Simplified Version:
II.
Anna Pavlovna's living room began to fill little by little. Petersburg's best arrived. They were different people in age and character, yet they lived in the same society. Vasiliy's daughter, the beauty Elen, arrived to take her father to the messenger's celebration. She was in a ballroom dress. Also arriving was Petersburg's famous, charming woman, the young, small Princess Bolkonsky. She got married in the past winter. Because she was pregnant, she only went to small parties. Prince Ippolit, son of Vasiliy, also arrived with Mortemar. Abbot Morio and many others also arrived.
— Have you met, or: — Are you familiar with Aunty? — Anna said to the guests. She was serious in leading them to a little old woman in high bows, in a different room. As soon as they came to visit, she called them by name, slowly moving her eyes from the guest to Aunty, and then left.
All visitors did the job of greeting the unknown, boring, and useless aunt. Anna with a sad, serious look watched their greetings, silently approving them. Aunty only said same words about her health, about their health and about the empress's health, which was now better, thanks to God. Everyone was polite and not in a hurry. Then, feeling relieved that they did their job, each person left the old woman and did not come back to her the entire party.
The young Princess Bolkonsky arrived working on sewing a gold and velvet bag. She was pretty, with a little black mustache on her short top lip. This was nice when it opened and still nicer the times it stretched out and went lower. Like all attractive women, this flaw, the short lip and half open mouth, seemed to make her prettier. To all it was funny to look at this pretty future mother, full of health and life, so easily carrying her position. She made even the old and the bored full of life. The people who talked with her saw her constant bright smile and brilliant white teeth and thought that she was kind. Everyone thought this.
The small princess, waddling, with small fast steps walked around the table. She fixed her dress with her handbag in her hand and sat on the sofa with the tea. Everything that she did was fun for her and for everyone else.
— I have work — she said, showing her needle to the people around her.
— Annette, don’t play evil jokes on me; — she turned to the hostess. — You wrote that you were having a little party. Look at me.
She spread her hands to show her graceful lace, gray dress. There was a wide ribbon belt under her breasts.
— Be calm, Liza, you will be the best of all, — answered Anna.
—You know, my husband is leaving me. — she said to the whole party in that same tone, —He is going to die. What is this nasty war for, — she said to Vasiliy. Not waiting for an answer, she turned to the daughter of Vasiliy, the beautiful Elen.
— What a pretty individual, this small princess! — said Vasiliy quietly to Anna.
Soon after the little princess a large, thick young person with a short hair, glasses, bright trousers then in fashion, with a fancy brown tailcoat entered. This thick young person was the unlawful son of Count Bezuhov. He was one of Catherine the Great's important nobles and was dying in Moscow. The son still served nowhere and had only arrived from where he had studied abroad. It was his first time in society. Anna welcomed him with a bow that showed he was low ranked. Yet, despite this greeting, Pierre entered. The face of Anna had anxiety and fear like when someone sees a too huge and unnatural place. Pierre was a little different, but her fear was because of the clever and shy, mindful and natural look that showed he was different from all in this living room.
— Very nice for you to be at the party, Pierre. You have arrived to visit the poor and sick, — Anna said to him, looking scared at him and Aunty. She led him to her. Pierre mumbled something and continued to look for something. He happily smiled as he bowed to his close friend the small princess. The he came up to the aunt. Anna's fear was not in vain because of Pierre did not listen to the speech of Aunty about the health of the empress. He walked away from her. Anna, scared, stopped him with the words:
— Do you know Abbot Morio? He's very interesting... — she said.
— Yes, I heard about his plan for eternal peace. This is very interesting, but barely possible...
— You think?.. — said Anna, just to say something and again turn to her job as mistress at home. But, Pierre was disrespectful in the opposite way. Before, he didn't listen to the people before leaving. Now he stopped to talk to someone who wanted to leave. He bent down his head and spread apart his large legs. He was trying to prove to Anna that the abbot's plan was a dream.
— We’ll talk after, — said Anna, smiling.
Getting rid of this silly young person, she returned to her job as mistress at home. She listened and kept an eye on when the talking was weak. As a master of a workshop, having put workers in places, walks around the place, noticing stopping, unusual too loud noises, too quick, or too slow movement, — so Anna, pacing her living room, shut up too much talking in a circle by one word or movement, wound up this machine. Her special fear was Pierre. She carefully glanced at him, as he came up to listen to Mortemar. Then he walked away to the abbot's circle. For Pierre, studying abroad, Anna's party was the first he had seen in Russia. He knew that all of Petersburg's smart people were here, and he was a child in a toy shop. His eyes went back and forth. He was afraid to miss all these smart conversations that he might hear. Looking at the sure and graceful looks of the people here, he waited for something really smart. Finally, he came up to Morio. He seemed interesting to him. Pierre stopped. He wanted a chance to speak his mind, as young people love to do this.
Briggs: Pierre Bezukhov arrives.
Dole: Mlle. Scherer's drawing-room. The old aunt. The Princess Bolkonskaya. Pierre. Anna Pavlovna as mistress of ceremonies.
Translation:
II.
The living room of Anna Pavlovna began to fill little by little. The highest known of Petersburg arrived, the most heterogeneous people by ages and characters, yet the same by society in which they all lived; the daughter of Prince Vasiliy, the beauty Elen, arrived for her father, so that together they could go to the celebration of the messenger. She was in a cipher and a ballroom dress. Also arriving was the famous, charming woman of Petersburg,34 the young, small Princess Bolkonskaya, released the past winter to get married and not traveling by reason of her pregnancy, yet traveling still on small evenings. Also arriving was Prince Ippolit, son of Prince Vasiliy, with Mortemar, whom he represented; also arriving was Abbot Morio and many others.
— Have you not seen, or more: — Are you not familiar with Aunty?35 — said Anna Pavlovna to coming guests and quite seriously led them to a little old woman in high bows, surfacing from a different room, as soon as they came to visit, called them by name, slowly translating her eyes from the guest to Aunty,36 and then departed.
All visitors committed the service of greetings to the unknown, uninteresting, and unnecessary aunt. Anna Pavlovna with sad, solemn participation watched for their greetings, silently approving them. To each one Aunty only said those same expressions about her health, about their health and about the health of her Majesty, which now was, thank God, better. Everything fit, not showing haste from decency, with the feeling of relief for performing heavy responsibilities, each departed from the old woman, not coming to her again once the whole evening.
