Book 2 Part 3 Chapter 1 (Chapter 104 Overall)

Chapter Summaries: Dole: (1808.) Political complications. Prince Andrei's life and labors in the country. His knowledge of affairs. His journey to Riazan. The bare oak. Pessimistic ideas. 
Briggs: Andrey empathizes with a moribund oak-tree that refuses to welcome spring.
Maude (chapter 22): Real life
(chapters 1-3): Prince Andrew's occupations at Bogucharovo. His drive through the forest. The bare oak. His visit to the Rostovs at Otradnoe. Overhears Natasha's talk with Sonya. Return through the forest - the oak in leaf. He decides to go to Petersburg
Pevear and Volkhonsky (chapters 1-3): Two years later. Prince Andrei's life at Bogucharovo and Bald Hills. The bare oak by the roadside. Natasha overheard. The oak again. Prince Andrei decides to return to government service.

Translation:

part the third.
I.
In the year of 1808 Emperor Aleksandr drove to Erfurt for a new meeting with Emperor Napoleon, and in higher Petersburg society much was said about the greatness of this solemn date.

At the close of the year 1809 the two lords of peace, as was called Napoleon and Aleksandr, reached to that when Napoleon declared in that year war with Austria, the Russian corps came forward to the border for assistance against the enemy of Bonaparte and the former ally, the Austrian emperor; before this, the higher world talked about the opportunity of marriage between Napoleon and one of the sisters of Emperor Aleksandr. Yet, besides the external political considerations, at this time the attention of Russian society with especially vividness was drawn to the internal transformations which were produced in this time in all parts of state management.

The life between that, the real life of people with their own essential interests of health, disease, labor, and recreation, with their own interests of thought, science, poetry, music, love, friendship, hatred, and passions went as always and beyond the political proximity or hostility with Napoleon Bonaparte, and beyond all possible transformations.

Prince Andrey without a break spent two years in the village. All those enterprises in the estates, which Pierre started himself and did not lead to a result, incessantly passing from one affair to another, all these enterprises, without expressions to whom they would be for and without noticeable labor, were executed by Prince Andrey.

He had the higher extent that was missing in Pierre, practical tenacity, which without scope and effort from his parties gave him the movement of business.

One of his estates at three hundred souls of peasants were listed as free farmers (this was one of the first examples in Russia), in another corvee replaced rent. At Bogucharovo was discharged in his score a scholar and midwife for the assistance of women in childbirth, and a priest for salary taught the children peasants court literacy.

One half of the time Prince Andrey spent at Bald Mountains with his father and son, who was still at his nanny; another half of the time at the Bogucharovo cloisters, as his father called his village. Despite expressing to Pierre indifference to all outside world events, he diligently watched them, was getting many books, and to his surprise noticed when to him or to his father came people fresh from Petersburg, from the maelstrom of life itself, that these people in their knowledge of the ongoing external and internal politics were a long away behind from him, sitting without a break in the village.

Besides the activities on the estates, besides common activities and reading the most diverse books, Prince Andrey occupied this time with a critical parsing of our last two miserable campaigns and was making a project about the change of our military regulations and decisions.

In the spring of the year 1809, Prince Andrey went to the Ryazan estates with his son, which he was guardian of.

Warmed by the spring sun, he sat on the carriage, glancing at the first grass, the first leaves of birch trees and the first clubs of white spring clouds, scattering by the bright blue sky. He did not think about this, but funnily and pointlessly watched by the sides.

He drove through in the carriage in which a year to that backwards he spoke with Pierre. Driving through the dirty village, threshing floors, the greenery, descending with the remaining snow at the bridge, lifted by eroded clay, stripes of stubble and some green bushes entered into the birch forest on both sides of the road. In the woods it was almost hot, and the wind was not heard. All the birches were sown in green sticky leaves, not stirred from below last year’s leaves, raising them and coming out greener with the first grass and the purple flowering plants. Scattered somewhere by the small birches were its brute eternal greens that unpleasantly reminded him about the winter. The horses snorted, entered into the forest, and more visibly fogged up.

The lackey Petr said something to the coachman and the coachman affirmatively replied. Yet it was seen Petr had little empathy for the coachman: he turned in the box to his master.

