Chapter Summaries: Dole: Count Villarsky. Question anticipatory. The initiation. The seven virtues. The signs and symbols.
Briggs: Pierre becomes a freemason.
Maude (chapters 3 and 4): Pierre becomes a freemason
Pevear and Volkhonsky (chapters 3 and 4): Pierre and Willarski. Pierre inducted into the Masons.
Translation:
III. Having arrived in Petersburg, Pierre reported to nobody about his arrival, left for nowhere, and had spent a whole day reading Thomas a Kempis, a book which was unknown by whom it was delivered to him. One and all another understood Pierre, reading this book; he understood more his unknown enjoyment to believe in the opportunity of achieving perfection and in the opportunity of brotherly and active love between people, opened to him by Osip Alekseevich. In a week after his arrival the young Polish Count Villarsky, whom Pierre superficially knew by the Petersburg world, entered at night in his room with that official and solemn look, with which entered to him the second of Dolohov and, shutting behind himself the door and making sure that in the room was nobody besides Pierre, turned to him: — I have arrived to you with instruction and a proposal, count, — he said to him, not sitting down. — An individual, very highly set in our brotherhood, petitioned so that you have been accepted in the brotherhood at an early term, and proposed me to be your guarantor. I for the sacred duty read the entrusted commitment of this face. Whether you wish to march behind my surety into the brotherhood of freemasons? The cold and strict tone of the man, whom Pierre saw almost always at balls with a kind smile, in the society of the most brilliant women, struck Pierre. — Yes, I want, — said Pierre. Villarsky tipped his head. — Still one question, count, — he said, — in which I ask you not as a future mason, but as a honest human (galant homme) I beg with all sincerity for you to respond to me: whether you have disowned your former beliefs, and whether you believe in God? Pierre thought. — Yes... yes, I believe in God, — he said. — In such a case... — started Villarsky, but Pierre interrupted him. — Yes, I believe in God, — he said another time. — In such a case we can go, — said Villarsky. — My coach to your services. All the way Villarsky kept silent. In the questions of Pierre of what he needed to do and how to respond, Villarsky said only that brothers, more worthy than him, will test him, and that Pierre needed nothing more than to speak the truth. Entering into the gate at the home, where was the premise of the lodges, and having passed by the dark stairs, they entered into a lighted, small hallway, where without the assistance of maidservants, they took off fur coats. From the front they passed into another room. Some person in strange robes appeared at the door. Villarsky, coming towards him, said something quiet to him in French and came up to a small closet, at which Pierre saw their unprecedented robes. Taking from the closet a handkerchief, Villarsky imposed his eye on Pierre and tied up the knot of his back, hurtfully seizing the knot of his hair. Then he bent him down to himself, kissed and, taking him behind the arm, led him somewhere. Pierre was hurt from the attracted knot of hair, he frowned from the pain and smiled from some shame. His huge figure with omitted hands, with shriveled and smiling physiognomy, and unfaithful timid steps moved behind Villarsky. Having spent nine steps with him, Villarsky had stopped. — What would happen with you, — he said, — you must with courage carry across everything, if you firmly decide to march into our brotherhood. (Pierre affirmatively responded with the mood of his head.) When you hear the knock at the door, you untie your eyes yourself, — added Villarsky; — I want your courage and success, and, shaking the hand of Pierre, Villarsky got out. Staying alone, Pierre continued all so the same smiling. Two times he shook his shoulders, brought his hand to the shawl, as if he wished to take it off, and again lowered it. The five minutes which he stayed with these related eyes seemed to him an hour. His hand was swollen, his legs gave way; to him it seemed that he was tired. He felt the most complex and diverse feelings. He was fearful of what would happen to him, and still more fearful of how he would not express fear. He was curious to know what will open up from him; but he was only more happy that had come the minute, when he finally marched on that way of updates, activity and virtuous life, about which he dreamed from the time of his meeting with Osip Alekseevich. On the door was heard strong strokes. Pierre stripped off the blindfold and turned back around himself. In the room it was black and dark: only in one location burned a white lamp. Pierre came up nearer and saw that the lamp stood on the black table, on which laid a lone closed book. The book was the Gospel; the white on the burned lamp was a human skill with their own holes and with teeth. Reading the first words of the Gospel: "In the beginning was the word and the word was God." Pierre went around the table and saw a big, filled with something and open box. This was a coffin with bones. He was not surprised at what he saw. He