Young Princess Bolkonskaya arrived working on sewing a gold and velvet bag. She was pretty, with a little blackened moustache on her top lip short of her teeth, but this was nicer when it opened and still nicer the times it stretched out and descended lower. As is always in quite attractive women, this lack of hers — shortness of lips and half open mouth — seemed, to her especially, to actualize her beauty. To all it was funny to look at this, full of health and liveliness, the pretty future mother, so easily carrying her position. To the elderly and bored, gloomy young people it seemed that they themselves were similar to her, having been with and spoken with her for some time. Those who spoke with her saw in each word her bright smile and brilliant white teeth, which were seen incessantly, thought that he was now especially kind. This was the thought of everyone.
The small princess, waddling, with small fast steps walked around the table with a working handbag on her hand and, funnily straightening her dress, sat on the sofa, about a silver samovar, as if everything that she did was an amusement37 for her and for all surrounding her.
— I’ve grabbed work38 — she said, deploying her reticule and turned to all those gathered.
— See, Annette, don’t play evil jokes with me; — she turned to the hostess. — you wrote me that you were having a little evening. See how I am wrapped up.39
And she spread her hands, so to show her graceful lace, gray dress. Little lower than her breasts was a belted wide ribbon.
— Be calm, Liza, you will be the best of all,40 — answered Anna Pavlovna.
—You know, my husband is leaving me. — she continued in that same tone, turning to the general, —He is going on to death. Say what is this nasty war for,41 — she said to Prince Vasiliy and, not waiting for answer, turned to the daughter of Prince Vasiliy, to the beautiful Elen.
— What a pretty individual, this small princess!42 — said Prince Vasiliy quietly to Anna Pavlova.
Soon after the little princess entered a massive, thick young person with a sheared head, glasses, bright trousers then in fashion, with high frill and a brown tailcoat. This thick young person was the unlawful son of one of Catherine’s significant nobles, Count Bezuhov, dying in Moscow. He still served nowhere, had only arrived from abroad, where he was educated, and it was his first time in society. Anna Pavlovna welcomed him with a bow for the people of the most inferior hierarchies in her salon. Yet, despite this inferior sort of greeting, Pierre entered, and the face of Anna Pavlovna depicted anxiety and fear, similar to that which is expressed when someone sees a too huge and unnatural place. Although, really, Pierre was little more than the other men in the room, this fear could relate only to that clever and altogether timid, observant and natural look that distinguished him from all in this living room.
— Very nice for you to be a party, Monsieur Pierre, and that you have arrived to visit the poor and sick,43 — said Anna Pavlovna to him, looking scared at him and Aunty, to whom she led him down. Pierre mumbled something incomprehensible and continued to look for something with his eyes. He happily and funnily smiled, bowing to the little princess, as to a close friend, and came up to the aunt. The fear of Anna Pavlovna was not in vain, because of how Pierre, not listening to the speech of Aunty about the health of her Majesty, walked away from her. Anna Pavlovna, scared, stopped him with the words:
— Do you not know Abbot Morio? He is a very interesting person... — she said.
— Yes, I heard about his plan for eternal peace, and this is very interesting, but barely possible...
— You think?.. — said Anna Pavlovna, so as to say something and again turn to her occupations as mistress at home, but Pierre performed the opposite disrespect. Before, he did not listen to the words of his interlocutors before leaving; now he stopped the conversation of his interlocutor whose need was to leave him. He, bending down his head and spreading apart his large legs, was trying to prove to Anna Pavlovna, why he believed that the plan of the abbot was a chimera.
— We’ll talk after, — said Anna Pavlovna, smiling.
And, getting off from this young person, not able to live, she returned to her occupations as mistress at home and continued to listen and keep an eye on, giving help to finish any point, where conversation weakened. As a master of a spinning workshop, having planted workers in places, walks around the institution, noticing immobility or unusual creaking, the spindles making too loud of a sound, hastily going, holding back or allowing proper movement, — so Anna Pavlovna, pacing her living room, fitting to shut up too much talking in a circle by one word or movement, wound up this uniform machine. But among these worries everything visible was on her special fear for Pierre. She carefully glanced at him at that time, as he came up to listen to what was said by Mortemar, and walked away to another circle, where the abbot was. For Pierre, educated abroad, this evening of Anna Pavlovna was the first he had seen in Russia. He knew that here was gathered all the intelligentsia of Petersburg, and he was a child in a toy shop, so his eyes scattered. He was afraid to let all these smart conversations pass that he might hear. Looking at the sure and graceful expressions of the persons gathered here, he was waiting for something especially smart. Finally, he came up to Morio. The conversation seemed interesting to him, and he stopped, expecting to have a case to express his thought, as this is the love of young people.
34. la femme la plus séduisante de Pétersbourg, (the most seductive woman in Petersburg)
35. ma tante (my aunt)
36. ma tante, (my aunt)
37. partie de plaisir (party of pleasure)
38. J’ai apporté mon ouvrage, (I brought my work,)
39. ne me jouez pas un mauvais tour, Vous m’avez écrit, que c’était une toute petite soirée; voyez, comme je suis attifée. (don't play a trick on me, You wrote to me that it was a very small evening; see, how I am attired.
40. Soyez tranquille, Lise, vous serez toujours la plus jolie, (Don't worry, Lise, you will always be the prettiest,)
41. Vous savez, mon mari m’abandonne, il va se faire tuer. Dites moi, pourquoi cette vilaine guerre, (You know my husband is abandoning me, he's going to get killed. Tell me, for what is this villainous war)
42. Quelle délicieuse personne, que cette petite princesse! (What a delightful person, this little princess!)
43. C’est bien aimable à vous, monsieur Pierre, d’être venu voir une pauvre malade, (It is very kind of you, Mr. Pierre, to have come to see a poor sick person,)
Time: Though not explicitly said, still July 1805.
Mentioned: the winter before, the time of Catherine
Locations: Anna Pavlovna's parlour in St. Petersburg (as in Wiener, Briggs (who doesn't use the period), and Bell. Just "Petersburg" in Dole.)
Mentioned: Moscow. The war is also mentioned as a place Andrei will go off to. Pierre is also referenced to have studied abroad.
Notes on Pevear and Volokhonsky reading:
-The people are “diverse in age and character, but alike in the society they lived in” with "high" in high society in italics. This lack of class diversity plays out in lack of intellectual diversity, with Pierre, throughout his character development, fighting against this, but only finding the real answer to happiness outside of his class (which, because of his illegitimate status, is semi-imported into anyway).
-Princess Bolkonsky: “The most seductive woman of Petersburg.” The flaw of the beautiful woman made her even more attractive. Notice the contrast between the way people view visiting with her, “it seemed that they themselves came to resemble her.”