— Your excellency, it easily is so! — he said, respectfully smiling.

— What!

— Easily, your excellency.

"What is he saying?" thought Prince Andrey. "Yes, about spring, right," he thought, looking back by the sides. "And that everything is green now... how soon! And the birch, the bird cherry, and the alder have already begun... but the oak is not noticeable. Yes, here it is, the oak".

On the edge of the road stood the oak. Probably nine times older than the birch trees forming the forest, it was nine times fatter and two times higher than each of the birch trees. This was a huge, girthy oak, with broken off, for a long time it was seen, boughs with broken bark, overgrown with old sores. With its huge awkward, asymmetrically spread out, clumsy hands and fingers, the old, angry and contemptuous monster stood between the smiling birches. Only it did not want to obey the charm of spring and did not want to see spring or the sun.

"Spring, love, and happiness!" — as if spoke this oak, —"And how you do not bother with all that same daft and mindless cheating. All is one and the same, and all is cheating! No spring, sun, or happiness. Seeing out, sitting crushed and dead, always the same, and I spread out these broken off, ragged fingers, where they have grown — from the back, from the sides; as they have grown — so they stand, and do not believe your hopes and deceptions."

Prince Andrey a few times turned back at this oak, driving by the wood, as if he was waiting for something from it. The flowering plants and grass were under the oak, but it all the same, frowning, was still ugly and stubbornly standing in the middle of them.

"Yes, it is right, a thousand times right this oak," thought Prince Andrey, "Let others, the young, again give in to this cheating, but we know life, — our life is over!" A whole new row of hopeless thoughts, and a sad and pleasant communication with this oak sprang up in the soul of Prince Andrey. In the time of these travels he as if again thought over all his life, and came to that same still reassuring and hopeless conclusion that to begin anything was not needed, that he should live out his life, do no evil, not be anxious and wish for nothing.


Time: spring of the year 1809
Mentioned: 1808, two years, the year before

Locations: Bogucharovo (also called Bogucharovo hermitage. ...Cloister in Maude and Pevear and Volkhonsky (Briggs uses cloistered)), Lysyya Gory, Ryazan estates, a dirty (filthy in Dole. poverty-stricken in Bell) village
Mentioned: Erfurt, St. Petersburg, Austria, Russia, the country, Andrei's estates, 

Pevear and Volokhonsky Notes: After the intro paragraph of Erfurt, we flip the page to 1809.
Summation of Russian troops going to assist the French with Austria (see the additional notes below to see some quotes and more information on this situation), the possible marriage of Napoleon to one of Alexander's sisters, and the attempted reforms of Alexander.
But then, the disconnect of politics and what you might call history, or important historical moments, and everyday life for people: "Life meanwhile, people's real life with its essential concerns of health, illness, work, rest, with its concerns of thought, learning poetry, music, love, friendship, hatred, passions, went on as always, independently and outside of any political closeness or enmity with Napoleon Bonaparte and outside all possible reforms." Here we see why Tolstoy will not connect with Speransky. It is an apolitical view of life, a separation of people, nations, leaders, and political movements. This is important for when his ideas of history are played out later in the book. Here is also where we see Andrei successfully pulling off the reforms that failed for Pierre. He is different from Pierre because "He possessed in the highest degree that practical tenacity, lacking in Pierre, which kept things in motion without any big gestures and efforts on his part." Here is the difference of not only these two characters, but Napoleon versus Kutuzov and Alexander and the will of the Russian people. What drives history is that "practical tenacity."
Andrei, because he reads, stays ahead of everyone as well. Country versus city life thing going here that Tolstoy develops quite a bit in his writing. Pierre cannot find the time to accomplish what he wants while Andrei does so easily because he isn't caught up in the drinking and the parties that Pierre does.
Andrei sees the oak. "Spring, and love, and happiness!" the oak seemed to say. "And how is it you're not bored with the same stupid, senseless deception! Always the same, and always a deception! There is no spring, no sun, no happiness. Look, there sit those smothered, dead fir trees, always the same; look at me spreading my broken, flayed fingers wherever they grow--from my back, from my sides. As they've grown, so I stand, and I don't believe in your hopes and deceptions."...A whole new series of thoughts in connection with the oak, hopeless but sadly pleasant, emerged in Prince Andrei's soul."
Essentially, by the end of the chapter, he has reverted back to where he was during that conversation with Pierre.