hoped to march in a completely new life, completely excellent against the previous, he saw only the extraordinary and still more extraordinary of what he saw. The skull, coffin, and Gospel — to him it seemed that he only saw this still more. Trying to cause in himself a sense of tenderness, he watched around himself. —"God, daring, love, and the brotherhood of people," — he spoke to himself, linking about these vague words, but joyfully presenting something. The door opened and someone entered. In the weak light, to which now Pierre had time to take a closer look, entered a not tall person. Apparently from the light entering to the darkness, this person stopped; then with careful steps he moved to the table and placed on him a small, covered with a leather glove, hand. This not tall person was dressed in a white, leather apron, covering up his chest and part of his legs, on his neck was some sort of a necklace, and from behind his necklace came forward a tall, white frill, bordering his oblong face, lighted from below. — For what did you come here? — asked the entered, who by rustling made Pierre turn on his side. — For what do you, infidel in the truth of light and not seeing light, for what did you come here, what do you want from us? Wisdom, virtues, enlightenment? At that moment, as the door opened and entered an unknown person, Pierre experienced a sense of fear and awe, like that, which he in childhood felt at confession: he felt himself eye to eye with a complete stranger by the conditions of life and with the close, by the brotherhood of people, man. Pierre with excited breathing and a beating heart moved to the rhetor (so called in the freemasonry the brother preparing the seeker for entry into the brotherhood). Pierre, coming up nearer, found the rhetor to be a friend, Smolyaninov, but to him it was offensive to think that the entered was a familiar person: the entered was only a brother and virtuous mentor. Pierre for long could not pronounce the words, so that the rhetor was to repeat their question. — Yes, I... I... want updating, — with labor reprimanded Pierre. — Okay, — said Smolyaninov, and immediately again continued: — Whether you have a concept about the means which our sacred order helps you in achieving your goals?... — said the rhetor calmly and quickly. — I... hope... guiding... assistance... in updating, — said Pierre with a trembling voice and with difficulty in speech, occurring from excitement, and against the habit of speaking in Russian about abstract objects. — What concept do you have about freemasonry? — I mean that freemasonry is brotherhood420 and equality of people with virtuous goals, — said Pierre, ashamed by how he spoke at least inconsistently in these words with the solemnity of minutes. — I mean... — Okay, — said rhetor hastily, apparently quite satisfied by this answer. — Whether you have searched for the means to achieve these goals in religion? — No, I counted it unfair, and did not follow it, — said Pierre so quietly that the rhetor did not hear him and asked what he said. — I was an atheist, — was the response of Pierre. — You search for truths so that to follow in life its laws; therefore, you search wisdom and virtues, whether this is not so? — said the rhetor after a minute of silence. — Yes, yes, — confirmed Pierre. The rhetor cleared his throat, folded up on his breast his hands in gloves and started to speak: — Now I should open you to the main objective of our Order, — he said, — and if its objective matches with you, then you from use march into our brotherhood. The first most important objective and bought the foundation of our Order in which it is approved, and which no power of humanity may topple, is the preservation and handing over of offspring of a certain important sacrament... From the oldest centuries and even from the first human until we come down, from which the sacrament may depend the fate of the human family. Yet so this sacrament has such properties that nothing not may know it and use them, if long term and diligent cleansing of oneself is not prepared, not everyone may hope to soon gain it. Therefore we have a second objective, which consists in this, so that to prepare our members, how much is possible, to correct their heart, to clean and enlighten their mind with those means, then we open the legend of men, bothering to seek this sacrament, and by that make them capable of perceiving it. Cleansing and correcting our members, we try thirdly to correct all humankind, offering in our members an example of piety and virtues, and by that try to by all forces to confront evil, reigning in peace. Think about this, and I again will come to you, — he said and got out from the room. — To confront evil, reigning in peace... — repeated Pierre, and he presented his future activity in this field. He presented such the same people, how he was himself two weeks to that backwards, and he mentally turned to his instructive mentoring speech. He submitted to himself perverse and miserable people, which he aided in a word and business; submitting himself to oppressors, from which he saved their victims. Of the three named rhetor’s goals, this last — the correction of the family of humans, was