Chapter Summaries: Dole: At the Rostof's. Letters from Nikolai. How to break the news to the countess. The girls try to recollect Nikolai. Petya's superiority. The countess told. Letters to Nikolai.
Briggs: A letter from Nikolay. Sonya and Natasha.
Maude: A letter from Nicholas. Sonya and Natasha
Pevear and Volkhonsky: The Rostovs receive a letter from Nikolai
Translation:
VI.
For long the Rostovs had not had news about Nikolushka; only at mid-winter was the count delivered a letter, on the address of which he found the hand of his son. Receiving the letter, the count scaredly and hastily, trying to not be seen, on tiptoe ran to his office, locked it up and began to read. Anna Mihaylovna, upon learning (as she knew all that was done in the house) about the receiving of the letter, in a quiet step entered to the count and caught him with the letter in his hands both sobbing and laughing.
Anna Mihaylovna, despite her recovered affairs, continued to live at the Rostovs.
— My kind friend?366— interrogatively and sad and with the readiness of any participation uttered Anna Mihaylovna.
The count sobbed still more.
— Nikolushka... letter... injured.... would... was... ma chère (my pretty)... injured... darling my... countess... in the officers promoted... thank God... To the countess how to say?...
Anna Mihaylovna got hooked to him, wiped his tears with a handkerchief to his eyes, with the letter, buried it, and his tears, read the letter, reassured the count and decided that until lunch and until tea she would prepare the countess, but after tea announce everything, if God helps her.
All during lunch Anna Mihaylovna talked about the rumors of war, about Nikolushka; asked two times when the last letter was received from him, although she knew this before, and noticed that it was very easy, maybe, to now work out the letter. Any time as at these hints the countess began to worry and uneasily peer at the count, then at Anna Mihaylovna, Anna Mihaylovna in a very imperceptible way reduced the conversation to minor items. Natasha, of the family more than all gifted with the ability to feel the shades of intonation, views and expressions of persons, from the beginning of lunch with guarded ears knew that something was between her father and Anna Mihaylovna and something concerned her brother, and that Anna Mihaylovna was preparing. Despite all of her courage (Natasha knew how sensitive her mother was to all that touched the news about Nikolushka), she decided not for lunch to make a question and from anxiety for lunch ate nothing and spun in her chair, not listening to the remarks of her governesses. After lunch she headlong threw herself, catching up to Anna Mihaylovna and on the sofa with a takeoff run threw herself on her neck.
— Aunty, darling, say, what is this?
— Nothing, my friend.
— No, darling, darling, pretty peach, I am not to be behind, I know what you know.
Anna Mihaylovna shook her head.
— Ah, rascal,367 — she said.
— From Nikolinki a letter? Maybe! — cried out Natasha, reading an affirmative answer on the face of Anna Mihaylovna.
— But for God, be careful: you know how this may hit your maman (mama).
— I will, I will, but tell me. Won’t tell? Well, so I now will go talk.
Anna Mihaylovna in short words told Natasha the content of the letter with the condition not to speak to anyone.
— Honest, noble word, — crossing, said Natasha, — I won’t talk to anyone, — and immediately ran to Sonya.
— Nikolinka... injured... a letter... — she spoke solemnly and happy.
— Nicolas! — Sonya pronounced alone, instantly turning pale.
Natasha, seeing the impression produced in Sonya by the news about the wound of her brother, for the first time felt all the woeful side of the news.
She threw herself to Sonya, hugged her and cried.
— A little bit injured, but promoted into the officers; he now is healthy, he himself writes, — she said through tears.
— Here it was seen that all you women, — crybabies, — said Petya, in decisive large steps pacing by the room. — I am so very glad and, rightly, very glad that my brother is so distinguished. All you are nurses! Nobody understands. —
Natasha smiled through tears.
— You have not read the letter? — asked Sonya.
— Not read, but it said how everything passed and that he now is an officer...
— Thank God, — said Sonya, crossing. — Yet, maybe, it deceived you. Go to maman (mama).
