Chapter Summaries: Dole: Pierre visits Prince Andrei at Bogucharovo. The estate. Change in Prince Andrei. Discussion of Pierre's affairs. Living for one's neighbor. Happiness in life. Schools. Physical labor. How to treat the peasantry. Prince Andrei's hatred of military service. Prince Andrei's account of his father. Inconsistencies.
Briggs: Pierre visits Andrey at Bogucharovo. They argue about methods of reform.
Maude: He visits Prince Andrew
Pevear and Volkhonsky (chapters 11-12): On his way back, Pierre visits Prince Andrei at his estate of Bogucharovo. Long conversation about good and evil. Continued on the ferry.
Translation:
XI. In a very happy condition of spirit returning from his southern travels, Pierre carried out his long-standing intention to call to his friend Bolkonsky, whom he had not seen for two years. Bogucharovo lied in ugly, flat terrain, covered by fields and felled and uncut spruce and birch forests. The master’s yard was found at the end of a straight, big road located by the village, behind a dug, fully-flooded pond, with still ungrown grass banks, in the middle of a young forest, between which stood a few large pine trees. The master’s yard consisted of a threshing floor, courtyard buildings, stables, bathhouses, wing and stone at home with a semicircular pediment, which was still being built. Around the home was seated a young garden. The walls and gate were durable and new; under the canopy were standing two fire pipes and a barrel dyed in green paint; the roads were direct, the bridges were strong with railings. In all lied an imprint of neatness and thrift. The courtyards met, in a question, where lived the prince, indicated in a small, new wing, sitting at the edge of a pond. The old uncle of Prince Andrey, Anton, dropped off Pierre from the carriage, saying that the prince was at home, and spent him to a blank, little hallway. Pierre was struck by the modest, small, and clean house after those brilliant conditions in which last time he saw his friend in Petersburg. He hastily entered into the smell of pine, into the not plastered, little hall and wanted to go farther, but Anton on tiptoe ran forward and knocked on the door. — Well, what is there? — was heard a sharp, unpleasant voice. — A guest, — was the response of Anton. — Ask them to wait, — and was heard a pushed back chair. Pierre with fast steps came up to the door and faced face to face with the leaving to him, frowned and aged, Prince Andrey. Pierre hugged him and, holding up his glasses, kissed him on the cheeks and closely watched him. — Here I was not waiting for and I am very glad, — said Prince Andrey. Pierre did not speak; he was surprised, not lowering his eyes, and watched his friend. He was struck by the turn that had occurred in Prince Andrey. The words were affectionate, the smile was on the lips and face of Prince Andrey, but the look was faded, dead, which, despite his visible wish, Prince Andrey could not give a joyful and fun shine. It was not that his friend had lost weight, become pale, and matured; but this look and wrinkle on his forehead, expressing long concentration in something, hit and alienated Pierre, while he was not used to it. In an appointment after a long separation, as this always is, the conversation could not for long stay; they asked and answered short about these things, about which they themselves knew needed to be spoken for long. Finally the conversation had little by little began stopping before sketches, talking about questions about their past lives, about the plans for the future, about the travel of Pierre, about his exercises, about the war and etc. That concentration and slaughter, which Pierre saw in the glance of Prince Andrey, now expressed still stronger in the smile with which he listened to Pierre, in particular when Pierre spoke with animated joys about the past or the future. It was as if Prince Andrey would have desired but could not take participation in what he spoke. Pierre started to feel that before Prince Andrey enthusiasm, dreams, hopes of happiness and in goodness. He was ashamed to express all his new, masonic thought, in particular what was refreshed and excited in him in his last travels. He held himself back, was afraid to be naive; together with that he uncontrollably wanted to soon show his friend that he was now really different, the best Pierre, than that he was in Petersburg. — I cannot say to you how much I survive for this time. I would not have found it myself. — Yes, we are much, much changed since then, — said Prince Andrey. — Well, but you? — asked Pierre, — what are your plans? — Plans? — ironically repeated Prince Andrey. — My plans? — he repeated, as if wondering the meaning of such words. — Yes here you see, to build, I want to cross the future year really... Pierre silently and intently peered at the aged face of Andrey. — No, I ask, — said Pierre... — but Prince Andrey interrupted him: — Yes, what about me is there to say.... tell me again, tell me about your journey, about everything that you have done there on your estates. Pierre had begun telling about what he had done on his estates, trying to as he could hide his participation in the improvements made by him. Prince Andrey a few times suggested Pierre forward that as he talked, as if everything that Pierre did was for a long time a famous story, and listened not only not from interest, but even as if he was