-The entrance of Pierre: “His first time in society,” “did not know how to live,” “like a child in a toy shop,” “too enormous and unsuited”; he is diferent because he has a “shy, observant, and natural gaze.” Pierre’s mistake of not talking to the aunt but then remaining with Pavlona too long is predicated on his innocent ignorance and his desire, his being afraid of missing intelligent conversation.
-The “eternal peace against Napoleon”
-Pavlona at the end of this chapter just can’t be brought out in any adaptation and can only exist really in prose form.
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 *, this will be done later though):
Anna Pavlovna
Prince Vasilly
Helene (with accent marks as in Maude, Briggs, Mandelker, etc. “Ellen” in Dole and Dunnigan, “Helen” in Bell)
Princess Bolkonsky (Lisa Meinen in chapter 1, referred to as Lise or Lisa by Pavlovna, Edmonds adds an extra Lisa in the narration)
Ippolit (as with the next two characters, does not do or say anything other than enter, though the latter two play bigger roles in the chapter)
Mortemart
Abbe Morio
Anna Pavlovna’s Aunt (or “ma tante”, also refered to as “Her Majesty”. Bell seems to confuse her with the Empress-Dowager)
Andrei Bolkonsky (only referred to as Lisa’s husband in the dialogue)
Count Pierre Bezukhov (as in Mandelker and Dunnigan, “Bezukhi” in Wiener, “Bezukhoi” in Dole, “Bezuhov” in Edmonds)
Count Bezukhov (the father of Pierre, see above spelling variations)
Catherine (i.e. Catherine the Great, Garnett note tells us that Catherine the Great wanted to be an enlightened leader following the French philosophers but peasant revolts caused her to rule with more of an iron hand)
Abridged Versions: Line break but no chapter break in Gibian.
Fuller: removes the aunt entirely as well as the explanation of Pierre’s two mistakes
Komroff: the aunt section is shortened slightly, the conversation about her health removed, takes out repeating sentence at end of second paragraph about the princess (as he often does, he removes sentences and reformats paragraphs. He also removes the bit explaining Pierre’s two mistakes.)
Kropotkin: removes aunt entirely, the two mistakes (as with Fuller, it no longer really makes sense) and removes chapter break of 2 and 3.
Bromfield Version: More people entering room, a “Count Z.”, a “Princess L.”, a “decrepit general”, also more of a description of the layout of the guests of the party and where they are. More than most translations, it is clear that the princess means “needlework” by “work”. The addition after Vasily says that the princess is “a delightful creature” that “Hippolyte is madly in love with her.” Pierre makes the mistake of believing the aunt to be the hostess. Explicity talks to Pavlovna about Rousseau and gives some specific opinion about Rousseau (simply, The Confessions is a great work). Pavlovna holds the “opposite opinion.” Pierre is described as “fat.” Abbe Morio not mentioned and the ending does not have Pierre looking to interject his opinion into intelligent conversations but has Pavlovna’s “conversational engine” serve as the ending.
Simmons: The aunt is removed. The description of Princess Bolkonskaya is shortened. All of Pierre and Pavlovna's actual dialogue is removed. Followed by a line break.
Edmundson: Still in Act One Scene One: Pierre is introduced by Vasili right after the opening lines. Vasili and Pavlovna talk about Pierre's chance of inheriting.
Additional notes: Garnett translates the literal phrases of “The great world” for “High Society” and “interesting condition’ for “being pregnant”
Tolstoy spends his time on four characters in chapter two of his novel, Pavlovna, the aunt, Princess Bolkonsky, Pierre, before alternating between Pierre and Pavlovna in the finality of the chapter. Despite all the interesting things about Pierre in his introduction, the different Pavlovna we see in this chapter and the beauty of Bolkonsky, I find the details about the unnamed aunt the most fascinating part of the chapter and perhaps the most important about Tolstoy wants to say about “society” than his portrayal of Pierre or Pavlovna in this chapter.
While the hint of the “war” in War and Peace rears its head rather strongly in the chapter, with Princess Bolkonsky complaining that the war seems pointless (and “nasty”) and that she sees her husband going to the war as a way of deserting her or getting himself killed, chapter two of the novel is much less political than chapter one, at least in specificity (Catherine the Great being the only real reference of the chapter, contrasted strongly with the highly political and historical chapters of chapters one and three). Instead, Tolstoy wants us to focus on the two named characters he has introduced in this chapter and how “society” functions (we could avoid using the past tense here as, as much as this is a historical novel, we could understand Tolstoy wanting to show how society works, not how it worked at one time). None of this is demonstrated as strongly as it is with the character of the aunt and the greeting the “uninteresting and unnecessary aunt.” The discussions are all about her health and it is referred to as a “ritual” or a “heavy obligation” to talk to her. Much like the mindlessness of Vassily in the previous chapter, the characters paraded in front of the aunt are forced to say things they don’t mean and do things they don’t want out of a sense of duty, not the kind of duty that is later (and traditionally) ascribed to soldiers or patriots or any kind of religious duty that requires faith and devotion, but the kind of duty that is done for no clear reason or purpose, making no mark on the world and revealing nothing about a person’s character.
While the ritual of greeting the aunt is certainly needless and unnecessary, one may wonder who exactly Tolstoy wants to heap scorn on; does Tolstoy have a specific problem with a seemingly innocent aunt causing a burden on people, Anna Pavlovna’s exhibition of the aunt, or with the people unable to genuinely connect or demonstrate true empathy (or sincerity) towards her? The answer may be all three, especially the final two, but the structure of the chapter itself seems to point to Anna Pavlovna being the focus of the chapter. While the final lines of the chapter do focus on Pierre in order to transition to the ideas in Chapter three, the beginning of the chapter (just as the previous chapter, and in a slight way, the next chapter will) focuses on Pavlovna and her running the party (like a machine or “spinning factory”, industrial revolution language). Pavlovna uses control, control over the party, control over people’s behaviors, and control over marriages in just the first two chapters. Manipulation may initially seem to be too harsh of a word, but in Tolstoy’s final paragraph about Pavlovna in the chapter, it is not hard to see the language of discrete domination. The people are controlled, they are forced to behave in a certain way, entering into the party and bound by the laws, the tyranny of greeting the aunt and of having certain conversations at certain volumes. In a chapter that seems apolitical with Pierre standing out not only from size, but from wanting to be political, Tolstoy sees the political trappings of high society, the lack of sincerity, and the machinations of the powerful (there is also something about manipulating women that plays into the book later on that we will shelf for now).