Petya silently went by the room.
— If I was in the location of Nikolushki, I would still more of these French have killed, — he said, — They are so vile! I would beat so many of them that a lot of them would have been finished, — continued Petya.
— Keep silent, Petya, what a fool you are!..
— I am not a fool, but fools are those who from nothing cry, — said Petya.
— Do you remember him? — after a minute of silence suddenly asked Natasha. Sonya smiled.
— If I remember Nicolas?
— No, Sonya, if you remember him so, so if well remembered, so if all is remembered, — with a diligent gesture said Natasha, apparently, wishing to give her words a very serious matter. — And I remember Nikolinka, I remember, — she said. — but Boris I do not remember. I really do not remember...
— How? You do not remember Boris? — asked Sonya with surprise.
— Not that I do not remember, — I know what he is, but I do not so remember him as Nikolinka. Him, I close my eyes and remember, but Boris no (she closed her eyes), no — nothing!
— Ah, Natasha! — said Sonya, enthusiastically and seriously looking at her friend, as if she counted it unworthy to hear that, that she intended to say, as if she said this to someone else, with whom it could not be joked with. — I fell in love with your brother, and, what would happen with him, and with me, I will never stop loving him in all life.
Natasha with surprised, curious eyes watched Sonya and kept silent. She felt that what was said by Sonya, was real, that there was such a love that Sonya talked about; but Natasha had not been tested by anything like that. She believed that this could be, but did not understand.
— Will you write him? — she asked.
Sonya was deep in thought. The question about how to write to Nicolas and whether she needed to write was a question that tormented her. Now, when he was already an officer and a wounded hero, whether it would be okay for her to remind him about herself and about that commitment which he took onto himself in regards to her.
— I do not know; I think, if he writes, — I will write, — blushing, she said.
— And you are not ashamed to write him?
Sonya smiled. — No.
— But I am ashamed to write Boris, I will not write.
— And from what again are you ashamed?
— I do not know. It’s awkward, and I am ashamed.
— But I know, from what she is ashamed, — said Petya, hurting the first remark of Natasha, — because of how she fell in love with the thick with glasses (so called Petya his namesake, the new Count Bezuhov); now she has fallen in love with this singer (Petya spoke about an Italian, Natasha's teacher of singing): here she is ashamed.
— Petya, you stupid, — said Natasha.
— Not dumber than you, mother, — said nine year old Petya, exactly as if he was an old brigadier.
The countess was prepared by the hints of Anna Mihaylovna in the time of lunch. Leaving to herself, she, sitting in an armchair, did not lower her eyes from the miniature portrait of her son, done on a snuffbox, and tears wrapped up in her eyes. Anna Mihaylovna with the letter on tiptoes came up to the room of the Countess and stopped.
— Do not enter, — she told the old count, going to behind her, — after, — and shut behind herself the door.
The count attached his ear to the lock and began to listen.
First he heard the sounds of indifferent speeches, then the lone sound of the voice of Anna Mihaylovna, speaking a long speech, then a scream, then silence, then again both voices together speaking with joyful intonations, and then steps, and Anna Mihaylovna opened the door to him. On the face of Anna Mihaylovna was a proud expression of an operator, graduated from a difficult amputation and introducing the public so they could estimate her art.
— Ready!368 — she told the count, with a solemn gesture pointing at the countess, who was holding in one hand the snuffbox with the portrait, and in the other — the letter and pressed her lips to that, to that, that and to the other.
Seeing the count, she handed to him her hand, hugged his bald head and across his bald head again looked at the letter and the portrait and again so that to press down her lips, slightly pushed away his bald head. Vera, Natasha, Sonya and Petya entered into the room, and started reading. In the letter was briefly described the trip and the battle, in which participated Nikolushka, the proceedings into the officers and said that he kissed the hand of maman (mama) and papa, asking for their blessings, and kissed Vera, Natasha, and Petya. Besides this he bowed to Mr. Scheling, Miss Schoss and the nanny, and, besides this, he asked to kiss dear Sonya, whom he all so the same loved and about whom all so the same remembered. Upon hearing this, Sonya blushed so that tears came forward in her eyes. And, not being in her forces to withstand what was applied in her looks, she ran in the hall, fled, spun and, her dress blowing like a balloon, flushed, smiled, and sat on the floor. The countess cried.