especially close to Pierre. A certain major sacrament, about which mentioned the rhetor, although incited in him curiosity, did not present to him as essential; but the second objective, purification and correction of himself, little occupied him because of how he at this moment with enjoyment felt himself already quite corrected from his former vices and ready only to do good to others. In half an hour returned the rhetor to deliver the seeker those seven virtues, relevant to the seven steps of the temple of Solomon, which was to educate in himself every mason. These virtues were: 1) modesty, observance of the secrets of the Order, 2) obedience to the highest ranks of the Order, 3) kindness, 4) love to humanity, 5) bravery, 6) generosity and 7) love of death. — In the seventh try to, — said rhetor, — frequently think about death to lead yourself so that it does not seem to you a terrible enemy, but a friend... which is free from this disastrous life in the works of virtues of a languishing soul, for its introduction to the place of awards and reassurance. "Yes, this must be so," — thought Pierre, when after these words the rhetor again went from him, leaving him to solitary thinking. "This must be so, but I am still so fragile that I love this life, whose meaning only now by a little bit is open to me." But the rest of the five virtues, which sorting out by fingers remembered Pierre, he felt in his soul: bravery, generosity, kindness, love to humanity, and in particular obedience, which did not even present to him as a virtue, but happiness. (he was so happy now to get rid of their arbitrariness and to subdue his will to that which he knew as the undoubted truth.) The seventh virtue Pierre forgot and could in no way remember it. For the third time the rhetor returned and asked Pierre whether he was hard in all his intentions, and whether he decided to subject himself to all that was required from him. — I am ready for everything, — said Pierre. — Still I should report to you, — said the rhetor, — that our order of teaching teaches not words only, but other means which in true seeker of wisdom and virtues act, maybe stronger than verbal only explanations. These temple decorations which you see should now explain your heart, if it is sincere, rather than your words; you will see, maybe, in your further adoption of similar forms of explanation. Our order imitates ancient societies, which opened in teaching hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphs, — spoke the rhetor, — are the name of the unaffected feelings of things, which contained in themselves qualities similar portrayed. Pierre knew very well what such was a hieroglyph, but did not dare to speak. He silently listened to the rhetor, by all feeling that immediately began the test. — Should it be hard for you, then I should begin to introduce you, — said the rhetor, coming up nearer to Pierre. — As a sign of generosity I beg you to give me all precious things. — But I with myself have nothing, — said Pierre, thinking that from him was required a payment of only of what he has. — That which is on you: watch, money, rings... Pierre hastily took out his purse, watch, and for long could not take off with his fat fingertips his engagement ring. When this was done, the mason said: — In a sign of obedience I beg you to undress. — Pierre stripped off his tailcoat, vest and left boot by the direction of the rhetor. The mason opened his shirt at his left breast, and, bending over, raised his trouser leg on his left leg above the knee. Pierre hastily wanted to take off his right boot and roll up his trousers, so to rid of this labor of the strange man, but the mason said to him that this was not needed, — and gave him a shoe for his left leg. With a children's smile of bashfulness, doubt and ridicule about himself, which against his commitment came forward to his face, Pierre stood, lowered his hand and spread apart his legs, before the brother rhetor, expecting his new orders. — And finally, in a sign of sincerity, I beg you to open to me your main addiction, — he said. — My addiction! In me there were so many, — said Pierre. — That addiction, which more than all the others forced you to hesitate in the way of virtues, — said the mason. Pierre was silent, looking. "Wine? Overeating? Idleness? Laziness? Hotness? Malice? Women?" he sorted through his vices, mentally weighing them and not knowing to which to give advantage. — Women, — Pierre said quietly, in a little audible voice. The mason did not move and did not speak for long after this answer. Finally he moved to Pierre, taking the lying on the table handkerchief and again tied up his eyes. — For the last time I speak to you: turn all your attention to yourself, impose rows on your feelings and look for bliss not in passions, but in your heart. The spring of bliss is not beyond, but inside us... Pierre now felt in himself this refreshing spring of bliss, now joy and overwhelming affection in his soul. 420 fraternité (brotherhood)
Time: A week after his arrival
Locations: St. Petersburg
Mentioned: Polish (Pole in Briggs)
Pevear and Volkhonsky: “some unknown person had delivered” a book about Thomas a Kempis to him, which he reads.
