who’s right and who’s wring? No one. You’re alive--so live: tomorrow
you’ll die, just as I could have died an hour ago.”
you’ll die, just as I could have died an hour ago.”
Resolves to leave Moscow, where we have been since the start of Book 2 and go back to St. Petersburg.
Helene mocks Pierre for the duel, simultaneously denying and affirming the affair.
When Helene continues to mock and, importantly, threatens to take a fortune, Pierre becomes violent and threatens her.
Awkward sentence: “His father’s blood told in him.”
“God knows what Pierre would have done at that moment if Helene had not run out of the room.”
Line break after this before the brief summation of what happened next before the chapter break.
Characters (characters who do not appear, but are mentioned are placed in italics. First appearances are in Bold. First mentions are underlined. Final appearance denoted by *):
Pierre
Ellen (also “wife” and “countess”)
Count Bezhukhoi (also “his father”)
Dolokhof (also “wife’s paramour” or “lover”)
Prince Vasili (also “her father”)
Anatol
Louis XVI
Robespierre
Pierre’s valet (there is no reason to think this is a previously referenced valet)
(a Moliere phrase is referenced, but I don’t think we should consider him a character.)
Abridged Versions: Line break before final paragraph in Briggs, Wiener, Dole, Garnett, Maude and Mandelker.
End of chapter 13 for Bell.
Gibian: Chapter 6: Line break after "Helene had not fled the room".
Gibian: Chapter 6: Line break after "Helene had not fled the room".
Fuller: The first bit about Pierre not seeing his wife alone often is removed. All the internal monologuing before the valet says his wife has asked if he was home has been removed. After the fight, there is a line break where Ellen
gets her power of attorney. Attached to that tidbit is a moved piece of information about Rostov not being degraded in the ranks because it was hushed up and instead promoted to governor. That is followed by a line break.
gets her power of attorney. Attached to that tidbit is a moved piece of information about Rostov not being degraded in the ranks because it was hushed up and instead promoted to governor. That is followed by a line break.
Komroff: While the essential idea in connection to them in the inner monologue is kept, the Louis and Robespierre references are removed. Details removed from late in the chapter perhaps remove the seriousness of what Pierre
might have done to her. Followed by a line break (no line break before she gets power of attorney).
might have done to her. Followed by a line break (no line break before she gets power of attorney).
Kropotkin: Chapter 4: The part of the inner monologue about Louis XVI and Robespierre is removed. Chapter break (no line break before final paragraph).
Bromfield: Chapter 6: The anonymous letter is revealed only now, in which the inner monologuing is mostly replaced by exposition. Helene reveals she is pregnant, not by him, in the fight before he starts to kill her.
Simmons: The Louis and Robespierre section of the inner monologue is removed. Line break after "Helene had not fled the room".
Simmons: The Louis and Robespierre section of the inner monologue is removed. Line break after "Helene had not fled the room".
Edmundson: Act Two Scene 5: This is where Bolkonsky tells Maria about Andrei's fate. This is broken up with the actual duel scene before going back to Bolkonsky. The scene ends with Maria unable to tell Lisa about Andrei's death.
Act Two Scene 6: Napoleon and Pierre talk about the duel before Helene confronts him about it. This is broken up with Lisa beginning to go into labor.
Additional Notes:
My Confession (Zweig/Dole): Page 41: “the answer of a man carried away in a boat by the waves and the wind, who to the one important question for him, “Where are we to steer?” should answer, “we are being carried somewhere....Thus, during my stay in Paris, the sight of a public execution revealed to me the weakness of my superstitious belief in progress. When I saw the head divided from the body, and heard the sound with which they fell separately into the box, I understood, not with my reason, but with my whole being, that no theory of the wisdom of all established things, nor of progess, could justify such an act; and that if all the men in the world from the day of creation, by whatever theory, had found this thing necessary, I knew it was not necessary, it was a bad thing, and that (42) therefore I must judge of what was right and necessary, not by what men said and did, not by progress, but what I felt to be true in my heart.”
My Confession (Zweig/Dole): Page 41: “the answer of a man carried away in a boat by the waves and the wind, who to the one important question for him, “Where are we to steer?” should answer, “we are being carried somewhere....Thus, during my stay in Paris, the sight of a public execution revealed to me the weakness of my superstitious belief in progress. When I saw the head divided from the body, and heard the sound with which they fell separately into the box, I understood, not with my reason, but with my whole being, that no theory of the wisdom of all established things, nor of progess, could justify such an act; and that if all the men in the world from the day of creation, by whatever theory, had found this thing necessary, I knew it was not necessary, it was a bad thing, and that (42) therefore I must judge of what was right and necessary, not by what men said and did, not by progress, but what I felt to be true in my heart.”
My Religion: “Is not every one who considers the fate of humanity filled with horror at the sufferings inflicted upon mankind Dy the enforcement of criminal codes, — a scourge to those who condemn as well as to the condemned,
— from the slaughters of Genghis Khan to those of the French Revolution and the executions of our own times? He would indeed be without compassion who could refrain from feeling horror and repulsion, not only at the sight of
human beings thus treated by their kind, but at the simple recital of death inflicted by the knout, the guillotine, or the gibbet.”
Rancour-Laferriere: Page 78: “Pierre is evidently remembering a very funny scene in Moliere’s Les Fourberies de Scapin (1671) where the rogue Scapin, in a bid to obtain a large sum of money from old Geronte, concocts a tale
about Geronte’s son having been taken hostage in a Turkish galley. Geronte falls for the story, but is very reluctant to part with the money. He repeatedly and pointlessly asks ‘que diable alloit-il faire dans cette galere?’
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