— Again about what are you crying, maman (mama)? — said Vera. — By all that he writes, we need to rejoice, but not to cry.
This was completely fair, but the count, countess, and Natasha — all with reproach looked at her. "And to whom is she so exited!" thought the countess.
The letter of Nikolushki was read hundreds of times, and those who were considered worthy of it listened when they came to the countess, and it was not released from her hands. Came governors, nannies, Mitenka, and some acquaintances, and the countess reread the letter any time with new enjoyment and any time opened this letter new virtues in her Nikolushka. How weird, unusual, her happiness was, that her son — that son, which by little bits his noticeably tiny members moved in her at most twenty years backwards, that son, for whom she quarreled with the pampering count, that son, which learned to speak first: "pear," but then "woman," that this son was now there, in a foreign land, in a foreign environment, a courageous warrior, alone, without assistance and guides, did there something of his male business. All the world’s age-old experience, indicating the children’s imperceptible path from cradle to husband did not exist for the countess. The maturity of her son in each time of maturity was for her so the same unusual, as it would have never happened to millions and millions of people, exactly so the same matured. So she did not believe twenty years backwards, so that that small being, which lived somewhere there below her heart, would scream and begin to suck up her chest and would begin to speak, so and now she did not believe that this same being could be that strong, brave man, a pattern of sons and people, which he was now, judging by this letter.
— What is behind the calm, how he describes so nicely! —she said, reading the descriptive part of the letter. — And what is behind his soul! About himself nothing... nothing! About that Denisov, but himself, rightly, is braver than them all. Nothing written about his misery. What is behind his heart! How I recognize him! And how he remembered all! Nobody forgotten. I have always, always said, still now when he was here, I have always said...
More weeks passed, drafts and full letters were written to Nikolushka from home; under the observation of the countess and the care of the count were going the necessary things and money for uniforms and acquiring again what is produced for an officer. Anna Mihaylovna, a practical woman, managed to arrange for herself and her son patronage in the army and for correspondence. She had the case to send her letters to Great Prince Konstantin Pavlovich, who commanded the guard. The Rostovs supposed that the Russian guard abroad was a completely definitive address, and that should the letter reach to the great prince, the commander of the guard, that there were no causes for it to not reach to the Pavlograd regiment, which should be there the same nearby; and it was decided to send off the letters and money through the courier of the great prince to Boris, and Boris now should deliver them to Nikolushka. The letters were from the old count, the Countess, Petya, Vera, Natasha, Sonya, and, finally, 6000 rubles for a uniform and various things the count sent his son.
366. Mon bon ami? (My good friend?)
367. Vous êtes une fine mouche, mon enfant, (You are a fine fly, my child,)
368. C’est fait! (It is done!)
Time: middle of the winter (mid-winter in Mandelker, Maude, and Briggs.)
Locations: the Rostovs'.
Mentioned: the war is talked about as a place, French, Italian, "The Russian Guard abroad"
Pevear and Volkhonsky Notes: We move to midwinter (I have not been really keeping track of time as of yet. The way time moves in the novel is a little abstract, but as with locations and places, I hope to go back and update these chapter sections and label them with the dates in which they take place) and to the Rostovs.
Briggs: A letter from Nikolay. Sonya and Natasha.
Maude: A letter from Nicholas. Sonya and Natasha
Pevear and Volkhonsky: The Rostovs receive a letter from Nikolai
Translation:
VI.