Briggs: Pierre becomes a freemason.
Maude (chapters 3 and 4): Pierre becomes a freemason
Pevear and Volkhonsky (chapters 3 and 4): Pierre and Willarski. Pierre inducted into the Masons.
Translation:
III. Having arrived in Petersburg, Pierre reported to nobody about his arrival, left for nowhere, and had spent a whole day reading Thomas a Kempis, a book which was unknown by whom it was delivered to him. One and all another understood Pierre, reading this book; he understood more his unknown enjoyment to believe in the opportunity of achieving perfection and in the opportunity of brotherly and active love between people, opened to him by Osip Alekseevich. In a week after his arrival the young Polish Count Villarsky, whom Pierre superficially knew by the Petersburg world, entered at night in his room with that official and solemn look, with which entered to him the second of Dolohov and, shutting behind himself the door and making sure that in the room was nobody besides Pierre, turned to him: — I have arrived to you with instruction and a proposal, count, — he said to him, not sitting down. — An individual, very highly set in our brotherhood, petitioned so that you have been accepted in the brotherhood at an early term, and proposed me to be your guarantor. I for the sacred duty read the entrusted commitment of this face. Whether you wish to march behind my surety into the brotherhood of freemasons? The cold and strict tone of the man, whom Pierre saw almost always at balls with a kind smile, in the society of the most brilliant women, struck Pierre. — Yes, I want, — said Pierre. Villarsky tipped his head. — Still one question, count, — he said, — in which I ask you not as a future mason, but as a honest human (galant homme) I beg with all sincerity for you to respond to me: whether you have disowned your former beliefs, and whether you believe in God? Pierre thought. — Yes... yes, I believe in God, — he said. — In such a case... — started Villarsky, but Pierre interrupted him. — Yes, I believe in God, — he said another time. — In such a case we can go, — said Villarsky. — My coach to your services. All the way Villarsky kept silent. In the questions of Pierre of what he needed to do and how to respond, Villarsky said only that brothers, more worthy than him, will test him, and that Pierre needed nothing more than to speak the truth. Entering into the gate at the home, where was the premise of the lodges, and having passed by the dark stairs, they entered into a lighted, small hallway, where without the assistance of maidservants, they took off fur coats. From the front they passed into another room. Some person in strange robes appeared at the door. Villarsky, coming towards him, said something quiet to him in French and came up to a small closet, at which Pierre saw their unprecedented robes. Taking from the closet a handkerchief, Villarsky imposed his eye on Pierre and tied up the knot of his back, hurtfully seizing the knot of his hair. Then he bent him down to himself, kissed and, taking him behind the arm, led him somewhere. Pierre was hurt from the attracted knot of hair, he frowned from the pain and smiled from some shame. His huge figure with omitted hands, with shriveled and smiling physiognomy, and unfaithful timid steps moved behind Villarsky. Having spent nine steps with him, Villarsky had stopped. — What would happen with you, — he said, — you must with courage carry across everything, if you firmly decide to march into our brotherhood. (Pierre affirmatively responded with the mood of his head.) When you hear the knock at the door, you untie your eyes yourself, — added Villarsky; — I want your courage and success, and, shaking the hand of Pierre, Villarsky got out. Staying alone, Pierre continued all so the same smiling. Two times he shook his shoulders, brought his hand to the shawl, as if he wished to take it off, and again lowered it. The five minutes which he stayed with these related eyes seemed to him an hour. His hand was swollen, his legs gave way; to him it seemed that he was tired. He felt the most complex and diverse feelings. He was fearful of what would happen to him, and still more fearful of how he would not express fear. He was curious to know what will open up from him; but he was only more happy that had come the minute, when he finally marched on that way of updates, activity and virtuous life, about which he dreamed from the time of his meeting with Osip Alekseevich. On the door was heard strong strokes. Pierre stripped off the