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 *):

Emperor Alexander (as these three emperors are the subject of the intro of the chapter, it could be argued they are characters inside the chapter)

Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte

The Emperor of Austria

Prince Andrei

Pierre

Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky ("father")

Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky ("son")

Piotr (the footman)

Andrei's coachman

(One of the sisters of Alexanders are referenced, we know this is Anna Pavlovna, but it isn't specifically differentiated. A midwife and priest that Andrei hires are also referenced.)

Abridged Versions: Start of Part Three in Mandelker, Dunnigan, Edmonds, and Briggs. Start of Part Third in Dole. Start of Part Six in Garnett. Start of Part the Sixth in Wiener.
Start of The Invasion 1807-1812 Volume 1 in Bell.
Line break after "Napoleon Bonaparte and from all the schemes of reconstruction." in Mandelker and same spot in Edmonds, Dunnigan, Wiener, Bell, Garnett, and Dole.
For Maude, this opening section belongs to Chapter 22 of Book Five, which ends Book Five, starting Book Six Chapter 1 with "Prince Andrew had spent two years continuously in the country."
No chapter break in Bell.
Gibian: Start of Book Six. Line break after "schemes of reconstruction." Line break instead of chapter break at the end. 
Fuller: Start of Part Five, picking up at "In the Spring of 1809..." which cuts the political opening of the chapter/part and the catching up on what Andrei had been doing the last two years. Even most of this later section of the chapter is cut, including the conversation Andrei has with Piotr his footman, keeping the bare minimum of the oak and the conclusion of the chapter, in which Andrei resolves to live for himself. No break.
Komroff: Start of 1808-1810 Book Six: Chapter is well preserved until it gets to the spring of 1809, where it then cuts without a break to what is the start of the next chapter, removing the oak tree scene.
Kropotkin: Start of 1808-1810: "Having made peace with Napoleon, the Tsar espouses his cause. When France and Sweden fight in 1808, Russia invades Sweden and for her pains is permitted to annex Finland. When Austria again defies Napoleon in 1809, Russia is on the French side. Meanwhile Napoleon is at war against Spain and Portugal, and there on the Iberian peninsula an army under Arthur Wellesley (later to become Duke of Wellington) begins Britian's first large-scale participation in the continental land fighting. But in this campaign Russia is not involved, and by the standards of those troubled times is enjoying peace and tranquility." Kropotkin makes the same decision as Komroff on cutting.
Bromfield: Start of Part Four. Because Bromfield's version cuts around in this part compared to the latter version, I'm going to stick the entire part here.
Chapter 1 serves as the intro before getting to Andrei in chapter 2, containing some more information about how Napoleon has become "the great man" and is no longer "Buonaparte".
"Everything was being changed, just as a new owner inevitably changes an apartment that has been occupied for many long years by his predecessor. It was that young period of a reign that every nation passes through five times in a century - the revolutionary period...In these revolutions, as in all others, there is talk of the spirit of a new age...the most irrational passions of man are brought into play...exactly as always happens, the dispute led both to forget even their own specious arguments and follow the dictates of nothing but passion...Nobody, apart from those who had discovered their happiness in life in arguing about the subject, had any interest at all in ministries, or examinations, or the liberation of the peasants, or the introduction of law courts and so forth."
Chapter 2: More explicit about Andrei's joining of the Masons. Of course, in the reordering of events, Andrei is already thinking about Natasha when he sees the oak and has already been to the Rostovs'. The Nikolushka episode from Chapter 3 of the latter version is in this chapter, as is the Rostovs moving to St. Petersburg, which is in Chapter 11 in the latter version. Andrei is more explicitly sick here, visiting a doctor and then coughing (Marya encourages him to see a doctor).