For long the Rostovs had not had news about Nikolushka; only at mid-winter was the count delivered a letter, on the address of which he found the hand of his son. Receiving the letter, the count scaredly and hastily, trying to not be seen, on tiptoe ran to his office, locked it up and began to read. Anna Mihaylovna, upon learning (as she knew all that was done in the house) about the receiving of the letter, in a quiet step entered to the count and caught him with the letter in his hands both sobbing and laughing.
Anna Mihaylovna, despite her recovered affairs, continued to live at the Rostovs.
— My kind friend?366— interrogatively and sad and with the readiness of any participation uttered Anna Mihaylovna.
The count sobbed still more.
— Nikolushka... letter... injured.... would... was... ma chère (my pretty)... injured... darling my... countess... in the officers promoted... thank God... To the countess how to say?...
Anna Mihaylovna got hooked to him, wiped his tears with a handkerchief to his eyes, with the letter, buried it, and his tears, read the letter, reassured the count and decided that until lunch and until tea she would prepare the countess, but after tea announce everything, if God helps her.
All during lunch Anna Mihaylovna talked about the rumors of war, about Nikolushka; asked two times when the last letter was received from him, although she knew this before, and noticed that it was very easy, maybe, to now work out the letter. Any time as at these hints the countess began to worry and uneasily peer at the count, then at Anna Mihaylovna, Anna Mihaylovna in a very imperceptible way reduced the conversation to minor items. Natasha, of the family more than all gifted with the ability to feel the shades of intonation, views and expressions of persons, from the beginning of lunch with guarded ears knew that something was between her father and Anna Mihaylovna and something concerned her brother, and that Anna Mihaylovna was preparing. Despite all of her courage (Natasha knew how sensitive her mother was to all that touched the news about Nikolushka), she decided not for lunch to make a question and from anxiety for lunch ate nothing and spun in her chair, not listening to the remarks of her governesses. After lunch she headlong threw herself, catching up to Anna Mihaylovna and on the sofa with a takeoff run threw herself on her neck.
— Aunty, darling, say, what is this?
— Nothing, my friend.
— No, darling, darling, pretty peach, I am not to be behind, I know what you know.
Anna Mihaylovna shook her head.
— Ah, rascal,367 — she said.
— From Nikolinki a letter? Maybe! — cried out Natasha, reading an affirmative answer on the face of Anna Mihaylovna.
— But for God, be careful: you know how this may hit your maman (mama).
— I will, I will, but tell me. Won’t tell? Well, so I now will go talk.
Anna Mihaylovna in short words told Natasha the content of the letter with the condition not to speak to anyone.
— Honest, noble word, — crossing, said Natasha, — I won’t talk to anyone, — and immediately ran to Sonya.
— Nikolinka... injured... a letter... — she spoke solemnly and happy.
— Nicolas! — Sonya pronounced alone, instantly turning pale.
Natasha, seeing the impression produced in Sonya by the news about the wound of her brother, for the first time felt all the woeful side of the news.
She threw herself to Sonya, hugged her and cried.
— A little bit injured, but promoted into the officers; he now is healthy, he himself writes, — she said through tears.
— Here it was seen that all you women, — crybabies, — said Petya, in decisive large steps pacing by the room. — I am so very glad and, rightly, very glad that my brother is so distinguished. All you are nurses! Nobody understands. —
Natasha smiled through tears.
— You have not read the letter? — asked Sonya.
— Not read, but it said how everything passed and that he now is an officer...
— Thank God, — said Sonya, crossing. — Yet, maybe, it deceived you. Go to maman (mama).
Petya silently went by the room.
— If I was in the location of Nikolushki, I would still more of these French have killed, — he said, — They are so vile! I would beat so many of them that a lot of them would have been finished, — continued Petya.
— Keep silent, Petya, what a fool you are!..
— I am not a fool, but fools are those who from nothing cry, — said Petya.
— Do you remember him? — after a minute of silence suddenly asked Natasha. Sonya smiled.
— If I remember Nicolas?