Unnecessary war and unnecessary greeting:
It is pretty harsh to call a person “unnecessary” as Tolstoy does when referring to the aunt, and certainly we can see this language more about the viewpoint of the guests than Tolstoy’s actual view of his character (who is frankly, unnecessary in the plot of the story), this should remind us of the other thing in the chapter viewed as unnecessary by a character, the war with Napoleon by Lisa Bolkonsky.
Quotes about Catherine, which also helps to set up some background on Russian society previous to the time the novel is set in, from Vincent Cronin (as always, see bibliography):
Page 183: "to become "all the Russias," embracing by 1740 no less than eighty peoples of four ethnic groups--Slavs, Finns, Mongols, Tatars."
Page 184: "Nor had she experienced feudalism; there had never been a strong nobility to contest the czar's claim to treat all Russia as his patrimony and to rule it as an autocrat...For example, education in the West had been pioneered by Benedictine monks, but in Russia monks were forbidden to teach. So Russia had never known the monastic tradition of learning, cathedral schools or even universities...The ideal of the Russian Orthodox Church was unchangingness. Since music, traditionally, was an element in the liturgy, secular music was forbidden. So were shaving the beard and smoking tobacco. All modern techniques, from clockmaking to canal building, had to be performed by foreigners, mainly Dutchmen, Germans and Englishmen. By its unworldliness, the clergy claimed, holy Russia set an example to the world. Such had been the state of the realm in 1682, when young Peter I inherited the crown...the great obstacle to change was the Church, Peter decided to break its power." (as in the notes on immigration below, this helps explain the prominence, and perhaps the disdain Tolstoy has for them, of Germans in the political moments, especially early on, in this Russian novel.)
Page 195: "As princess of Anhalt-Zerbst the girl carried almost no political weight, but having been taken up by Frederick II she could be said to stand with Prussia and, through her uncle, with Sweden."
Page 198: "With the sacrament of confirmation she was to receive a new name. The empress chose Catherine, the name of her own mother and of the martyr saint of ancient Alexandria who combined looks and learning. So Sophie said good-by to another part of herself and became Ekaterina, the Russian form of Catherine."
Page 201: "In December the court moved to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. On the way, Peter caught smallpox...Peter's two attractions for Catherine had been his good humor and his good looks. Now his looks were marred and his humor erratic." (obviously this Peter is not Peter the Great, but Peter III)
Page 205: "When Peter got into bed beside her on their wedding night, he confided with a giggle that his manservant would think it very funny if he could see them in bed together then the grand duke went to sleep. On the nights following, he showed equally little interest in his bride...he and she were second cousins, and it was well known that between cousins the spark of physical love could be weak." (see also: comments on Sonya and Nikolai's relationship early in the novel)
Page 211: "In 1713 Denmark had seized the important province of Schleswig from Holstein. Peter's father had secured a solemn promise from his future father-in-law, Peter the Great, that Russia would force Denmark to restore it, but the czar bowed to European opposition and broke his promise. Young Peter, brought up originally for the Swedish, not the Russian, throne, had been taught to see Russia as the great betrayer of Holstein. Elizabeth might be his aunt, but, more importantly, she was the daughter of the czar who had left little Holstein in the lurch. In standing up to the empress, Peter was standing up for Holstein."
Page 214: "Trapped between an empress for whom she was too European and a husband for whom she was not European enough; frustrated, isolated from family and friends."
Page 223: "Those imposed by society were also loose, for Russians treated extramarital affairs with indulgence, partly because there was no such thing as divorce, partly because the Church itself treated liaisons leniently. Even the pious empress had had more than one lover...Catherine, aged twenty-three, gave herself to the dashing Serge Saltykov. In the weeks that followed she was undoubtedly very happy." (see also the popular interpretation of Anna Karenina in which the tragic heroine's flaw is not the affair, but rather her sincerity which cannot treat the affair as lightly others in "society" can their own affairs, making her the anti-Helene of this novel).
Page 227: "Her job was over; this boy ("little Paul") born to be emperor belonged to Russia and would be brought up by the empress. Catherine might see him a couple of times a year, no more." (the broken relationship between her own son versus the connection she had with her grandson Alexander is developed more in Rey's book cited at length in the last chapter.)
Page 236: "General Apraksin..belonged to the ancient nobility and his military service had been distinguished."
Page 237: "A ukase suddenly came from the empress appointing Apraksin commander in chief against Prussia and ordering him to leave without delay for the front...on July 30, 1757, he won a thundering victory over the Prussians that laid East Prussia open to him, and the Russian court expected him to overrun the whole of it. Instead, he hesitated for two whole weeks; then, abandoning his guns, he retreated." (see Apraksin references throughout the novel. Those would be of the same family, though obviously not this character)
Page 238: "The empress, pressed by the French ambassador and the Shuvalovs, ordered Apraksin court-martialed....he suffered an apoplectic stroke and died."
Page 248: "As she formed her own vision of the ideal state, Catherine saw that it differed from Peter's. He held that Russia had been ruled too long by petticoats; what was needed was the iron will of Frederick, whose portrait he wore on a ring. Catherine disagreed." (see Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky's thoughts on contemporary society and armies later in Part 1)
Page 249: "The Orlovs were a boisterous clan. Their jokes were rough and hearty--the oldest, Aleksei, a huge man disfigured by a saber cut down the left side of his face, once toasted a friend: "May you never die--except at my hands.""
Page 250: "by late 1760 or early 1761 Catherine became Captain Grigori Orlov's mistress."
Page 252: "She was wife to the emperor of Russia...She was carrying--had been carrying for five months--Grigori Orlov's child." (see Orlov references throughout Part 1. These will be moved to their correct places later on.)
Page 253: "Peter started off excellently by reducing the tax on salt and fixing a maximum price for it, thus removing an oppressive burden from the poor. He recalled all political exiles save the former chancellor, Bestuzdev, and freed all religious dissenters to practice their rites, believing, as one observer noted, that "bitterness or violence is not the proper way to convert them." He also began negotiating at once to end the unpopular war with Prussia, which had cost Russia one hundred thousand men and most of its small navy. Though the Russian infantry had proved itself the equal of any, senior officers had made a poor showing. Pondering their failures, the new emperor decided to go to the root of the matter: Peter the Great's ruling that all gentry must serve in the army or civil service. Under this system men unsuitable by physique or character rose to command troops. Actually, the best means of getting an efficient officer class was surely to confine membership to well-chosen professionals. So Peter III issued a ukase ending the obligatory service." (the system is more or less restored by the time period the novel takes place in and affects the plot in both the Bezukhov and Nikolai Rostov plotlines)
Page 255: "Peter...issued a ukase nationalizing all monastery lands. This was a good reform, but Peter carried it out with characteristic lack of tact. Along with his known Lutheranism and his postponement of the coronation, the seizure of their lands roused churchmen against the new czar."