ashamed for what Pierre said. Pierre had become awkward and even heavy in the society of his friend. He fell silent. — Ah here is what, my soul, — said Prince Andrey, which obviously was too heavy and shy with his guest, — I am here in bivouacs, I had arrived only to look. I now go again to my sister. I will introduce you with them. Yes you, it seems, are familiar, — he said, obviously occupied with a guest with which he did not feel now anything in common. — We will ride after lunch. But now want to look at my manor? — They came out and passed to lunch, talking about political news and common acquaintances, as people little close to each other. With some revival and interest Prince Andrey spoke only about his arranged new homestead and construction, but here in the middle of conversation, at the stage when Prince Andrey described to Pierre the future location of his home, he suddenly stopped. — However here there is nothing interesting, let’s go to lunch and ride. — Lunch called for the conversation about the marriage of Pierre. — I was very surprised when I heard about that, — said Prince Andrey. Pierre was red so again, as he always blushed at this, and hastily said: — I now tell you something, as this all happened. But you know that all this is over forever. — Forever? — said Prince Andrey. — Nothing is forever. — But you know how this is all finished? Have you heard about the duel? — Yes, you passed through this. — For one I thank God for that I did not kill this man, — said Pierre. — From what again? — said Prince Andrey. — To kill an angry dog is extremely okay. — No, to kill a man is not okay, it’s unfair... — From what again is it unfair? — repeated Prince Andrey; — that, what is fair and unfair — is to not give judgement to people. People will forever be faded in delusion and will be mistaken, and in more than this, what they consider fair and unfair. — It is unfair and is evil for another man, — said Pierre, with pleasure feeling that for the first time in his time of arrival to Prince Andrey perked up and started to speak, wanting to express all that he did and how he was now. — But who said to you that it is so evil for another man? — he asked. — Evil? Evil? — said Pierre, — we all know that such is evil for ourselves. — Yes we know, but that evil, which I know for myself, I cannot do to another person, — all more and more perking up spoke Prince Andrey, apparently wishing to express to Pierre his new look on things. He spoke in French. — I know of in life only two valid misfortunes: remorse in conscience and disease. And in happiness there is only absent these both evils.449 Live for yourself, avoiding only these two evils: here is all my wisdom now. — But love to neighbor, but self-sacrifice? — began talking Pierre. — No, with you I cannot agree! Living only so that to not do evil, so not to repent, this is little. I lived so, I lived for myself and ruined my life. And only now, now I live, at least, try to (from modesty Pierre mended) live for another, only now I got all the happiness of life. No I do not agree with you, yes and you do not think what you speak. — Prince Andrey silently looked at Pierre and mockingly smiled. — Here see my sister, Princess Marya. With her you will come down, — he said. — Maybe, you are right for yourself, — he continued, keeping silent a little; — but everyone lives by his: you lived for yourself and say that by this little bit ruined your life, but found happiness only when you began to live for others. But I experienced the opposite. I lived for fame. (And for what again am I thanked? That is the same as love to others, wishing to do for them something, wishing for their praise.) So I lived for others, and not almost, but really ruined my life. And with that since have become calmer, as living for myself alone. — And how again do you live for yourself alone? — flaming up, asked Pierre. — But your son, your sister, and your father? — Yes this is all the same as I, this is not others, — said Prince Andrey, — but others, neighbors, le prochain, as you with Princess Marya call them, this is a main spring of delusion and evil. Neighbors450 these are those, your Kievian men, which you want to do good. And he looked at Pierre in a mockingly defiant look. He, apparently, called Pierre. — You are joking, — all more and more perking up spoke Pierre. What again may be delusion and evil in what I desired (very little and badly carried out), but desired to do good, yes and did something? What again may be evil in how miserable people, our men, people such the same as us, growing and dying without another idea about God and truth, as rites and meaningless prayer, will learn from in the comforting beliefs of a future life, retribution, awards, consolation? What again is evil and deluded is that people die from disease, without assistance, when it is so easy to materially help them, and I give them a healer, a hospital, and a shelter for old men? And isn't it tangible, undoubtedly good that the peasant, the woman with a kid, not having a day and night of peace, are given rest and leisure by me?... — spoke Pierre, in a hurry and lisping. — And I did this, though badly, though little, but did something for this, and you not only disbelieve me in what I did, and that what I did was okay, but disbelieve that you yourself do not think this. But the main thing, — continued Pierre, — I here know and know