Chapter Summaries: Dole: Irruption of the children. Natasha Rostova at thirteen. Nikolai Rostof. Characteristics of Boris Drubetskoi.
Briggs (chapter 8): Natasha
Maude (chapters 11-14): Natasha and Boris.
Translation:
VIII.
Silence ensued. The countess looked at the guest, nicely smiling, however, not hiding that she would not be upset if now the guest rose and left. The daughter of the guest now set up her dress, interrogatively looking at her mother, as suddenly from a neighboring room was heard the running to the door of several male and female feet, rattling and fastening to a fallen chair, and into the room a thirteen-year-old girl ran in, smelling something in her short musky skirt, and stopped in the middle of the room. Obviously she did this accidentally, from unaccounted running, and jumped away. In the doorway at that same moment was seen a student with a raspberry collar, an officer guard, a fifteen-year-old girl and a thick rosy boy in a children’s jacket.
The count jumped up and, swaying, widely placed his hand around the girls who had run in.
— Ah, here she is! — he laughingly shouted. — the name-day girl! Ma chère (my pretty), the name-day girl!
— My pretty, for everything there is a time,123 — said the countess, pretending to be strict. — You pamper her in everything, Еlіе, — she added to her husband.
— Hello, my pretty, congratulations to you,124 — said the guest. — what a lovely child!125 — she added, turning to the mother.
Black eyed, with a big mouth, a not pretty, but lively girl, with a child’s open shoulders, popped up from her corsage with a fast run, her black curls thrown backwards, thin bare hands and small legs in lace pantalettes and open slippers, she was in that sweet age when a girl is no longer a child, but still not a woman. Twisting from her father, she ran up to her mother and, not turning any attention to her strict comment, hiding her flushed face in her mother’s lace mantilla and laughed. She laughed at something, jerkily explaining something about the doll, which she took out from below her skirt.
— See?.. The doll... Mimi...See.
And Natasha could not speak more (everything was funny to her it seemed). She fell on her mother and burst out laughing more loudly and loudly that everyone, even the prim guest, laughed despite their intentions.
— Well, go, go with your monster! — said the mother, feigning to angrily push away her daughter. — This is my youngest, — turning to her guest.
Natasha, tearing at this moment face from the lace scarf of her mother, looked at her from below through tears of laughter and again hid her face.
The guest, forced to admire the family scene, considered it fit to accept some participation.
— Say, my pretty, — she said, turning to Natasha, — so again you have this Mimi? As your daughter, right?
Natasha did not like the tone of leniency to the children’s conversation that the guest had used on her. She answered with nothing and looked seriously at her guest.
Between all of this young generation: Boris — the officer, son of the princess Anna Mihaylovna, Nikolay — the student, the older son of the count, Sonya — the fifteen-year-old niece of the count, and little Petrusha — the younger son, all settled down in the living room and, apparently, tried to hold onto the borders of decency from the revitalization and hilarity, which still breathed on each of their features. It was seen that there, in the rear rooms, from where they all so swiftly came running, their conversations had been more fun than city gossip, weather and the Countess Apraksina.126 Occasionally they looked at each other and barely held from laughter.
The two young men, the student and the officer, friends from childhood, were the same age and were both beautiful, but not similar to each other. Boris was a tall blond young man with rightly thin features and a calm, beautiful face — Nikolay was a not tall curly young person with an open expression on his face. On his upper lip already showed black hair, and in all of his face expressed swiftness and enthusiasm. Nikolay was red as he entered the living room. It was seen that he sought and did not find what to say; Boris, the opposite, immediately found it and said calmly, playfully, that this Mimi doll he knew this still young damsel with a still unspoiled nose, as she was now five years-old in his memory, she had grown old and her skull had been cracked. As he said this, he looked at Natasha. Natasha turned away from him, looked at her younger brother, who, squinting, shaking from soundless laughter, and, not able to hold on to her forces, jumping and running out of the room as soon as her quick legs could carry her. Boris did not burst out laughing.
— You, it seems, too would like to go, maman (mama)? Need a coach? — he said, with a smile turning to his mother.
— Yes, go, go and prepare, — she said, smiling.
Boris went out the door quietly and went for Natasha, the thick boy angrily running behind them, as if annoyed at the disappointment of what happened in his exercises.
123. Ma chère, il y a un temps pour tout, (My dear, there is a time for everything,)
124. Bonjour, ma chère, je vous félicite, (Hello, my dear, I congratulate you,)
125. Quelle délicieuse enfant! (What a delicious child!)
126. comtesse Apraksine (Countess Apraksine)
Time: Not explicitly said, but still the Natayla name day, which in a modern calendar is early September.