— No, Sonya, if you remember him so, so if well remembered, so if all is remembered, — with a diligent gesture said Natasha, apparently, wishing to give her words a very serious matter. — And I remember Nikolinka, I remember, — she said. — but Boris I do not remember. I really do not remember...
— How? You do not remember Boris? — asked Sonya with surprise.
— Not that I do not remember, — I know what he is, but I do not so remember him as Nikolinka. Him, I close my eyes and remember, but Boris no (she closed her eyes), no — nothing!
— Ah, Natasha! — said Sonya, enthusiastically and seriously looking at her friend, as if she counted it unworthy to hear that, that she intended to say, as if she said this to someone else, with whom it could not be joked with. — I fell in love with your brother, and, what would happen with him, and with me, I will never stop loving him in all life.
Natasha with surprised, curious eyes watched Sonya and kept silent. She felt that what was said by Sonya, was real, that there was such a love that Sonya talked about; but Natasha had not been tested by anything like that. She believed that this could be, but did not understand.
— Will you write him? — she asked.
Sonya was deep in thought. The question about how to write to Nicolas and whether she needed to write was a question that tormented her. Now, when he was already an officer and a wounded hero, whether it would be okay for her to remind him about herself and about that commitment which he took onto himself in regards to her.
— I do not know; I think, if he writes, — I will write, — blushing, she said.
— And you are not ashamed to write him?
Sonya smiled. — No.
— But I am ashamed to write Boris, I will not write.
— And from what again are you ashamed?
— I do not know. It’s awkward, and I am ashamed.
— But I know, from what she is ashamed, — said Petya, hurting the first remark of Natasha, — because of how she fell in love with the thick with glasses (so called Petya his namesake, the new Count Bezuhov); now she has fallen in love with this singer (Petya spoke about an Italian, Natasha's teacher of singing): here she is ashamed.
— Petya, you stupid, — said Natasha.
— Not dumber than you, mother, — said nine year old Petya, exactly as if he was an old brigadier.
The countess was prepared by the hints of Anna Mihaylovna in the time of lunch. Leaving to herself, she, sitting in an armchair, did not lower her eyes from the miniature portrait of her son, done on a snuffbox, and tears wrapped up in her eyes. Anna Mihaylovna with the letter on tiptoes came up to the room of the Countess and stopped.
— Do not enter, — she told the old count, going to behind her, — after, — and shut behind herself the door.
The count attached his ear to the lock and began to listen.
First he heard the sounds of indifferent speeches, then the lone sound of the voice of Anna Mihaylovna, speaking a long speech, then a scream, then silence, then again both voices together speaking with joyful intonations, and then steps, and Anna Mihaylovna opened the door to him. On the face of Anna Mihaylovna was a proud expression of an operator, graduated from a difficult amputation and introducing the public so they could estimate her art.
— Ready!368 — she told the count, with a solemn gesture pointing at the countess, who was holding in one hand the snuffbox with the portrait, and in the other — the letter and pressed her lips to that, to that, that and to the other.
Seeing the count, she handed to him her hand, hugged his bald head and across his bald head again looked at the letter and the portrait and again so that to press down her lips, slightly pushed away his bald head. Vera, Natasha, Sonya and Petya entered into the room, and started reading. In the letter was briefly described the trip and the battle, in which participated Nikolushka, the proceedings into the officers and said that he kissed the hand of maman (mama) and papa, asking for their blessings, and kissed Vera, Natasha, and Petya. Besides this he bowed to Mr. Scheling, Miss Schoss and the nanny, and, besides this, he asked to kiss dear Sonya, whom he all so the same loved and about whom all so the same remembered. Upon hearing this, Sonya blushed so that tears came forward in her eyes. And, not being in her forces to withstand what was applied in her looks, she ran in the hall, fled, spun and, her dress blowing like a balloon, flushed, smiled, and sat on the floor. The countess cried.
— Again about what are you crying, maman (mama)? — said Vera. — By all that he writes, we need to rejoice, but not to cry.