rightly that the enjoyment of doing this good is the only true happiness in life. — Yes, should you so put the question, that this is another business, — said Prince Andrey. — I build a house, take around a garden, but you a hospital. And that, and another may serve a transmission of time. But what is fair, what is good — leave to judge that, who knows all, but not us. Well you want to argue, — he added, — well come on. — They came out from behind the table and sat down on the porch, replacing the balcony. — Well, come on argue, — said Prince Andrey. — You say a school, — he continued, bending his finger, — teachings and so onwards, that you want to bring him out, — he said, pointing at a peasant, taking off his hat and walking past them, — from his animal state and to give him moral needs, but to me it seems that the only possible happiness — is the happiness of an animal, but you want to deprive him. I envy him, but you want him to make him as me, yet not give him my means. You also speak: facilitate his work. But to my mind, the physical work of him is such the same miserable, such the same as his condition of his existence, as for me and for you mental work. You cannot not think. I lie down to sleep at the 3rd hour, to me comes a thought, and I cannot fall asleep, I toss and turn, cannot sleep until morning because of how I think and cannot not think, as he may not not plow, not mow; otherwise he will go to the tavern, or do ill. How I cannot carry over his scary physical labor, but die in a week, so he cannot carry my physical idleness, he will get fat and will die. Third, — what more had you said? Prince Andrey bent his third finger. — Ah, yes, hospital, medicine. He has a stroke, he dies, but you let his blood, he is cured. He will walk crippled for nine years, to all a burden. Much quieter and easier for him to die. Others give birth, and so there is many. Should you have pitied, then in you an excess worker is gone — is how I look at it, but that you from love again want to mend him. But this is not needed. Yes and then, for what imagination, what medicine someone and something cured! And killed? — So? — he said, viciously frowning and turning away from Pierre. Prince Andrey expressed his thought so clearly and distinctly that it was seen that he had not only once had time to think about this, and he spoke willingly and quickly, as a person who has for long not spoken. His look perked up by that more than were his hopeless judgments. — Ah this is terrible, terrible! — said Pierre. — I do not understand only — how one can live with such thoughts. In me is found such the same minutes, this was recently, in Moscow and others, but then I lower to such an extent that I do not live, and all in me was nasty... the main thing, I am myself. So I do not eat, do not wash my face... Well, is it so the same with you?... — From what again not to wash, this is not pure, — said Prince Andrey; — the opposite, you need to try to make your life as nice as you can. I live and in this am not to blame, have begun to need something better, not to hinder anyone, to live to death. — But what again encourages you to live with such thoughts? You will be sitting and not moving, undertaking nothing... — Life and such does not leave alone. I would gladly do nothing, but here, with one part, the local nobility has honored me to give me the election in leadership: I forcibly got off. They could not understand that in me this is not needed, no the famously good-natured and preoccupied vulgar need this. Then here is this house, which was needed to be built, so to have my corner where I can be calm. Now the militia. — From what are you not serving in the army? — After Austerlitz! — gloomily said Prince Andrey. — No; I dutifully thank you, I gave my word that I will not serve in the current Russian army. And would not should Bonaparte stand here, in Smolensk, threatening Bald Mountains, and so I would not begin to serve in the Russian army. Well, so I say to you, — calming down, continued Prince Andrey. — Now the militia, father is the commander in chief of 3 counties, and the only means of getting rid of the service — being with him. — And you will begin to serve? — I serve. — he was silent a little. — So what for again do you serve? — For here is what for. My father is one of the wonderful people of his century. But he becomes old, and he is not that cruel, but he is too active of a character. He is scary in his habit to unlimited authority, and now this power, given sovereign commander in chief above the militia. If I would have been two hours late two weeks back, he would have hung the recorder in Yuhove, — said Prince Andrey with a smile; — so I serve because besides me nothing has influence on my father, and I sometimes save him from acts from which he would afterwards have been tormented. — Ah, well so here see! — Yes, but not so as you think,451 — continued Prince Andrey. — I for the slightest good did not desire and did not want this bastard recorder, who stole some boots in the militia; I even would have been very satisfied to see him hanged, but I pity my father, that is again the same as myself. Prince Andrey all more and more perked up. His eyes feverishly shone in that time, as he tried to prove to Pierre that never in him was an act of willingness for good to his neighbor. — Well, here you want to free the peasants, — he continued. — This is extremely