blindfold and turned back around himself. In the room it was black and dark: only in one location burned a white lamp. Pierre came up nearer and saw that the lamp stood on the black table, on which laid a lone closed book. The book was the Gospel; the white on the burned lamp was a human skill with their own holes and with teeth. Reading the first words of the Gospel: "In the beginning was the word and the word was God." Pierre went around the table and saw a big, filled with something and open box. This was a coffin with bones. He was not surprised at what he saw. He hoped to march in a completely new life, completely excellent against the previous, he saw only the extraordinary and still more extraordinary of what he saw. The skull, coffin, and Gospel — to him it seemed that he only saw this still more. Trying to cause in himself a sense of tenderness, he watched around himself. —"God, daring, love, and the brotherhood of people," — he spoke to himself, linking about these vague words, but joyfully presenting something. The door opened and someone entered. In the weak light, to which now Pierre had time to take a closer look, entered a not tall person. Apparently from the light entering to the darkness, this person stopped; then with careful steps he moved to the table and placed on him a small, covered with a leather glove, hand. This not tall person was dressed in a white, leather apron, covering up his chest and part of his legs, on his neck was some sort of a necklace, and from behind his necklace came forward a tall, white frill, bordering his oblong face, lighted from below. — For what did you come here? — asked the entered, who by rustling made Pierre turn on his side. — For what do you, infidel in the truth of light and not seeing light, for what did you come here, what do you want from us? Wisdom, virtues, enlightenment? At that moment, as the door opened and entered an unknown person, Pierre experienced a sense of fear and awe, like that, which he in childhood felt at confession: he felt himself eye to eye with a complete stranger by the conditions of life and with the close, by the brotherhood of people, man. Pierre with excited breathing and a beating heart moved to the rhetor (so called in the freemasonry the brother preparing the seeker for entry into the brotherhood). Pierre, coming up nearer, found the rhetor to be a friend, Smolyaninov, but to him it was offensive to think that the entered was a familiar person: the entered was only a brother and virtuous mentor. Pierre for long could not pronounce the words, so that the rhetor was to repeat their question. — Yes, I... I... want updating, — with labor reprimanded Pierre. — Okay, — said Smolyaninov, and immediately again continued: — Whether you have a concept about the means which our sacred order helps you in achieving your goals?... — said the rhetor calmly and quickly. — I... hope... guiding... assistance... in updating, — said Pierre with a trembling voice and with difficulty in speech, occurring from excitement, and against the habit of speaking in Russian about abstract objects. — What concept do you have about freemasonry? — I mean that freemasonry is brotherhood420 and equality of people with virtuous goals, — said Pierre, ashamed by how he spoke at least inconsistently in these words with the solemnity of minutes. — I mean... — Okay, — said rhetor hastily, apparently quite satisfied by this answer. — Whether you have searched for the means to achieve these goals in religion? — No, I counted it unfair, and did not follow it, — said Pierre so quietly that the rhetor did not hear him and asked what he said. — I was an atheist, — was the response of Pierre. — You search for truths so that to follow in life its laws; therefore, you search wisdom and virtues, whether this is not so? — said the rhetor after a minute of silence. — Yes, yes, — confirmed Pierre. The rhetor cleared his throat, folded up on his breast his hands in gloves and started to speak: — Now I should open you to the main objective of our Order, — he said, — and if its objective matches with you, then you from use march into our brotherhood. The first most important objective and bought the foundation of our Order in which it is approved, and which no power of humanity may topple, is the preservation and handing over of offspring of a certain important sacrament... From the oldest centuries and even from the first human until we come down, from which the sacrament may depend the fate of the human family. Yet so this sacrament