Chapter 3: Andrei drives to Bezukhov's house. Pierre is working on a reform to the courts and his wife has already moved back in with him, which is revealed in this visit.
"Pierre's fundamental belief - that life was so short and stupid it wasn't worth refusing to do something that others wanted so badly"
Here is where Speransky is introduced. "Prince Andrei knew what was being done by Speransky in the most minute detail, and he had his own particular opinion about it. He thought the entire order a total disgrace, he despised and hated all the figures in the government so heartily that he found Speransky's revolutionary activity, demolishing everything, very much to his liking. He had never seen Speransky and imagined him to be something like a civilian Napoleon." Pierre offers to introduce Andrei to him.
Chapter 4: Andrei being accepted in society, Countess Bezukhova's successful salon. We get the price tags of the dress and how much it cost to decorate, more information about Helen's attachment to men. Boris is here, who Andrei finds unpleasant, and behaves to Helene in an "unpleasant" way. Anna Pavlovna is here. Andrei feels the magnetism and attraction of Helene, even though he doesn't like her. More emphasis on the change of opinion on Napoleon by society. Prince Vasily is also here.
Chapter 5: Andrei gets offered by Kochubei to "join the commission for drafting the laws, then they are offering (him) a place in the Crimea."
Pierre and Andrei lament that the others were four years too late in admiring Napoleon. Andrei claims "If I could still admit the existence of great men as I did four years ago, I would have become disenchanted with Bonaparte long ago, even without Austerlitz." Boris is connected to this. They once liked him, now they no longer do, though Pierre guards his thoughts closely. They also express concern over Speransky, his being a priest's son, and the measures he is taking.
Chapter 6: Here we get the Rostovs' financial situation as in the latter versions and then Berg's proposal and asking of the dowry. We don't get quite as much backstory on Berg and then we go to Nikolai, who has come home and become coarser. His relationship with Sonya and Vera have stayed the same, but his mother and Natasha see that he has changed.
Chapter 7: Natasha has become bored in the country. "She was thinking, seriously thinking for the first time in her life." Natasha also gets two proposals she rejects. "She seemed to be not of this world." Natasha being 16, realizing that her promise to Boris is now up. More emphasis on comme il faut. Boris's arrival and reacquaintance with Natasha. The conversation Natasha has with her mother also follows in this chapter. We get to actually see a brief conversation between Boris and the countess.
Chapter 8: Andrei arriving in St. Petersburg while Speransky has gained power after Alexander's accident, the meeting with Alexander and Andrei, followed by the meeting of Arakcheev and Andrei. Extra detail about Arakcheev, refusing command at Austerlitz because of nerves, staying 100 versts away from battle in Finland. Andrei renewing old acquaintances, feeling as if he is at war again, follows immediately.
Chapter 9: The evening at Cont Kocubei's house, the conversation with the old man, the entrance of Speransky, and the conversation that follows, followed by Andrei realizing that he is constantly busy but maybe not accomplishing anything in Petersburg. The Wednesday conversation and further development of that relationship with Speransky is also here. The development of that relationship, at least the souring of it, may make more sense here, as a proposal he sent in is rewritten before the start of 1810, when the reforms are supposed to start to take effect. However, Andrei is offended, but still holds Speransky in high esteem. He has to deal some with Magnitsky, whom he does not like because he says things very beautifully, but with no real reason behind it. This immediately bleeds into the party he goes to that Andrei finds so disagreeable. Vasily is made fun of in this party and it comes off as more mean-spirited than it does in the latter version. In fact, for Andrei, his dislike for this kind of insulting seems to make them come off as no better than the other side, and really gives a more rational reason for his break with them.