Page 256: "the new emperor was planning war on Denmark, an ally of Peter the Great which had never harmed Russia."
Page 259: "Catherine had no money to bribe the guards. Hence the importance to Catherine of the Orlov brothers. They worked tirelessly on her behalf, converting fellow officers, including (Page 260) the much respected Captain Peter Passek, of Aleksei Orlov's regiment. In five short days Catherine had gathered into her hands all the threads of the plot and specified a date for seizing the emperor: as soon as he returned to St. Petersburg."
Page 264: "By early evening she was mistress of St. Petersburg, and no blood had been shed. Doubtless she was strongly tempted to remain in the safety of her palace, trusting that Peter would crumble, but she decided on a more daring course. First, she had herself declared colonel of the Preobrazhensky. Donning their green and red uniform and black three-cornered hat, which she decorated"
Page 265: "It was a dramatic sight, later depicted by painters: the slim figure of Catherine, for years subdued and victimized but now at last in command, assured on horseback, attractive in her guards uniform, at the head of company after company of soldiers."
Page 271: "Aleksei Orlov introduced poison--perhaps readily available rat poison, containing arsenic--into the food or the coffee. Having eaten and drunk, Peter was seized with severe stomach pains, and Aleksei called a doctor. The doctor found the prisoner in convulsions, with a high fever. Discovering symptoms of poisoning, he asked that some milk be brought as an antidote, but after a considerable delay Orlov and Teplov told him that none could be found in any of the nearby villages. Then they sent the doctor away. Aleksei dashed off a note to Catherine, telling her that he did not expect Peter to live till nightfall and adding that he feared her anger at having allowed her prisoner to die "or that you should think that we were the cause of the death of the monster, monster to you and all Russia." Peter was still alive. If the poison did not kill him, Aleksei would be in deep trouble...he decided to finish the job by other means...strangled."
Page 272: "In an effort to make the murder look like a natural death, she had an autopsy performed by a doctor she could trust, and a certificate signed ascribing death to a hemorrhoidal colic which had affected Peter's brain and brought on apoplexy."
Page 276: "Conscious that more labor was needed to work the underpopulated land, Catherine set Grigori Orlov at the head of a board to encourage immigration. It placed advertisements in foreign newspapers, mainly German, inviting settlers and offering attractive terms: six months' free lodging; free seed, livestock and plows; exemption from taxes for five, ten or thirty years, according to a man's skills. The response was excellent; thousands took to the roads to work the rich black soil of southern Russia, and to play an important part in feeding a population that was to grow steadily through the next three decades."
Page 277: "Catherine toward free trade, however, and she decreed that except in Moscow, which was overcrowded, and in St. Petersburg, which was a show city with its own needs, anyone could start a factory...In the sphere of foreign trade Catherine achieved remarkable results by the simple expedient of abolishing export duties. Foreign trade was to triple between the 1760s and the 1790s, while Russia's favorable trade balance was to double."
Page 279: "between 1775 and 1785, in a land with no civil traditions outside the capitals, she created two hundred and sixteen new towns."
Page 284: "In assessing serfdom, Catherine had no clear-cut European attitude to guide her. Some French intellectuals condemned it, though Rousseau held that serfs should not be freed all of a sudden. England, which Catherine greatly admired, was then still up to her elbows in the slave trade, shipping thousands of Africans a year to the West Indies; on this issue Catherine wrote, "It is contrary to the Christian religion and justice to make people, who are all born free, into slaves."...She knew the Church was the cruelest landlord of all"
Page 287: "When the throne of Poland fell vacant in September 1763, she influenced the country's national assembly to choose as king her former lover, the Pole Stanislaw Poniatowski...There was within Poland, however, a growing national spirit, strongly Catholic, anti-Orthodox, potentially anti-Russian. In October 1767, in the town of Bar, near the Polish-Turkish frontier, Catholic leaders formed the Confederation of Bar, won support from Austria and France--who sent money and military advisers--and began a bitter partisan war to depose Stanislaw. Catherine sent troops into Poland....Catherine determined now to erase Poland from the map, captured Warsaw and, playing off Prussia against Austria, laid down terms for a third and final partition. Poland ceased to exist, removing a long-standing geographic barrier between Russia and Europe. The unfortunate Stanislaw, a king who had outlived his country, retired to take up botany." (Tolstoy does not address the Poland question head-on in War and Peace, but I think including information about it is important because, as well as for the Soviet Union, the colonization and oppression of Poland is a constant in this period and the policy toward Poland plays a key role in the political atmosphere of the time period for Russia.)
Page 290: "For instance, Russia's Julian calendar lagged eleven days behind the Gregorian, which had been adopted by England in 1752 and was in general use in Europe. when a visitor urged her to follow England's example, Catherine explained that she didn't dare. "People would not complain aloud, but they would whisper that I was an atheist, attacking the infallibility of the Council of Nicaea."
Page 299: "Grigori...paid a merchant in Amsterdam four hundred thousand rubles for a 199-carat diamond cut in the form of a rosette. The Orlov diamond, it came to be called, and probably no woman has ever received so valuable a present from a former lover. Catherine doubtless was pleased, but, typically, she did not keep it for herself but gave it to the state and had it set at the top of the imperial scepter."
Page 324: "In face of the excesses of the French Revolution, Catherine had revised her opinion of religion and now believed that only the Orthodox Church--"a deep-rooted oak," she called it--was sturdy enough to resist subversion and pseudo cults." (there are extensive parallels between Alexander and Catherine's hard right turns that need to be explored more in depth)
Page 328: "Alexander, who loved his grandmother dearly, wept but kept his presence of mind. He asked Count Theodore Rostopchin, a trusted adviser, to go and inform Grand Duke Paul officially of what had happened. Paul and his wife, half a day's drive away, left at once by sleigh for St. Petersburg. Paul, dressed as usual in military uniform and high boots, asked Rostopchin to follow him. As they passed Cesme Palace, Rostopchin drew the grand duke's attention to the beauty of the night. "It was extremely calm and light; the moon was visible through clouds," Rostopchin afterward recalled. "I saw (that) tears filled his eyes...I seized his hand. 'My Lord, what a moment this is for you.!'"