has such properties that nothing not may know it and use them, if long term and diligent cleansing of oneself is not prepared, not everyone may hope to soon gain it. Therefore we have a second objective, which consists in this, so that to prepare our members, how much is possible, to correct their heart, to clean and enlighten their mind with those means, then we open the legend of men, bothering to seek this sacrament, and by that make them capable of perceiving it. Cleansing and correcting our members, we try thirdly to correct all humankind, offering in our members an example of piety and virtues, and by that try to by all forces to confront evil, reigning in peace. Think about this, and I again will come to you, — he said and got out from the room. — To confront evil, reigning in peace... — repeated Pierre, and he presented his future activity in this field. He presented such the same people, how he was himself two weeks to that backwards, and he mentally turned to his instructive mentoring speech. He submitted to himself perverse and miserable people, which he aided in a word and business; submitting himself to oppressors, from which he saved their victims. Of the three named rhetor’s goals, this last — the correction of the family of humans, was especially close to Pierre. A certain major sacrament, about which mentioned the rhetor, although incited in him curiosity, did not present to him as essential; but the second objective, purification and correction of himself, little occupied him because of how he at this moment with enjoyment felt himself already quite corrected from his former vices and ready only to do good to others. In half an hour returned the rhetor to deliver the seeker those seven virtues, relevant to the seven steps of the temple of Solomon, which was to educate in himself every mason. These virtues were: 1) modesty, observance of the secrets of the Order, 2) obedience to the highest ranks of the Order, 3) kindness, 4) love to humanity, 5) bravery, 6) generosity and 7) love of death. — In the seventh try to, — said rhetor, — frequently think about death to lead yourself so that it does not seem to you a terrible enemy, but a friend... which is free from this disastrous life in the works of virtues of a languishing soul, for its introduction to the place of awards and reassurance. "Yes, this must be so," — thought Pierre, when after these words the rhetor again went from him, leaving him to solitary thinking. "This must be so, but I am still so fragile that I love this life, whose meaning only now by a little bit is open to me." But the rest of the five virtues, which sorting out by fingers remembered Pierre, he felt in his soul: bravery, generosity, kindness, love to humanity, and in particular obedience, which did not even present to him as a virtue, but happiness. (he was so happy now to get rid of their arbitrariness and to subdue his will to that which he knew as the undoubted truth.) The seventh virtue Pierre forgot and could in no way remember it. For the third time the rhetor returned and asked Pierre whether he was hard in all his intentions, and whether he decided to subject himself to all that was required from him. — I am ready for everything, — said Pierre. — Still I should report to you, — said the rhetor, — that our order of teaching teaches not words only, but other means which in true seeker of wisdom and virtues act, maybe stronger than verbal only explanations. These temple decorations which you see should now explain your heart, if it is sincere, rather than your words; you will see, maybe, in your further adoption of similar forms of explanation. Our order imitates ancient societies, which opened in teaching hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphs, — spoke the rhetor, — are the name of the unaffected feelings of things, which contained in themselves qualities similar portrayed. Pierre knew very well what such was a hieroglyph, but did not dare to speak. He silently listened to the rhetor, by all feeling that immediately began the test. — Should it be hard for you, then I should begin to introduce you, — said the rhetor, coming up nearer to Pierre. — As a sign of generosity I beg you to give me all precious things. — But I with myself have nothing, — said Pierre, thinking that from him was required a payment of only of what he has. — That which is on you: watch, money, rings... Pierre hastily took out his purse, watch, and for long could not take off with his fat fingertips his engagement ring. When