Chapter 10: The reasoning for Pierre's reunification with his wife. Elena finds it really important for her position in society to live with her husband. Some of the Helene information, in particular her encounter with Napoleon, is repeated for some reason, but this where we get her full backstory as it were that we get in the latter versions as well, as well as Pierre's position in "society", and Boris, which here syncs up with the latter version, but appears a repeat in this version. Here is where we get the diary entries, Pierre's view of the four different types of Masons appear here. Pierre gives his speech (he doesn't seemed to have traveled and the speech isn't shown here, though the reaction is the same) here. He speaks with Andrei after his failure and the latter has given up on Speransky. "You see, it is not Speransky who can achieve anything, but the institutions which take time and are created by people, by all of us. We do not understand the times that we are living through. This is one of the greatest events of history. The sovereign himself is curbing his own power and granting rights to the people."
Pierre urges Andrei to get married and is thinking of Natasha when he says this. Andrei says Marya is trying to marry him to Julie.
Chapter 11: The New Years Ball (held by Lev Kirillovich Naryshkin) and Natasha and family dressing up for it and then entering it, the dancing with Andrei, etc (there isn't an emphasis on Pierre's unhappiness in it though)
Chapter 12: Andrei only briefly recalls the ball, but with the Speransky plot basically done (there is a little talk about how Speransky avoided Andrei's talk of liberating the serfs because Alexander did not view it as the right time), Bitsky enters, tells him the news and Andrei has the same reaction to it and decides to go visit the Rostovs where Natasha sings for him. He gets a letter from his sister but goes to the Rostovs over and over again, struggling to sleep and feeling the countess' gazing at him, pressuring him in a way. "He did not go to the Rostovs', but went to talk with other people and hear the talk of meaningless concerns, these people who did not know what he knew, that it was all impossible." Natasha then has the talk with her mother about Andrei.
Chapter 13: Still trying to have some resolve in avoiding going directly to Natasha, Andrei goes to Berg's. Berg and Vera's conversation and party is here, with Andrei on the real receiving end instead of Pierre. Vera's conversation with Andrei about Natasha is also here. The rest of the events of the party are absent. Andrei then goes to Pierre's, who is working during his wife's party. Pierre tells Andrei to marry Natasha.
Chapter 14: Natasha waiting for Andrei to come propose to her. A lot of emphasis in this version is on a blue dress that is a symbol of her going back to her pre-Andrei life. Andrei then shows up and proposes, this time saying that they need to wait for a year, seemingly on his own will since he explicitly hasn't asked his father for consent yet. This bleeds into Andrei's repeat visits and the family adjusting to him being there.
Chapter 15: Andrei's father and sister visited Moscow for two winters (he receiving permission to visit there) and his health declining and treating his daughter poorly. The Mademoiselle Bourienne attachment appears here before Andrei breaking the news to him. Old Prince Bolkonsky locks himself up, tells his daughter he doesn't want to see her, and then asks for forgiveness (in his own silent way) later. When he returns to his old ways, Marya considers pilgrimage, it linked with Andrei's oak tree in this version. She decides she loves the family more than God of course, and then writes her letter to Julie (who has lost her third brother, this one to fever, after two were killed in the war previously). The letter plays out pretty much the same other than a reference to Nikolai Rostov possibly marrying Julie. This ends Part Four.
Simmons: 1808-10 Book Six: The information about the war with Austria and the possible marriage between Napoleon and Alexander's sister is removed. Line break after "schemes of reconstruction." The update on Andrew is much shorter and the oak episode is kept, but the discussion with his footman and his thoughts before it are removed. Line break instead of chapter break. 