okay; but not for you (you, I think, have notched nobody and sent no one to Siberia), and still less for the peasants. Should you beat them, flog them, send them to Siberia, then I think that they from this are not any worse. In Siberia he leads that same bestial life, but scars on the body heal, and he so the same is happy, as he was before. But this is needed for those people that perish morally, make money and remorse in yourself, and crush this remorse and coarseness from that in them is the opportunity to execute right and wrong. Here is who I pity, and for whom I would desire to free the peasants. You, maybe, have not seen, but I have seen how good people, educated in these legends of unlimited authority, with the years are now made more irritable, made cruel, rude, know this, and may not hold on to everything making them unhappier and unhappier. Prince Andrey spoke this is with such a hobby that Pierre unwittingly thought that this thought had been induced in Andrey by his father. He responded with nothing to him. — So here is who I pity — their human virtues, calmness of conscience, amenities, but not their back and foreheads, how much they are cut, how much they are shaved, all stay such the same on their backs and foreheads. — No, no and for a thousand times no! I will never agree with you, — said Pierre. 449 Je ne connais dans la vie que maux bien réels: c’est le remord et la maladie. Il n’est de bien que l’absence de ces maux. (I know in life those real evils: these are remorse and sickness. The only good is the absence of these evils.) 450 Le prochain (The next one) 451 mais ce n’est pas comme vous l’entendez, (but it's not like you hear it,)
Time: dinner
Mentioned: two years, two weeks ago
Locations: Bogucharovo
Mentioned: southern (South Russia in Mandelker), St. Petersburg, Kiev, Moscow, Austerlitz, Russian, Smolensk, Lysyya Gory, Yukhnov (Yukhnova in Briggs and Maude. Yukhnovo in Pevear and Volkhonsky), Siberia
Pevear and Volkhonsky: The Pierre and Andrei discussion chapter.
Briggs: Pierre visits Andrey at Bogucharovo. They argue about methods of reform.
Maude: He visits Prince Andrew
Pevear and Volkhonsky (chapters 11-12): On his way back, Pierre visits Prince Andrei at his estate of Bogucharovo. Long conversation about good and evil. Continued on the ferry.
Translation:
XI. In a very happy condition of spirit returning from his southern travels, Pierre carried out his long-standing intention to call to his friend Bolkonsky, whom he had not seen for two years. Bogucharovo lied in ugly, flat terrain, covered by fields and felled and uncut spruce and birch forests. The master’s yard was found at the end of a straight, big road located by the village, behind a dug, fully-flooded pond, with still ungrown grass banks, in the middle of a young forest, between which stood a few large pine trees. The master’s yard consisted of a threshing floor, courtyard buildings, stables, bathhouses, wing and stone at home with a semicircular pediment, which was still being built. Around the home was seated a young garden. The walls and gate were durable and new; under the canopy were standing two fire pipes and a barrel dyed in green paint; the roads were direct, the bridges were strong with railings. In all lied an imprint of neatness and thrift. The courtyards met, in a question, where lived the prince, indicated in a small, new wing, sitting at the edge of a pond. The old uncle of Prince Andrey, Anton, dropped off Pierre from the carriage, saying that the prince was at home, and spent him to a blank, little hallway. Pierre was struck by the modest, small, and clean house after those brilliant conditions in which last time he saw his friend in Petersburg. He hastily entered into the smell of pine, into the not plastered, little hall and wanted to go farther, but Anton on tiptoe ran forward and knocked on the door. — Well, what is there? — was heard a sharp, unpleasant voice. — A guest, — was the response of Anton. — Ask them to wait, — and was heard a pushed back chair. Pierre with fast steps came up to the door and faced face to face with the leaving to him, frowned and aged, Prince Andrey. Pierre hugged him and, holding up his glasses, kissed him on the cheeks and closely watched him. — Here I was not waiting for and I am very glad, — said Prince Andrey. Pierre did not speak; he was surprised, not lowering his eyes, and watched his friend. He was struck by the turn that had occurred in Prince Andrey. The words were affectionate, the smile was on the lips and face of Prince Andrey, but the look was faded, dead, which, despite his visible wish, Prince Andrey could not give a joyful and fun shine. It was not that his friend had lost weight, become pale, and matured; but this look and wrinkle on his forehead, expressing long concentration in something, hit and alienated Pierre, while he was not used to it. In an appointment after a long separation, as this always is, the conversation could not for long stay; they asked and answered short about these things, about which they themselves knew needed to be spoken for long. Finally the conversation had little by little began stopping before sketches, talking about questions about their past lives, about the plans for the future, about the travel of Pierre, about his exercises, about the war and etc. That concentration and slaughter, which Pierre saw in the glance of Prince Andrey, now expressed