This was completely fair, but the count, countess, and Natasha — all with reproach looked at her. "And to whom is she so exited!" thought the countess.
The letter of Nikolushki was read hundreds of times, and those who were considered worthy of it listened when they came to the countess, and it was not released from her hands. Came governors, nannies, Mitenka, and some acquaintances, and the countess reread the letter any time with new enjoyment and any time opened this letter new virtues in her Nikolushka. How weird, unusual, her happiness was, that her son — that son, which by little bits his noticeably tiny members moved in her at most twenty years backwards, that son, for whom she quarreled with the pampering count, that son, which learned to speak first: "pear," but then "woman," that this son was now there, in a foreign land, in a foreign environment, a courageous warrior, alone, without assistance and guides, did there something of his male business. All the world’s age-old experience, indicating the children’s imperceptible path from cradle to husband did not exist for the countess. The maturity of her son in each time of maturity was for her so the same unusual, as it would have never happened to millions and millions of people, exactly so the same matured. So she did not believe twenty years backwards, so that that small being, which lived somewhere there below her heart, would scream and begin to suck up her chest and would begin to speak, so and now she did not believe that this same being could be that strong, brave man, a pattern of sons and people, which he was now, judging by this letter.
— What is behind the calm, how he describes so nicely! —she said, reading the descriptive part of the letter. — And what is behind his soul! About himself nothing... nothing! About that Denisov, but himself, rightly, is braver than them all. Nothing written about his misery. What is behind his heart! How I recognize him! And how he remembered all! Nobody forgotten. I have always, always said, still now when he was here, I have always said...
More weeks passed, drafts and full letters were written to Nikolushka from home; under the observation of the countess and the care of the count were going the necessary things and money for uniforms and acquiring again what is produced for an officer. Anna Mihaylovna, a practical woman, managed to arrange for herself and her son patronage in the army and for correspondence. She had the case to send her letters to Great Prince Konstantin Pavlovich, who commanded the guard. The Rostovs supposed that the Russian guard abroad was a completely definitive address, and that should the letter reach to the great prince, the commander of the guard, that there were no causes for it to not reach to the Pavlograd regiment, which should be there the same nearby; and it was decided to send off the letters and money through the courier of the great prince to Boris, and Boris now should deliver them to Nikolushka. The letters were from the old count, the Countess, Petya, Vera, Natasha, Sonya, and, finally, 6000 rubles for a uniform and various things the count sent his son.
366. Mon bon ami? (My good friend?)
367. Vous êtes une fine mouche, mon enfant, (You are a fine fly, my child,)
368. C’est fait! (It is done!)
Time: middle of the winter (mid-winter in Mandelker, Maude, and Briggs.)
Locations: the Rostovs'.
Mentioned: the war is talked about as a place, French, Italian, "The Russian Guard abroad"
Pevear and Volkhonsky Notes: We move to midwinter (I have not been really keeping track of time as of yet. The way time moves in the novel is a little abstract, but as with locations and places, I hope to go back and update these chapter sections and label them with the dates in which they take place) and to the Rostovs.
The count runs up to read the letter in a description that sounds like some sort of teenager, but in reality, probably has to do mostly with his fear.
The role Anna Mikhailovna plays in this chapter is something that needs to be discussed more.
Natasha is the one that best understands human emotions it seems. For instance, she pays the most attention. However, she makes a promise and immediately breaks it in the next sentence, reminding us of Pierre making a promise
to Andrei and instantly breaking it in part one of the novel.
to Andrei and instantly breaking it in part one of the novel.
Petya as a warrior-nationalist, or wanting to be one, already established here.
Natasha does not have the connection to Boris that she does to her brother.
When Sonya makes her promise to never stop loving her brother: “She felt that what Sonya had said was true, that there was such love as Sonya was talking about; but Natasha had never experienced anything like that. She believed
it could be, but did not understand it.”
it could be, but did not understand it.”
Petya makes the observation that Natasha was in love with Pierre and that her love shifts and changes, a defining character trait, as well as obvious foreshadowing.