Additional notes: Garnett translates the literal phrases of “The great world” for “High Society” and “interesting condition’ for “being pregnant”
Tolstoy spends his time on four characters in chapter two of his novel, Pavlovna, the aunt, Princess Bolkonsky, Pierre, before alternating between Pierre and Pavlovna in the finality of the chapter. Despite all the interesting things about Pierre in his introduction, the different Pavlovna we see in this chapter and the beauty of Bolkonsky, I find the details about the unnamed aunt the most fascinating part of the chapter and perhaps the most important about Tolstoy wants to say about “society” than his portrayal of Pierre or Pavlovna in this chapter.
While the hint of the “war” in War and Peace rears its head rather strongly in the chapter, with Princess Bolkonsky complaining that the war seems pointless (and “nasty”) and that she sees her husband going to the war as a way of deserting her or getting himself killed, chapter two of the novel is much less political than chapter one, at least in specificity (Catherine the Great being the only real reference of the chapter, contrasted strongly with the highly political and historical chapters of chapters one and three). Instead, Tolstoy wants us to focus on the two named characters he has introduced in this chapter and how “society” functions (we could avoid using the past tense here as, as much as this is a historical novel, we could understand Tolstoy wanting to show how society works, not how it worked at one time). None of this is demonstrated as strongly as it is with the character of the aunt and the greeting the “uninteresting and unnecessary aunt.” The discussions are all about her health and it is referred to as a “ritual” or a “heavy obligation” to talk to her. Much like the mindlessness of Vassily in the previous chapter, the characters paraded in front of the aunt are forced to say things they don’t mean and do things they don’t want out of a sense of duty, not the kind of duty that is later (and traditionally) ascribed to soldiers or patriots or any kind of religious duty that requires faith and devotion, but the kind of duty that is done for no clear reason or purpose, making no mark on the world and revealing nothing about a person’s character.
While the ritual of greeting the aunt is certainly needless and unnecessary, one may wonder who exactly Tolstoy wants to heap scorn on; does Tolstoy have a specific problem with a seemingly innocent aunt causing a burden on people, Anna Pavlovna’s exhibition of the aunt, or with the people unable to genuinely connect or demonstrate true empathy (or sincerity) towards her? The answer may be all three, especially the final two, but the structure of the chapter itself seems to point to Anna Pavlovna being the focus of the chapter. While the final lines of the chapter do focus on Pierre in order to transition to the ideas in Chapter three, the beginning of the chapter (just as the previous chapter, and in a slight way, the next chapter will) focuses on Pavlovna and her running the party (like a machine or “spinning factory”, industrial revolution language). Pavlovna uses control, control over the party, control over people’s behaviors, and control over marriages in just the first two chapters. Manipulation may initially seem to be too harsh of a word, but in Tolstoy’s final paragraph about Pavlovna in the chapter, it is not hard to see the language of discrete domination. The people are controlled, they are forced to behave in a certain way, entering into the party and bound by the laws, the tyranny of greeting the aunt and of having certain conversations at certain volumes. In a chapter that seems apolitical with Pierre standing out not only from size, but from wanting to be political, Tolstoy sees the political trappings of high society, the lack of sincerity, and the machinations of the powerful (there is also something about manipulating women that plays into the book later on that we will shelf for now).
Unnecessary war and unnecessary greeting:
It is pretty harsh to call a person “unnecessary” as Tolstoy does when referring to the aunt, and certainly we can see this language more about the viewpoint of the guests than Tolstoy’s actual view of his character (who is frankly, unnecessary in the plot of the story), this should remind us of the other thing in the chapter viewed as unnecessary by a character, the war with Napoleon by Lisa Bolkonsky.
Quotes about Catherine, which also helps to set up some background on Russian society previous to the time the novel is set in, from Vincent Cronin (as always, see bibliography):
Page 183: "to become "all the Russias," embracing by 1740 no less than eighty peoples of four ethnic groups--Slavs, Finns, Mongols, Tatars."
Page 184: "Nor had she experienced feudalism; there had never been a strong nobility to contest the czar's claim to treat all Russia as his patrimony and to rule it as an autocrat...For example, education in the West had been pioneered by Benedictine monks, but in Russia monks were forbidden to teach. So Russia had never known the monastic tradition of learning, cathedral schools or even universities...The ideal of the Russian Orthodox Church was unchangingness. Since music, traditionally, was an element in the liturgy, secular music was forbidden. So were shaving the beard and smoking tobacco. All modern techniques, from clockmaking to canal building, had to be performed by foreigners, mainly Dutchmen, Germans and Englishmen. By its unworldliness, the clergy claimed, holy Russia set an example to the world. Such had been the state of the realm in 1682, when young Peter I inherited the crown...the great obstacle to change was the Church, Peter decided to break its power." (as in the notes on immigration below, this helps explain the prominence, and perhaps the disdain Tolstoy has for them, of Germans in the political moments, especially early on, in this Russian novel.)
Page 195: "As princess of Anhalt-Zerbst the girl carried almost no political weight, but having been taken up by Frederick II she could be said to stand with Prussia and, through her uncle, with Sweden."
Page 198: "With the sacrament of confirmation she was to receive a new name. The empress chose Catherine, the name of her own mother and of the martyr saint of ancient Alexandria who combined looks and learning. So Sophie said good-by to another part of herself and became Ekaterina, the Russian form of Catherine."
Page 201: "In December the court moved to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. On the way, Peter caught smallpox...Peter's two attractions for Catherine had been his good humor and his good looks. Now his looks were marred and his humor erratic." (obviously this Peter is not Peter the Great, but Peter III)
Page 205: "When Peter got into bed beside her on their wedding night, he confided with a giggle that his manservant would think it very funny if he could see them in bed together then the grand duke went to sleep. On the nights following, he showed equally little interest in his bride...he and she were second cousins, and it was well known that between cousins the spark of physical love could be weak." (see also: comments on Sonya and Nikolai's relationship early in the novel)
Page 211: "In 1713 Denmark had seized the important province of Schleswig from Holstein. Peter's father had secured a solemn promise from his future father-in-law, Peter the Great, that Russia would force Denmark to restore it, but the czar bowed to European opposition and broke his promise. Young Peter, brought up originally for the Swedish, not the Russian, throne, had been taught to see Russia as the great betrayer of Holstein. Elizabeth might be his aunt, but, more importantly, she was the daughter of the czar who had left little Holstein in the lurch. In standing up to the empress, Peter was standing up for Holstein."
Page 214: "Trapped between an empress for whom she was too European and a husband for whom she was not European enough; frustrated, isolated from family and friends."