still stronger in the smile with which he listened to Pierre, in particular when Pierre spoke with animated joys about the past or the future. It was as if Prince Andrey would have desired but could not take participation in what he spoke. Pierre started to feel that before Prince Andrey enthusiasm, dreams, hopes of happiness and in goodness. He was ashamed to express all his new, masonic thought, in particular what was refreshed and excited in him in his last travels. He held himself back, was afraid to be naive; together with that he uncontrollably wanted to soon show his friend that he was now really different, the best Pierre, than that he was in Petersburg. — I cannot say to you how much I survive for this time. I would not have found it myself. — Yes, we are much, much changed since then, — said Prince Andrey. — Well, but you? — asked Pierre, — what are your plans? — Plans? — ironically repeated Prince Andrey. — My plans? — he repeated, as if wondering the meaning of such words. — Yes here you see, to build, I want to cross the future year really... Pierre silently and intently peered at the aged face of Andrey. — No, I ask, — said Pierre... — but Prince Andrey interrupted him: — Yes, what about me is there to say.... tell me again, tell me about your journey, about everything that you have done there on your estates. Pierre had begun telling about what he had done on his estates, trying to as he could hide his participation in the improvements made by him. Prince Andrey a few times suggested Pierre forward that as he talked, as if everything that Pierre did was for a long time a famous story, and listened not only not from interest, but even as if he was ashamed for what Pierre said. Pierre had become awkward and even heavy in the society of his friend. He fell silent. — Ah here is what, my soul, — said Prince Andrey, which obviously was too heavy and shy with his guest, — I am here in bivouacs, I had arrived only to look. I now go again to my sister. I will introduce you with them. Yes you, it seems, are familiar, — he said, obviously occupied with a guest with which he did not feel now anything in common. — We will ride after lunch. But now want to look at my manor? — They came out and passed to lunch, talking about political news and common acquaintances, as people little close to each other. With some revival and interest Prince Andrey spoke only about his arranged new homestead and construction, but here in the middle of conversation, at the stage when Prince Andrey described to Pierre the future location of his home, he suddenly stopped. — However here there is nothing interesting, let’s go to lunch and ride. — Lunch called for the conversation about the marriage of Pierre. — I was very surprised when I heard about that, — said Prince Andrey. Pierre was red so again, as he always blushed at this, and hastily said: — I now tell you something, as this all happened. But you know that all this is over forever. — Forever? — said Prince Andrey. — Nothing is forever. — But you know how this is all finished? Have you heard about the duel? — Yes, you passed through this. — For one I thank God for that I did not kill this man, — said Pierre. — From what again? — said Prince Andrey. — To kill an angry dog is extremely okay. — No, to kill a man is not okay, it’s unfair... — From what again is it unfair? — repeated Prince Andrey; — that, what is fair and unfair — is to not give judgement to people. People will forever be faded in delusion and will be mistaken, and in more than this, what they consider fair and unfair. — It is unfair and is evil for another man, — said Pierre, with pleasure feeling that for the first time in his time of arrival to Prince Andrey perked up and started to speak, wanting to express all that he did and how he was now. — But who said to you that it is so evil for another man? — he asked. — Evil? Evil? — said Pierre, — we all know that such is evil for ourselves. — Yes we know, but that evil, which I know for myself, I cannot do to another person, — all more and more perking up spoke Prince Andrey, apparently wishing to express to Pierre his new look on things. He spoke in French. — I know of in life only two valid misfortunes: remorse in conscience and disease. And in happiness there is only absent these both evils.449 Live for yourself, avoiding only these two evils: here is all my wisdom now. — But love to neighbor, but self-sacrifice? — began talking Pierre. — No, with you I cannot agree! Living only so that to not do evil, so not to repent, this is little. I lived so, I lived for myself and ruined my life. And only now, now I live, at least, try to (from modesty Pierre mended) live for another, only now I got all the happiness of life. No I do not agree with you, yes and you do not think what you speak. — Prince Andrey silently looked at Pierre and mockingly smiled. — Here see my sister, Princess Marya. With her you will come down, — he said. — Maybe, you are right for yourself, — he continued, keeping silent a little; — but everyone lives by his: you lived for yourself and say that by this little bit ruined your life, but found happiness only when you began to live for others. But I experienced the opposite. I lived for fame. (And for what again am I thanked? That is the same as love to others, wishing to do for them something, wishing for their praise.) So I lived for others, and not almost, but