Locations: The Rostovs'
Pevear and Volkhonsky notes: Countess Rostova is unable to conceal, unable to be quite like Anna Pavlovna. The children break the rules, do not behave, similar to Pierre, but the count greets them, not in a scolidng manner, but welcoming. “There’s a time for everything,” says the countess.
Briggs (chapter 8): Natasha
Maude (chapters 11-14): Natasha and Boris.
Translation:
VIII.
Silence ensued. The countess looked at the guest, nicely smiling, however, not hiding that she would not be upset if now the guest rose and left. The daughter of the guest now set up her dress, interrogatively looking at her mother, as suddenly from a neighboring room was heard the running to the door of several male and female feet, rattling and fastening to a fallen chair, and into the room a thirteen-year-old girl ran in, smelling something in her short musky skirt, and stopped in the middle of the room. Obviously she did this accidentally, from unaccounted running, and jumped away. In the doorway at that same moment was seen a student with a raspberry collar, an officer guard, a fifteen-year-old girl and a thick rosy boy in a children’s jacket.
The count jumped up and, swaying, widely placed his hand around the girls who had run in.
— Ah, here she is! — he laughingly shouted. — the name-day girl! Ma chère (my pretty), the name-day girl!
— My pretty, for everything there is a time,123 — said the countess, pretending to be strict. — You pamper her in everything, Еlіе, — she added to her husband.
— Hello, my pretty, congratulations to you,124 — said the guest. — what a lovely child!125 — she added, turning to the mother.
Black eyed, with a big mouth, a not pretty, but lively girl, with a child’s open shoulders, popped up from her corsage with a fast run, her black curls thrown backwards, thin bare hands and small legs in lace pantalettes and open slippers, she was in that sweet age when a girl is no longer a child, but still not a woman. Twisting from her father, she ran up to her mother and, not turning any attention to her strict comment, hiding her flushed face in her mother’s lace mantilla and laughed. She laughed at something, jerkily explaining something about the doll, which she took out from below her skirt.
— See?.. The doll... Mimi...See.
And Natasha could not speak more (everything was funny to her it seemed). She fell on her mother and burst out laughing more loudly and loudly that everyone, even the prim guest, laughed despite their intentions.
— Well, go, go with your monster! — said the mother, feigning to angrily push away her daughter. — This is my youngest, — turning to her guest.
Natasha, tearing at this moment face from the lace scarf of her mother, looked at her from below through tears of laughter and again hid her face.
The guest, forced to admire the family scene, considered it fit to accept some participation.
— Say, my pretty, — she said, turning to Natasha, — so again you have this Mimi? As your daughter, right?
Natasha did not like the tone of leniency to the children’s conversation that the guest had used on her. She answered with nothing and looked seriously at her guest.
Between all of this young generation: Boris — the officer, son of the princess Anna Mihaylovna, Nikolay — the student, the older son of the count, Sonya — the fifteen-year-old niece of the count, and little Petrusha — the younger son, all settled down in the living room and, apparently, tried to hold onto the borders of decency from the revitalization and hilarity, which still breathed on each of their features. It was seen that there, in the rear rooms, from where they all so swiftly came running, their conversations had been more fun than city gossip, weather and the Countess Apraksina.126 Occasionally they looked at each other and barely held from laughter.
The two young men, the student and the officer, friends from childhood, were the same age and were both beautiful, but not similar to each other. Boris was a tall blond young man with rightly thin features and a calm, beautiful face — Nikolay was a not tall curly young person with an open expression on his face. On his upper lip already showed black hair, and in all of his face expressed swiftness and enthusiasm. Nikolay was red as he entered the living room. It was seen that he sought and did not find what to say; Boris, the opposite, immediately found it and said calmly, playfully, that this Mimi doll he knew this still young damsel with a still unspoiled nose, as she was now five years-old in his memory, she had grown old and her skull had been cracked. As he said this, he looked at Natasha. Natasha turned away from him, looked at her younger brother, who, squinting, shaking from soundless laughter, and, not able to hold on to her forces, jumping and running out of the room as soon as her quick legs could carry her. Boris did not burst out laughing.
— You, it seems, too would like to go, maman (mama)? Need a coach? — he said, with a smile turning to his mother.
— Yes, go, go and prepare, — she said, smiling.
Boris went out the door quietly and went for Natasha, the thick boy angrily running behind them, as if annoyed at the disappointment of what happened in his exercises.
123. Ma chère, il y a un temps pour tout, (My dear, there is a time for everything,)
124. Bonjour, ma chère, je vous félicite, (Hello, my dear, I congratulate you,)
125. Quelle délicieuse enfant! (What a delicious child!)
126. comtesse Apraksine (Countess Apraksine)
Time: Not explicitly said, but still the Natayla name day, which in a modern calendar is early September.