this was done, the mason said: — In a sign of obedience I beg you to undress. — Pierre stripped off his tailcoat, vest and left boot by the direction of the rhetor. The mason opened his shirt at his left breast, and, bending over, raised his trouser leg on his left leg above the knee. Pierre hastily wanted to take off his right boot and roll up his trousers, so to rid of this labor of the strange man, but the mason said to him that this was not needed, — and gave him a shoe for his left leg. With a children's smile of bashfulness, doubt and ridicule about himself, which against his commitment came forward to his face, Pierre stood, lowered his hand and spread apart his legs, before the brother rhetor, expecting his new orders. — And finally, in a sign of sincerity, I beg you to open to me your main addiction, — he said. — My addiction! In me there were so many, — said Pierre. — That addiction, which more than all the others forced you to hesitate in the way of virtues, — said the mason. Pierre was silent, looking. "Wine? Overeating? Idleness? Laziness? Hotness? Malice? Women?" he sorted through his vices, mentally weighing them and not knowing to which to give advantage. — Women, — Pierre said quietly, in a little audible voice. The mason did not move and did not speak for long after this answer. Finally he moved to Pierre, taking the lying on the table handkerchief and again tied up his eyes. — For the last time I speak to you: turn all your attention to yourself, impose rows on your feelings and look for bliss not in passions, but in your heart. The spring of bliss is not beyond, but inside us... Pierre now felt in himself this refreshing spring of bliss, now joy and overwhelming affection in his soul. 420 fraternité (brotherhood)
Locations: St. Petersburg
Mentioned: Polish (Pole in Briggs)
Pevear and Volkhonsky: “some unknown person had delivered” a book about Thomas a Kempis to him, which he reads.
Pierre interrupts Willarski to say he believes in God twice, which is something that has always stood out to me.
The Mason ritual, which I think Tolstoy wants to show as a little ridiculous. But Pierre is smiling, again too big to be taken seriously.
“He experienced the most complex and varied feelings. He was afraid of what was going to happen to him, and still more afraid that he would show his fear.”
“He was not surprised in the least by what he saw. Hoping to enter a totally new life, totally different from his former one, he expected everything to be extraordinary, still more extraordinary than what he saw.”
“Pierre experienced a feeling of fear and awe similar to what he had experienced in childhood at confession”
Importantly, he was unused to talking about abstract ideas in Russian.
“I presume that Freemasonry is the fraternity and the equality of men with virtuous goals”
“The first main goal and withal the foundation of our order...is the preservation and handing on to posterity of a certain important mystery....second goal, which consists in preparing our members as much as possible...making them
capable of apprehending it.”
capable of apprehending it.”
“Of the three goals...this last one--setting mankind to rights--was especially close to Pierre...at that moment he enjoyed feeling himself already fully set to rights from his former vices and ready only for the good.”
“Said the rhetor, “try by frequent thoughts of death to bring yourself to the point where it no longer seems a fearsome enemy to you, but a friend…”
In a parenthetical: “It was so joyful for him now to be delivered of his arbitrariness and submit his will to a person or persons who knew the unquestionable truth."
"Pierre forgot the seventh virtue (love of death) and simply could not recall what it was.”
“For a long time could not get the wedding ring off his fat finger.”
Again, “childish smile”
He lists women as his main “predilection”
End of chapter: “Pierre already felt in himself that refreshing source of blessedness which now filled his soul with joy and tender feeling.”
Characters (characters who do not appear, but are mentioned are placed in italics. First appearances are in Bold. First mentions are underlined. Final appearance denoted by *):
Pierre
Osip Alekseyevitch
Count Villarsky (with “Polish” as a prefix)
Dolokhof
Nikolai Rostof (only “Dolokhof’s second”)
Smolyaniof (as in Dole. the “Rhetor” in Dole, Mandelker, and Maude. “Smolyaninov” (as also in Maude, Mandelker, and Wiener) the “tyler” in Edmonds. Wiener calls him the “conductor” but in a rare footnote also gives us “rhetor.”