really ruined my life. And with that since have become calmer, as living for myself alone. — And how again do you live for yourself alone? — flaming up, asked Pierre. — But your son, your sister, and your father? — Yes this is all the same as I, this is not others, — said Prince Andrey, — but others, neighbors, le prochain, as you with Princess Marya call them, this is a main spring of delusion and evil. Neighbors450 these are those, your Kievian men, which you want to do good. And he looked at Pierre in a mockingly defiant look. He, apparently, called Pierre. — You are joking, — all more and more perking up spoke Pierre. What again may be delusion and evil in what I desired (very little and badly carried out), but desired to do good, yes and did something? What again may be evil in how miserable people, our men, people such the same as us, growing and dying without another idea about God and truth, as rites and meaningless prayer, will learn from in the comforting beliefs of a future life, retribution, awards, consolation? What again is evil and deluded is that people die from disease, without assistance, when it is so easy to materially help them, and I give them a healer, a hospital, and a shelter for old men? And isn't it tangible, undoubtedly good that the peasant, the woman with a kid, not having a day and night of peace, are given rest and leisure by me?... — spoke Pierre, in a hurry and lisping. — And I did this, though badly, though little, but did something for this, and you not only disbelieve me in what I did, and that what I did was okay, but disbelieve that you yourself do not think this. But the main thing, — continued Pierre, — I here know and know rightly that the enjoyment of doing this good is the only true happiness in life. — Yes, should you so put the question, that this is another business, — said Prince Andrey. — I build a house, take around a garden, but you a hospital. And that, and another may serve a transmission of time. But what is fair, what is good — leave to judge that, who knows all, but not us. Well you want to argue, — he added, — well come on. — They came out from behind the table and sat down on the porch, replacing the balcony. — Well, come on argue, — said Prince Andrey. — You say a school, — he continued, bending his finger, — teachings and so onwards, that you want to bring him out, — he said, pointing at a peasant, taking off his hat and walking past them, — from his animal state and to give him moral needs, but to me it seems that the only possible happiness — is the happiness of an animal, but you want to deprive him. I envy him, but you want him to make him as me, yet not give him my means. You also speak: facilitate his work. But to my mind, the physical work of him is such the same miserable, such the same as his condition of his existence, as for me and for you mental work. You cannot not think. I lie down to sleep at the 3rd hour, to me comes a thought, and I cannot fall asleep, I toss and turn, cannot sleep until morning because of how I think and cannot not think, as he may not not plow, not mow; otherwise he will go to the tavern, or do ill. How I cannot carry over his scary physical labor, but die in a week, so he cannot carry my physical idleness, he will get fat and will die. Third, — what more had you said? Prince Andrey bent his third finger. — Ah, yes, hospital, medicine. He has a stroke, he dies, but you let his blood, he is cured. He will walk crippled for nine years, to all a burden. Much quieter and easier for him to die. Others give birth, and so there is many. Should you have pitied, then in you an excess worker is gone — is how I look at it, but that you from love again want to mend him. But this is not needed. Yes and then, for what imagination, what medicine someone and something cured! And killed? — So? — he said, viciously frowning and turning away from Pierre. Prince Andrey expressed his thought so clearly and distinctly that it was seen that he had not only once had time to think about this, and he spoke willingly and quickly, as a person who has for long not spoken. His look perked up by that more than were his hopeless judgments. — Ah this is terrible, terrible! — said Pierre. — I do not understand only — how one can live with such thoughts. In me is found such the same minutes, this was recently, in Moscow and others, but then I lower to such an extent that I do not live, and all in me was nasty... the main thing, I am myself. So I do not eat, do not wash my face... Well, is it so the same with you?... — From what again not to wash, this is not pure, — said Prince Andrey; — the opposite, you need to try to make your life as nice as you can. I live and in this am not to blame, have begun to need something better, not to hinder anyone, to live to death. — But what again encourages you to live with such thoughts? You will be sitting and not moving, undertaking nothing... — Life and such does not leave alone. I would gladly do nothing, but here, with one part, the local nobility has honored me to give me the election in leadership: I forcibly got off. They could not understand that in me this is not needed, no the famously good-natured and preoccupied vulgar need this. Then here is this house, which was needed to be built, so to have my corner where I can be calm. Now the militia. — From what are you not serving in the army? — After Austerlitz! — gloomily said Prince