Locations: The Rostovs'
Pevear and Volkhonsky notes: Countess Rostova is unable to conceal, unable to be quite like Anna Pavlovna. The children break the rules, do not behave, similar to Pierre, but the count greets them, not in a scolidng manner, but welcoming. “There’s a time for everything,” says the countess.
“Everything seemed funny to her (Natasha)”
The guest has lost her name but participates in the family, or at least tries, unsuccessfully. What the children were doing and playing “was merrier than the talk about town gossip, the weather, and the comtesse Apraksine.”
Petya is the fat boy in the last sentence.
Boris refers to his mother as “maman”, the same word that has given translators and commentators points of discussion in Albert Camus' The Stranger.
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 *):
Countess Natalia Rostova (just “the countess” in this chapter)
Marya Lvovna Karagin (just “guest” in this chapter)
Her daughter
Natasha Rostova (“Natacha” in Bell)
Nikolai Rostov (as in Dole and Mandelker, “Nikolay” in Wiener, Garnett, and Briggs, “Nicolas” in Bell, “Nicholas” in Maude)
Count Rostov (referred to by wife as “Elie” in Dole and Garnett, “Ilya” in Briggs, Mandelker, and Maude)
Mimi (the doll)
Boris
Anna Mikhailovna
Sonya (as in Dole, Maude, and Dunnigan, “Sonia” in Bell)
Petrusha (as in Dole and Weiner, “Petya” in Edmonds, Mandelker, and Briggs, “Petroucha” in Bell)
Countess Apraksine (Bell says “Count and Countess Apraxine”)
Abridged Versions: No break at end for Bell
Gibian: Start of Chapter 5. Followed by a line break.
Gibian: Start of Chapter 5. Followed by a line break.
Fuller: The little bit that begins the chapter about the daughter, the countess, and the guest is removed, and instead it starts with the children making noise and running into the room.
Everything else remains except the mother reminding us it is her youngest daughter and the explicit countess Apraksine reference, though the rest of that sentence remains.
Komroff: Natasha’s actual words when trying to speak about Mimi is removed, as is the next paragraph, cutting straight from her trying to say something to the mother telling her to carry it away with her. Natasha leaving is done a
little bit quicker and we don’t have the double laughing with the contrast of Boris maintaining his composure, but the chapter ends the same.
little bit quicker and we don’t have the double laughing with the contrast of Boris maintaining his composure, but the chapter ends the same.
Kropotkin: The daughter of the “caller” is cut but rest of chapter is preserved, ending chapter 7.
Bromfield: Chapter 14: Natasha’s dialogue makes it clear they wanted to marry Boris to the doll until he ran away. A line about the footmen, the ones that work for the Rostovs and the ones that work for the visiting families
exchanging smiles, as if Natasha even warms their hearts. Natasha answers the condescending question with condescension. Difference between Nikolai and Boris’ decorum made more explicit as Nikolia doesn’t want to
be in the drawing room. Boris’ insincerity seems a little more prominent. Extra line from Natasha about Boris speaking like a grownup, Anna Mikhailovna awkwardly trying to touch and talk to her.
Simmons: Start of Chapter 5. The part about the fetching of the carriage at the end of the chapter is removed. Followed by a line break.
exchanging smiles, as if Natasha even warms their hearts. Natasha answers the condescending question with condescension. Difference between Nikolai and Boris’ decorum made more explicit as Nikolia doesn’t want to
be in the drawing room. Boris’ insincerity seems a little more prominent. Extra line from Natasha about Boris speaking like a grownup, Anna Mikhailovna awkwardly trying to touch and talk to her.
Simmons: Start of Chapter 5. The part about the fetching of the carriage at the end of the chapter is removed. Followed by a line break.
Edmundson: Act One Scene Three: Instead of it being the name-day party, it is some kind of warmup that is used to give Natasha some characterization, such as a discussion of whether she is a woman or a girl and the count
calling her a Cossack. It also has her singing and we get introduced to Nikolai as he waits for his Hussar uniform. Petya also plays a bigger role here. They also discuss the coming war and Sonya's role here is exposition,
being the one that seems to know news. The countess offends Sonya by talking about finding a wife for Nikolai, and she runs out crying from the room.
Additional Notes:
Ekaterina Tolstoya (Katz): Pages vii-viii: “A feeling of family happiness reigned in the Tolstoy household; guests took great pleasure in their visits. At times as many as forty people gathered at the estate. Sofiya Andreevna carefully planned all the details to receive them and provide for their needs.”
Kaufman: Page 56: “the Rostovs, whose family comes from the verb rosti, “to grow.””
Anna Karenina (Garnett/Mandelker):
Page 255: "All one has to do is not spoil children, not to distort their nature, and they'll be delightful."
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