Page 223: "Those imposed by society were also loose, for Russians treated extramarital affairs with indulgence, partly because there was no such thing as divorce, partly because the Church itself treated liaisons leniently. Even the pious empress had had more than one lover...Catherine, aged twenty-three, gave herself to the dashing Serge Saltykov. In the weeks that followed she was undoubtedly very happy." (see also the popular interpretation of Anna Karenina in which the tragic heroine's flaw is not the affair, but rather her sincerity which cannot treat the affair as lightly others in "society" can their own affairs, making her the anti-Helene of this novel).
Page 227: "Her job was over; this boy ("little Paul") born to be emperor belonged to Russia and would be brought up by the empress. Catherine might see him a couple of times a year, no more." (the broken relationship between her own son versus the connection she had with her grandson Alexander is developed more in Rey's book cited at length in the last chapter.)
Page 236: "General Apraksin..belonged to the ancient nobility and his military service had been distinguished."
Page 237: "A ukase suddenly came from the empress appointing Apraksin commander in chief against Prussia and ordering him to leave without delay for the front...on July 30, 1757, he won a thundering victory over the Prussians that laid East Prussia open to him, and the Russian court expected him to overrun the whole of it. Instead, he hesitated for two whole weeks; then, abandoning his guns, he retreated." (see Apraksin references throughout the novel. Those would be of the same family, though obviously not this character)
Page 238: "The empress, pressed by the French ambassador and the Shuvalovs, ordered Apraksin court-martialed....he suffered an apoplectic stroke and died."
Page 248: "As she formed her own vision of the ideal state, Catherine saw that it differed from Peter's. He held that Russia had been ruled too long by petticoats; what was needed was the iron will of Frederick, whose portrait he wore on a ring. Catherine disagreed." (see Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky's thoughts on contemporary society and armies later in Part 1)
Page 249: "The Orlovs were a boisterous clan. Their jokes were rough and hearty--the oldest, Aleksei, a huge man disfigured by a saber cut down the left side of his face, once toasted a friend: "May you never die--except at my hands.""
Page 250: "by late 1760 or early 1761 Catherine became Captain Grigori Orlov's mistress."
Page 252: "She was wife to the emperor of Russia...She was carrying--had been carrying for five months--Grigori Orlov's child." (see Orlov references throughout Part 1. These will be moved to their correct places later on.)
Page 253: "Peter started off excellently by reducing the tax on salt and fixing a maximum price for it, thus removing an oppressive burden from the poor. He recalled all political exiles save the former chancellor, Bestuzdev, and freed all religious dissenters to practice their rites, believing, as one observer noted, that "bitterness or violence is not the proper way to convert them." He also began negotiating at once to end the unpopular war with Prussia, which had cost Russia one hundred thousand men and most of its small navy. Though the Russian infantry had proved itself the equal of any, senior officers had made a poor showing. Pondering their failures, the new emperor decided to go to the root of the matter: Peter the Great's ruling that all gentry must serve in the army or civil service. Under this system men unsuitable by physique or character rose to command troops. Actually, the best means of getting an efficient officer class was surely to confine membership to well-chosen professionals. So Peter III issued a ukase ending the obligatory service." (the system is more or less restored by the time period the novel takes place in and affects the plot in both the Bezukhov and Nikolai Rostov plotlines)
Page 255: "Peter...issued a ukase nationalizing all monastery lands. This was a good reform, but Peter carried it out with characteristic lack of tact. Along with his known Lutheranism and his postponement of the coronation, the seizure of their lands roused churchmen against the new czar."
Page 256: "the new emperor was planning war on Denmark, an ally of Peter the Great which had never harmed Russia."
Page 259: "Catherine had no money to bribe the guards. Hence the importance to Catherine of the Orlov brothers. They worked tirelessly on her behalf, converting fellow officers, including (Page 260) the much respected Captain Peter Passek, of Aleksei Orlov's regiment. In five short days Catherine had gathered into her hands all the threads of the plot and specified a date for seizing the emperor: as soon as he returned to St. Petersburg."
Page 264: "By early evening she was mistress of St. Petersburg, and no blood had been shed. Doubtless she was strongly tempted to remain in the safety of her palace, trusting that Peter would crumble, but she decided on a more daring course. First, she had herself declared colonel of the Preobrazhensky. Donning their green and red uniform and black three-cornered hat, which she decorated"
Page 265: "It was a dramatic sight, later depicted by painters: the slim figure of Catherine, for years subdued and victimized but now at last in command, assured on horseback, attractive in her guards uniform, at the head of company after company of soldiers."
Page 271: "Aleksei Orlov introduced poison--perhaps readily available rat poison, containing arsenic--into the food or the coffee. Having eaten and drunk, Peter was seized with severe stomach pains, and Aleksei called a doctor. The doctor found the prisoner in convulsions, with a high fever. Discovering symptoms of poisoning, he asked that some milk be brought as an antidote, but after a considerable delay Orlov and Teplov told him that none could be found in any of the nearby villages. Then they sent the doctor away. Aleksei dashed off a note to Catherine, telling her that he did not expect Peter to live till nightfall and adding that he feared her anger at having allowed her prisoner to die "or that you should think that we were the cause of the death of the monster, monster to you and all Russia." Peter was still alive. If the poison did not kill him, Aleksei would be in deep trouble...he decided to finish the job by other means...strangled."
Page 272: "In an effort to make the murder look like a natural death, she had an autopsy performed by a doctor she could trust, and a certificate signed ascribing death to a hemorrhoidal colic which had affected Peter's brain and brought on apoplexy."
Page 276: "Conscious that more labor was needed to work the underpopulated land, Catherine set Grigori Orlov at the head of a board to encourage immigration. It placed advertisements in foreign newspapers, mainly German, inviting settlers and offering attractive terms: six months' free lodging; free seed, livestock and plows; exemption from taxes for five, ten or thirty years, according to a man's skills. The response was excellent; thousands took to the roads to work the rich black soil of southern Russia, and to play an important part in feeding a population that was to grow steadily through the next three decades."
Page 277: "Catherine toward free trade, however, and she decreed that except in Moscow, which was overcrowded, and in St. Petersburg, which was a show city with its own needs, anyone could start a factory...In the sphere of foreign trade Catherine achieved remarkable results by the simple expedient of abolishing export duties. Foreign trade was to triple between the 1760s and the 1790s, while Russia's favorable trade balance was to double."
Page 279: "between 1775 and 1785, in a land with no civil traditions outside the capitals, she created two hundred and sixteen new towns."