Andrey. — No; I dutifully thank you, I gave my word that I will not serve in the current Russian army. And would not should Bonaparte stand here, in Smolensk, threatening Bald Mountains, and so I would not begin to serve in the Russian army. Well, so I say to you, — calming down, continued Prince Andrey. — Now the militia, father is the commander in chief of 3 counties, and the only means of getting rid of the service — being with him. — And you will begin to serve? — I serve. — he was silent a little. — So what for again do you serve? — For here is what for. My father is one of the wonderful people of his century. But he becomes old, and he is not that cruel, but he is too active of a character. He is scary in his habit to unlimited authority, and now this power, given sovereign commander in chief above the militia. If I would have been two hours late two weeks back, he would have hung the recorder in Yuhove, — said Prince Andrey with a smile; — so I serve because besides me nothing has influence on my father, and I sometimes save him from acts from which he would afterwards have been tormented. — Ah, well so here see! — Yes, but not so as you think,451 — continued Prince Andrey. — I for the slightest good did not desire and did not want this bastard recorder, who stole some boots in the militia; I even would have been very satisfied to see him hanged, but I pity my father, that is again the same as myself. Prince Andrey all more and more perked up. His eyes feverishly shone in that time, as he tried to prove to Pierre that never in him was an act of willingness for good to his neighbor. — Well, here you want to free the peasants, — he continued. — This is extremely okay; but not for you (you, I think, have notched nobody and sent no one to Siberia), and still less for the peasants. Should you beat them, flog them, send them to Siberia, then I think that they from this are not any worse. In Siberia he leads that same bestial life, but scars on the body heal, and he so the same is happy, as he was before. But this is needed for those people that perish morally, make money and remorse in yourself, and crush this remorse and coarseness from that in them is the opportunity to execute right and wrong. Here is who I pity, and for whom I would desire to free the peasants. You, maybe, have not seen, but I have seen how good people, educated in these legends of unlimited authority, with the years are now made more irritable, made cruel, rude, know this, and may not hold on to everything making them unhappier and unhappier. Prince Andrey spoke this is with such a hobby that Pierre unwittingly thought that this thought had been induced in Andrey by his father. He responded with nothing to him. — So here is who I pity — their human virtues, calmness of conscience, amenities, but not their back and foreheads, how much they are cut, how much they are shaved, all stay such the same on their backs and foreheads. — No, no and for a thousand times no! I will never agree with you, — said Pierre. 449 Je ne connais dans la vie que maux bien réels: c’est le remord et la maladie. Il n’est de bien que l’absence de ces maux. (I know in life those real evils: these are remorse and sickness. The only good is the absence of these evils.) 450 Le prochain (The next one) 451 mais ce n’est pas comme vous l’entendez, (but it's not like you hear it,)
Time: dinner
Mentioned: two years, two weeks ago
Locations: Bogucharovo
Mentioned: southern (South Russia in Mandelker), St. Petersburg, Kiev, Moscow, Austerlitz, Russian, Smolensk, Lysyya Gory, Yukhnov (Yukhnova in Briggs and Maude. Yukhnovo in Pevear and Volkhonsky), Siberia
Pevear and Volkhonsky: The Pierre and Andrei discussion chapter.
They hadn’t seen each other for two years (assumedly, since the time Bolkonsky told him to never get married and to not go see the Kuragins)
Description of Bogucharovo, Andrei’s estate.
“Pierre was struck by the modesty of this small though clean house, after those magnificent conditions in which he had last seen his friend in Petersburg.”
“His (Andrei) gaze was extinguished, dead”.
“In this meeting after a long separation, as always happens, the conversation could not settle on anything for a long time”.
“He was ashamed to voice all his new Masonic thoughts...He restrained himself...he had an irrepressible desire to show his friend the more quickly that he was now quite a different, better Pierre..”
When Pierre does show his views and what he has been doing, it creates a large gap between the two and Andrei merely starts being polite, not treating him as if a close friend.
Andrei: “It’s not given to people to judge what’s right or wrong. People have eternally been mistaken and will be mistaken, and in nothing more so than in what they consider right and wrong.”
“He spoke in French: I know only two very real evils in life: remorse and illness. The only good is the absence of these evils.”
Connection between Pierre’s now religious ideals and Marya.
Andrei: “each man lives in his own way: you lived for yourself and you say with that you almost ruined your life, and knew happiness only when you began to live for others. But I experienced the opposite. I used to live for glory. (What is
glory? The same as love for others, the desire to do something for them, the desire for their praise.)”
glory? The same as love for others, the desire to do something for them, the desire for their praise.)”