The reading of the letter is the big moment of the chapter.
Vera is again right, but wrong, that technically right that separates her from the other characters.
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 *):
Nikolai (“Nikolushka”, “Nikolenka”, and “Nicolas”)
Anna Mikhailovna (also called “Aunty” as in Dole and Wiener. “Aunt” and “Auntie” in Bell. Mandelker, Garnett, and Briggs only use the latter.)
Count Rostof (“count”)
Countess Rostova (just “little countess”, “mother”, and “maman”)
Natasha
Governess
Sonya
Petya (Dole calls him 10 years old, though the translation norm is 9 years.)
Boris
Pierre (also “the new Count Bezukhoi”)
Singer (as in Dole and Wiener. “Italian” and “giving Natasha singing lessons”. “Singing-master” in Bell, Briggs, and Mandelker.)
Viera
Mr. Schelling (mentioned in Nikolai’s letter. Edmonds, Mandelker, and Maude use “monsieur…” Wiener uses “Mr. Shelling. Bell uses “M. Schelling.”)
Madame Chausse (as in Dole. “...Schoss” in Briggs, Dunnigan, and Garnett.)
Nurse (most likely the one in chapter 18 of the novel. “His old nurse” in Dole)
Mitenka (could argue he is a character in the chapter and not just mentioned. Maude uses “Dmitri” in an alternative and interpretive reading)
Denisof
Grand Duke Konstantine Pavlovitch (as in Dole. “....Konstantin….” in Garnett.“.....Konstantin Pavlovich” in Wiener, Edmonds, and Dunnigan. “....Constantine Pavlovich” in Mandelker. Just “Grand Duke Constantine” in Bell. Just
“Grand Duke Konstantin” in Briggs.)
“Grand Duke Konstantin” in Briggs.)
Grand Duke’s courier
(also, tutors and nurses and acquaintances who the letter is read to)
Abridged Versions: End of chapter 4 in Bell.
Gibian: Chapter 5
Gibian: Chapter 5
Fuller: entire chapter is cut.
Komroff: a lot of the initial count actions in the chapter are cut. We get to the tea conversation quicker. Line break after Natasha not understanding what Sonya means by this true love. Cut of all the conversation about Sonya
writing, cutting from Natasha’s not understanding directly to the countess had been prepared by Anna. The reminiscing of Nikolai growing up is removed, the copying and the way they are sending the letters is shortened but kept.
writing, cutting from Natasha’s not understanding directly to the countess had been prepared by Anna. The reminiscing of Nikolai growing up is removed, the copying and the way they are sending the letters is shortened but kept.
Kropotkin: Entire chapter is cut
Bromfield: We get to the tea time and conversations quicker because we see less of Anna’s planning and a little less description of the count. The narration also gives Petya a slightly bigger role in the chapter and we see his
reactions a little more. Here Natasha admits to being in love with “Fezoni” rather than Petya accusing her. The Vera and Sonya actual reactions to the letter and people’s reactions to them are not there. Line break after where the
chapter normally ends and Mitenka and the count end chapter 3 by having a conversation (just narrated, not quoted) about the count’s monetary affairs. The count has to take out a loan with “immense interest”
Simmons: Chapter 5: chapter is preserved.
reactions a little more. Here Natasha admits to being in love with “Fezoni” rather than Petya accusing her. The Vera and Sonya actual reactions to the letter and people’s reactions to them are not there. Line break after where the
chapter normally ends and Mitenka and the count end chapter 3 by having a conversation (just narrated, not quoted) about the count’s monetary affairs. The count has to take out a loan with “immense interest”
Simmons: Chapter 5: chapter is preserved.
Additional Notes: Garnett: “Son of Tsar Paul I, Konstantin Pavlovitch (1779-1831) was the younger brother of Alexander I, who was tsar from 1801-1825. Konstantin Pavlovitch entered into a morganatic marriage to a Polish
countess in 1820 and renounced all claims to the Russian throne in 1822. When Alexander died, therefore, the throne went to Konstantin Pavlovitch’s brother, Nicholas I (1796-1855), an event that triggered the Decembrist uprising.”