Additional Notes:
Davidov (Page 59): It was paramount to divert Napoleon's attention and direct his military activities towards some other enterprise - so remote as to provide Europe with additional time to clear away the suffocating rubble of war. It would also give Russia the opportunity to prepare the means to repel any future attempts against her independence, which as our Emperor foresaw, would, sooner or later, loom ahead. These were the concerns that occupied Alexander, mind and soul, and these are the goals that he achieved despite public opinion, ever swayed by appearances. No matter how you look at it, victory in this instance was squarely on his side. This is shown by the fact that Napoleon came to his senses only towards the end of 1809, when the obstinacy of the spirited Spaniards diverted a sizable portion of his forces away from the rest of Europe, and when we refused joint action with him against Austria in order to preserve the ties of friendship that would serve us well at the time of the Russian campaign."

Rey (Page xii): "In fact, Russia knew major changes during Alexander's reign. On the domestic level, reforms of liberal inspiration were initially undertaken, notably the reorganization of the central administration and the creation of several universities, while by contrast the second half of the reign saw the establishment of the terrible military colonies of Count Arakcheev."

(Page 197): "Napoleon realized that his "ally" had become much less malleable than the vanquished party of Tilsit had been. He complained bitterly to Caulaincourt: "Your emperor Alexander is stubborn as a mule. He is deaf to thing that he does not want to hear. This devilish affair of Spain is costing me dear." Arguing with Alexander, he even threw a comic scene: angry, he threw his hat on the ground and stamped on it, while the tsar replied with a calm smile: "You are violent, and I am stubborn. With me, anger gains nothing. Let us talk and be reasonable, or I am leaving....Alexander would never participate in the annihilation of Austria. Apart from the fact that this would be incompatible with his conception of the balance of powers, it might allow the Polish territories of Austria to emancipate themselves, to be joined to the duchy of Warsaw, and thus form a Poland under French influence, which would be still more powerful and more threatening."

(Page 199): Upon his return from Erfurt, Alexander, fearing that Napoleon would indeed ask for his sister
Catherine in marriage, decided to prevent this (Page 200) union. Although not beautiful, the young woman,
then aged twenty-one was imaginative and sensual; she breathed intelligence and a lively mind. The
mistress of General Bagration, she was seductive to those around her, including her own brother"

(Page 202): "By mid-April, the Austro-French war was at its height; Napoleon demanded via
Caulaincourt the military support from Russia that had been promised at Erfurt. but he would not get it.
While Alexander did mass along the border with Austria some 70,000 men under the command of Prince
Golitsyn, he knowingly delayed their movement."

(Page 203): "Henceforth, distrust was mutual; the following months were nothing but a succession of
misunderstanding, disagreements, and outrages that made the march to war increasingly inexorable....
nationalist public opinion was furious at Russia's losing influence over the Polish question....even many
of the educated public found the tsar's European policy incomprehensible....Caulaincourt informed the
tsar of Napoleon's intention to divorce Josephine and his wish to marry Princess Anna Pavlovna"
(Alexander's sister, not the War and Peace character)

(Page 204): "Napoleon had engaged unbeknownst to many of his diplomats (including Caulaincourt)
in negotiations with Franz I of Austria and had already obtained the hand of Archduchess Marie Louise.
Sent on February 7 and received in St. Petersburg on February 23, the dispatch announcing the imperial
marriage was a real snub for the tsar."

(Page 296): "Napoleon’s marriage with Marie Louise, by orienting French policy away from Russia and toward Austria, had given Czar Alexander some alarm"

Herold: (Page 196): meeting between Napoleon and Alexander took place, at the small Thuringian town of Erfurt, from September 27 to October 14...The only positive thing Napoleon could obtain from Alexander was the avoidance of a break; the alliance of the two empires was reaffirmed in the final proceedings...Alexander extracted Napoleon’s consent to Russia’s acquisition of Moldavia, Walachia, and Finland.”

(Page 198): “Alexander who controlled the situation...for the good of France, for the good of Napoleon himself, Napoleon must be stopped, and only an alliance with Austria and Russia would stop him. That alliance came about only five years later; nevertheless, it was at Erfurt that the basis of Napoleon’s plans collapsed.”

The Peasant in Literature by Donald Fanger

Page 251: “Why is this oak growing? What use is there in its taking up juices from the ground for a hundred years? What interest can it have in covering itself with leaves every year, then losing them, and finally feeding pigs with its acorns? The whole utility and interest of the life of this oak lies precisely (252) in the fact that it simply grows, simply turns green, as it does, without knowing why. The life of the peasant tiller of the soil is the same thing: everlasting labor--that is life and the interest of life; and the result is a zero.” Uspensky

Kentish Page 8:

On behalf of the peasants, those incalculable millions who for Tolstoy, with his slavophile heritage and dedicated to Christlike humility, represented something of an ideal, he set himself to numerous practical tasks including the reform of peasant schools (something he had begun in the 1860s), relief work during the great famine of 1891-2, active support for the persecuted religious sects (notably the Doukabars), and a series of moral tales written specifically for the common folk.

Radzinsky Page 116:

Alexander II decided to blow up this thousand-year harmony. He wanted to get rid of the slavery, the backbone of Russian life. The enlightened Russian landowners, those admirers of Voltaire and Rousseau, who collected priceless libraries in their country homes, bought, sold, and gambled away their serfs, sometimes even trading them for hunting dogs, and whipped them mercilessly in the stables."