Pierre: “What evil can there be if those wretched people, our peasants, people like us, who grow up and die with no other notion of God and truth than an icon and a meaningless prayer, are taught comforting beliefs about the future life,
retribution, reward, and comfort?...When it’s so easy to help them materially,...the pleasure of doing good is the only certain happiness in life.” (The Cossacks)
retribution, reward, and comfort?...When it’s so easy to help them materially,...the pleasure of doing good is the only certain happiness in life.” (The Cossacks)
Andrei: “you want to lead him out of his animal condition...and give him moral needs. But it seems to me that the only possible happiness is animal happiness, and you want to deprive him of it...I don’t fall asleep until morning, because
I’m thinking and cannot not think…”
I’m thinking and cannot not think…”
Andrei also makes anti-medicine arguments. Some of his arguments are horrible and portray and betray his cult of selfishness.
“I’m alive and it’s not my fault, which means I must somehow go on living the best I can, without bothering anybody, until I die...If Bonaparte was camped here in Smolensk, threatening Bald Hills, even then I wouldn’t serve in the
Russian army...My father is one of the most remarkable men of his time. But he’s getting old...no one except for me has any influence on my father…”
Russian army...My father is one of the most remarkable men of his time. But he’s getting old...no one except for me has any influence on my father…”
Pierre tells him he won’t ever agree with the outrageous and immoral arguments Andrei makes at the end of the chapter.
Perhaps what I find most interesting is that Prince Andrei’s dead wife is not mentioned.
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
Prince Andrei Bolkonsky
Anton (as in Dole, Briggs, Garnett, and Mandelker. “Prince Andrei’s old body servant” in Dole, Garnett, and Bell (the latter two use a hyphen). “Antoine” in Bell. “a man who looked after Prince Andrei in his boyhood.” in Mandelker. “Old
servant...who had been with him since his childhood.” in Briggs.)
Princess Mariya (also “sister”)
Dolokhov
Ellen (these two are mentioned very obliquely and almost not at all)
Bonaparte
Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky (“father” and “commander-in chief of the militia”)
Czar Alexander (“Emperor”)
(there are house-serfs and servants here, including a “muzhik” who walks by that Andrei uses to make a point. Andrei also mentions “a registry clerk” that nearly is hanged by his father. )
Abridged Versions: No break in Bell.
Gibian: Chapter 9.
Gibian: Chapter 9.
Fuller: entire chapter is cut.
Komroff: Chapter is pretty well preserved other than some odd details here and there. No break to make the conversation of the two chapters (this and the following) more seamless, removing the introduction of chapter 12.
Kropotkin: Chapter 11: Entire chapter is cut.
Simmons: Chapter 9: Some of the latter half of the conversation, including Andrei saving the man from his father, is cut.
Simmons: Chapter 9: Some of the latter half of the conversation, including Andrei saving the man from his father, is cut.
Edmundson: Act Two Scene 13: Pierre meets with Maria first.
Act Two Scene 14: Because we are missing the farcical scene about Pierre's failed reforms, his discussion of them comes off as much more sincere.
Act Two Scene 15: Andrei shows Pierre the sculpture of his wife and they speak about the afterlife.
Additional Notes:
Dmitry S. Mirsky: (On Tolstoy: Materialism, Spiritualism, and Russianness) Of the five leading characters of War and Peace, Andrew and Pierre are very complex, but unmistakable transpositions of Tolstoy himself
(transpositions, not projections, for which he was only the starting point not the model); Nicholas and Marie are his father and mother; Natasha his sister-in-law (the Countess’s sister, Mme. Kuzminsky). This way in
which the originally self-contained organism of Narcissus-Tolstoy protrudes its tentacles towards the physically nearest is characteristic not only of his self-centeredness, but also of the essential materialism of his outlook..
My Religion: His life continues in his children, and so passes on from one generation to another, like everything else in the world, — stones, metals, earth, plants, animals, stars. Life is life, and we must make the best of it.
To live for self alone, for the animal life, is not reasonable. And so men, from their earliest existence, have sought for some reason for living aside from the gratification of their own desires ; they live for their children, for
their families, for their nation, for humanity, for all that does not die with the personal life.
Letters: Page 402-403: “what can we do, how can we help? We can help by giving seeds and bread to those who ask for it, but it’s not really help, it’s a drop in the ocean, and besides, this help is self-defeating. If I give
to one or 3, why not to 20, or 1,000 or a million? Obviously I can’t give to all, even by giving everything away. But what can we do? How can we help? Only in one way--by living a good life. Evil doesn’t all come from the
rich robbing the poor. That’s a small part of the cause. The cause is that all people, rich, middle and poor, live like animals, each for himself, each treading on the other. This is what causes distress and poverty.”
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