“Smolianinow” the “Steward” in Bell. Often just The Mason, just as Osip was in Pierre’s conversation with him)
“Smolianinow” the “Steward” in Bell. Often just The Mason, just as Osip was in Pierre’s conversation with him)
(also, a “man in strange garb”.)
(just as the Madame de Souza and Novikov references in the previous chapter, you can argue that Thomas a Kempis is more of a reference than a character.)
(Solomon and St. John are referenced, but keeping with the policy of not counting bible characters as characters of the novel, they are placed here.)
Abridged Versions: Chapter 18 for Bell. No break.
Gibian: Chapter 2: line break instead of chapter break.
Gibian: Chapter 2: line break instead of chapter break.
Fuller: entire chapter is cut.
Komroff: Some detail is removed, including the information about Pierre’s previous knowledge of who the Rhetor is, in fact the Rhetor’s name is cut. A lot of the latter part of the chapter is cut, including Pierre’s chief predilection,
his pondering of the seven aspects of Masonry and forgetting of the final one. Followed by a line break.
his pondering of the seven aspects of Masonry and forgetting of the final one. Followed by a line break.
Kropotkin: Some descriptions and details are shortened, such as the Rhetor, who loses his name. The hieroglyphic explanation is gone. The rest of the chapter is preserved.
Bromfield: No corresponding chapter
Simmons: Chapter 2: entire chapter is cut and replaced with: "At the conclusion of a lengthy ceremony inducting him into the Freemasons, Pierre joyfully feels that, in abiding by the prescriptions of the Order, he will leave behind him
the former habits and lead a changed life."
Simmons: Chapter 2: entire chapter is cut and replaced with: "At the conclusion of a lengthy ceremony inducting him into the Freemasons, Pierre joyfully feels that, in abiding by the prescriptions of the Order, he will leave behind him
the former habits and lead a changed life."
Additional Notes: Maude: (Tolstoy): “I can’t describe to you why the reading (about the Masons) produced on me a depression I have not been able to get rid of all day. What is distressing is that all those Masons are fools.” Tolstoy
sympathized with their aims but considered their methods futile.”
sympathized with their aims but considered their methods futile.”
Garnett: "Tolstoy seeds the ensuing description of the Masonic rituals with indeterminate adjectives, conveying both Pierre’s disorientation in the face of an utterly novel experience, and his own authorial skepticism about an
organization…wickedly irreverent account of the initiation rite…”
organization…wickedly irreverent account of the initiation rite…”
Rancour-Laferriere: Page 108: “Thomas a Kempis, in all likelihood The imitation of Christ….there is little indication later in the novel that the book per se has influenced him....In some cases what Thomas a Kempis recommends is
wholly alien to Pierre and will never be a part of his behaviour. Pierre is never an ascetic, for example. Nor does he ever really meditate on Christ, or seek communion with Christ, as Thomas a Kempis advocates. In the end it will
be the Russian people (‘narod’), personified in the figure of Platon Karataev, who will be Pierre’s saviour, not Jesus Christ.”
Confession: Now, looking back at that time, I can clearly see that the only real faith I had, apart from the animal instincts motivating my life, was a belief in perfection...The beginning of it all was, of course, moral perfection, but this was soon replaced by a belief in general perfection, that is a desire to be better not in my own eyes or before God but in the eyes of other people. And very soon this determination to be better than others became a wish to be more powerful than others: more famous, more important, wealthier.”
Ridley: Page 132: According to a well-established tradition, Freemasonry had been introduced into Russia by Peter the Great. Soon after Peter became Tsar, he visited the Netherlands and England incognito, working in the
shipyards and learning the ways of Western Europe; and when he returned to Russia in 1698, he proceeded to modernize his empire on Western European lines. He is said to have joined a Freemasons' lodge when he was in
London, and after he returned to Russia he ordered his trusted minister, Francois Lefort, a Swiss by birth, to found the first Russian masonic lodge in his newly-built capital of St Petersburg and to be the Master of the lodge."
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