Page 284: "In assessing serfdom, Catherine had no clear-cut European attitude to guide her. Some French intellectuals condemned it, though Rousseau held that serfs should not be freed all of a sudden. England, which Catherine greatly admired, was then still up to her elbows in the slave trade, shipping thousands of Africans a year to the West Indies; on this issue Catherine wrote, "It is contrary to the Christian religion and justice to make people, who are all born free, into slaves."...She knew the Church was the cruelest landlord of all"
Page 287: "When the throne of Poland fell vacant in September 1763, she influenced the country's national assembly to choose as king her former lover, the Pole Stanislaw Poniatowski...There was within Poland, however, a growing national spirit, strongly Catholic, anti-Orthodox, potentially anti-Russian. In October 1767, in the town of Bar, near the Polish-Turkish frontier, Catholic leaders formed the Confederation of Bar, won support from Austria and France--who sent money and military advisers--and began a bitter partisan war to depose Stanislaw. Catherine sent troops into Poland....Catherine determined now to erase Poland from the map, captured Warsaw and, playing off Prussia against Austria, laid down terms for a third and final partition. Poland ceased to exist, removing a long-standing geographic barrier between Russia and Europe. The unfortunate Stanislaw, a king who had outlived his country, retired to take up botany." (Tolstoy does not address the Poland question head-on in War and Peace, but I think including information about it is important because, as well as for the Soviet Union, the colonization and oppression of Poland is a constant in this period and the policy toward Poland plays a key role in the political atmosphere of the time period for Russia.)
Page 290: "For instance, Russia's Julian calendar lagged eleven days behind the Gregorian, which had been adopted by England in 1752 and was in general use in Europe. when a visitor urged her to follow England's example, Catherine explained that she didn't dare. "People would not complain aloud, but they would whisper that I was an atheist, attacking the infallibility of the Council of Nicaea."
Page 299: "Grigori...paid a merchant in Amsterdam four hundred thousand rubles for a 199-carat diamond cut in the form of a rosette. The Orlov diamond, it came to be called, and probably no woman has ever received so valuable a present from a former lover. Catherine doubtless was pleased, but, typically, she did not keep it for herself but gave it to the state and had it set at the top of the imperial scepter."
Page 324: "In face of the excesses of the French Revolution, Catherine had revised her opinion of religion and now believed that only the Orthodox Church--"a deep-rooted oak," she called it--was sturdy enough to resist subversion and pseudo cults." (there are extensive parallels between Alexander and Catherine's hard right turns that need to be explored more in depth)
Page 328: "Alexander, who loved his grandmother dearly, wept but kept his presence of mind. He asked Count Theodore Rostopchin, a trusted adviser, to go and inform Grand Duke Paul officially of what had happened. Paul and his wife, half a day's drive away, left at once by sleigh for St. Petersburg. Paul, dressed as usual in military uniform and high boots, asked Rostopchin to follow him. As they passed Cesme Palace, Rostopchin drew the grand duke's attention to the beauty of the night. "It was extremely calm and light; the moon was visible through clouds," Rostopchin afterward recalled. "I saw (that) tears filled his eyes...I seized his hand. 'My Lord, what a moment this is for you.!'"
(Davis Page 7): “The dissident French abbe, Charles Castel de St Pierre (1658-1743), author of Projet d’une paix perpetuelle (1713), called for a confederation of European powers to guarantee a lasting peace.”
(Rancour-Laferriere Page 8): “In Pierre’s case several prototypes have been suggested. They include, for example, Count Matvei Aleksandrovich Dmitriev-Mamonov, the son of one of Catherine’s favourites, a Mason and an eccentric who had financed a regiment against Napoleon in 1812. Another is Pavel Ivanovich Koloshin, father of Tolstoy’s childhood sweetheart Sonichka Koloshina and a Decemberist that Tolstoy had intensely admired in his childhood. Yet another is Dmitrii Alekseevich D’iakov, a close friend whom Tolstoy idealized. Then there is Sergei Grigorieich Volkonskii, a Decembrist who had returned from Siberian exile in 1856 and a Slavophile devoted to the Russian peasant and to mother Russia. Also, when being interrogated by Marshal Davout after his arrest in Moscow, Pierre seems momentarily to be one Count V.A. Perovskii, who has left a memoir describing his own interrogation by Davout.
Nor should we forget the renegade Russian philosopher Petr (Pierre) Iakovlevich Chaadaev (1794-1856). Chaadaev, like Pierre, greatly admired the French, frequented the English Club in Moscow, was a Freemason, suffered periodic fits of depression, felt guilty about owning serfs and longed for a mystical fusion with his fellow man.”
(Nabokov Page 202): "A peculiar feature of Tolstoy's style is that whatever comparisons, whatever similes, or metaphors, he uses, most of them are used not for an aesthetical purpose but for an ethical one...They are employed not to enhance the imagery, to give a new slant to our artistic perception of this or that scene; they are employed to bring out a moral point."
(Rancour-Laferriere Page 8): “In Pierre’s case several prototypes have been suggested. They include, for example, Count Matvei Aleksandrovich Dmitriev-Mamonov, the son of one of Catherine’s favourites, a Mason and an eccentric who had financed a regiment against Napoleon in 1812. Another is Pavel Ivanovich Koloshin, father of Tolstoy’s childhood sweetheart Sonichka Koloshina and a Decemberist that Tolstoy had intensely admired in his childhood. Yet another is Dmitrii Alekseevich D’iakov, a close friend whom Tolstoy idealized. Then there is Sergei Grigorieich Volkonskii, a Decembrist who had returned from Siberian exile in 1856 and a Slavophile devoted to the Russian peasant and to mother Russia. Also, when being interrogated by Marshal Davout after his arrest in Moscow, Pierre seems momentarily to be one Count V.A. Perovskii, who has left a memoir describing his own interrogation by Davout.
Nor should we forget the renegade Russian philosopher Petr (Pierre) Iakovlevich Chaadaev (1794-1856). Chaadaev, like Pierre, greatly admired the French, frequented the English Club in Moscow, was a Freemason, suffered periodic fits of depression, felt guilty about owning serfs and longed for a mystical fusion with his fellow man.”
(Nabokov Page 202): "A peculiar feature of Tolstoy's style is that whatever comparisons, whatever similes, or metaphors, he uses, most of them are used not for an aesthetical purpose but for an ethical one...They are employed not to enhance the imagery, to give a new slant to our artistic perception of this or that scene; they are employed to bring out a moral point."
No comments:
Post a Comment