There are a lot of very important character beats and revelations in this chapter when it comes to the Rostovs. The Rostovian ignorance and, rather harmless and innocent, arrogance that we saw with Nikolai's surprise that the
French were shooting at him arrives both in the Countess Rostov's apparent surprise that Nikolai has grown up like millions of children before him (which Tolstoy spends a whole paragraph developing as an aside) and in the idea
that they can just address their letter to the Russian Guards in general and have Nikolai receive their letter. This latter part is a typical touch of Tolstoyan humor and helps us understand the Rostovian money problems and
mismanagement. As happy as they are as a family, they are very disconnected from "reality" (and perhaps this is the point. They are not interested in the big politics, until the war of 1812, and they aren't interested, unlike Vasili, in
scheming to secure their political or monetary position) and do not quite understand how things work. On a more individual level, we see that the patriotism and masculinity of Petya has been bred from a very young age (we see
flashes of this in Nikolai in some key moments, including the end of the novel, but it is less prevalent in his character, or consumes his character less, though this could be because Nikolai is more of a fully developed character than
Petya, who is more one-note and is defined by his belief in masculinity and nationalism). He is typified as someone who does not want to be brave and a soldier like his brother, but wants to be greater than him. He does not seem
to be defined as someone who even looks up to his brother, but as defined by his own aspirations of war-like heroism. On the same note, Natasha's falling into the trap of Anatole while being engaged to Andrei is foreshadowed here.
She is in love with the last man she has been with and forgets the ones she has not seen for a while. Just like Boris's absence causes Natasha to forget him (emphasized heavily in the conversation with Sonya, whose love for Nikolai
is much different), Natasha will forget Andrei during his elongated absence (Pierre's absence in the epilogue is different because she has the children to tie herself to him).
countess in 1820 and renounced all claims to the Russian throne in 1822. When Alexander died, therefore, the throne went to Konstantin Pavlovitch’s brother, Nicholas I (1796-1855), an event that triggered the Decembrist uprising.”
There are a lot of very important character beats and revelations in this chapter when it comes to the Rostovs. The Rostovian ignorance and, rather harmless and innocent, arrogance that we saw with Nikolai's surprise that the
French were shooting at him arrives both in the Countess Rostov's apparent surprise that Nikolai has grown up like millions of children before him (which Tolstoy spends a whole paragraph developing as an aside) and in the idea
that they can just address their letter to the Russian Guards in general and have Nikolai receive their letter. This latter part is a typical touch of Tolstoyan humor and helps us understand the Rostovian money problems and
mismanagement. As happy as they are as a family, they are very disconnected from "reality" (and perhaps this is the point. They are not interested in the big politics, until the war of 1812, and they aren't interested, unlike Vasili, in
scheming to secure their political or monetary position) and do not quite understand how things work. On a more individual level, we see that the patriotism and masculinity of Petya has been bred from a very young age (we see
flashes of this in Nikolai in some key moments, including the end of the novel, but it is less prevalent in his character, or consumes his character less, though this could be because Nikolai is more of a fully developed character than
Petya, who is more one-note and is defined by his belief in masculinity and nationalism). He is typified as someone who does not want to be brave and a soldier like his brother, but wants to be greater than him. He does not seem
to be defined as someone who even looks up to his brother, but as defined by his own aspirations of war-like heroism. On the same note, Natasha's falling into the trap of Anatole while being engaged to Andrei is foreshadowed here.
She is in love with the last man she has been with and forgets the ones she has not seen for a while. Just like Boris's absence causes Natasha to forget him (emphasized heavily in the conversation with Sonya, whose love for Nikolai
is much different), Natasha will forget Andrei during his elongated absence (Pierre's absence in the epilogue is different because she has the children to tie herself to him).
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