Book 2 Part 3 Chapter 14 (Chapter 117 Overall)

Chapter Summaries: Dole: The Naruishkins' ball. Preparations at the Rostofs'. The girls' toilets. Count Ilya's superb costume. Last stitches.
Briggs: Natasha is involved in fastidious preparations for her first grand ball.
Maude (chapters 14-17): Natasha's first grand ball. She dances with Prince Andrew
Pevear and Volkonsky (chapters 14-17): Natasha's first grand ball on New Year's Eve. Arrival of the emperor and empress. Pierre introduces Prince Andrei to Natasha.

XIV.

On the 31st of December, the eve of the year of 1810, there was a night dinner,503 and a ball at Catherine's nobles. At the ball was to be the diplomatic corps and the sovereign.

At the English embankment shined countless lights illuminating known house nobles. At the lighted entrance with red cloths stood the police, and not alone gendarmes, but the police chief at the entrance and dozens of officers of police. Crews drove off, and new ones all drove up with red lackeys and with lackeys with feathers in their hats. From the carriages exited men in uniforms, stars and ribbons; ladies in satin and ermine carefully came down by noisy detachable footrests, and hastily moved passed by the cloth entrance.

Almost any time a new crew drove in, in the crowd ran through a whisper and starred hats.

— The sovereign?...No, a minister... Prince... messenger... don't you see the feathers?... — was spoken from the crowd. One from the crowd, dressed better than others, it seemed, knew all, and called by name the noblest grandees of this time.

Now only the third guests had arrived at this ball, but the Rostovs, having to be at this ball, still went hastily preparing their toilette.

There were many sensible preparations for this ball at the family of Rostovs, many fears that the invitation would not be received, the dress would not be ready, and would not arrange all so as was needed.

Together with the Rostovs rode to the ball Marya Ignatevna Peronskaya, a friend and relative of the countess, a thin and yellow maid of honor in the old court, leading the provincial Rostovs in the higher Petersburg world.

At 10 in the evening the Rostovs were to call for the maid of honor to the Tavrichesky garden; but between that it was already five minutes to nine, and still the young ladies were not dressed.

Natasha rode to the first big ball in her life. She on this day got up at 8 in the morning and the whole day was found in a febrile dismay of activities. All of her forces, from the morning itself, were directed so that they all: she, Mama, and Sonya were dressed so it could not be better. Sonya and the countess were quite vouched for by her. On the countess it must be a masked velvet dress, on them were two white hazy dresses in pink, silk covers with roses in a corsage. The hair must be combed in Greek.504

Everything essential was now done: legs, hands, necks, ears were already especially carefully, by the ballroom, washed up, perfumed and powdered; shod already were silk, fishnet tights and white satin shoes with bows; the hairstyles were almost finished. Sonya finished her dress, the countess also; but Natasha, busy for all, was behind. She was still sitting before the mirror in a draped over peignoir on her thin shoulders. Sonya, already dressed, stood in the middle of the room and, pushing to a pain with her little finger, pinned the last screeching pin ribbon.

— It is not so, not so, Sonya! — said Natasha, turning her head from the hairstyles and clutching her hands for her hair, which were not ready to be let go by the maid. — The bow is not so, go here. — Sonya sat down. Natasha chopped the ribbon otherwise.

— Let me, young lady, it cannot be so, — said the maid, holding the hair of Natasha.

— Ah, my God, well after! Here it is so, Sonya.

— Whether you will be soon? — was heard the voice of the countess, — It is already nine now.

— Now, now. — But you are ready, Mama?

— Only to be pinned up.

— Do not without me, — shouted Natasha: — You are not able!

— And already it is nine.

It was decided to be at the ball at half to eleven, but it was still needed for Natasha to get dressed and call to the Tavrichesky garden.

Finishing her hairstyle, Natasha in a short skirt, from below which were seen ballroom shoes, and in a maternal blouse, ran up to Sonya, examined her and then ran to her mother. Turning her head, she pinned the toque, and, barely having time to kiss her gray hair, again ran to the girls, who hemmed her skirt.

The business stood behind Natasha’s skirt, which was too long; two girls hemmed it, hastily nibbling the threads. The third, with pins in lips and teeth, ran from the countess to Sonya; the fourth held all of her high-raised hand on the hazy dress.

— Mavrusha, rather, darling!

— Give the thimble from there, young lady.

— Whether it will be soon, finally? — said the count, entering from behind the door. — Here is your perfume. Peronskay has already been waiting.

— Ready, young lady, — said the maid, with two fingers raising the hemmed hazy dress and blowing something and shaking, expressing by this gesture a consciousness of airiness and the amenities of what she held.

Natasha began to put on the dress.

— Now, now, don’t go, papa, — she shouted to her father, opening the door, still from below the hazy skirt, covering all of her face. Sonya slammed the door. In a moment the count was let in. He was in a blue tailcoat, stockings and shoes, perfumed and anointed.

— Ah, papa, how good and beautiful you are! — said Natasha, standing up in the middle room and spreading the hazy folds.

— Let me, young lady, let me, — said the girl, standing up on her knees, pulling off the dress and from one part of her mouth to the other was turning over the pins with her tongue.

— Will you! — with despair in her voice cried out Sonya, looking around the dress of Natasha, — Will you, it is too long!

Natasha walked away a little farther to examine the dressing table. The dress was long.

— By God, madam, it is not long, — said Mavrusha, crawling by the floor for the young lady.

— Well long, so sweep, in one moment sweep, — said the decisive Dunyasha, from her handkerchief at her breast taking out a needle and again on the floor taking for the work.

At this time with shy, quiet steps, entered the countess in her toque, velvet dress.

— Ooh! My beauty! — shouted the count, — You are better than all!... — He wanted to embrace her, but she blushingly pulled back, so that to not crumple it.

— Mama, the toque more on the side, — spoke Natasha. — I will cross, — and she threw forward, but the girls hemming did not succeed in throwing behind her, ripped off a hazy slice.

— My God! What such is this? God I am not to blame...

— Nothing, sweep, it will not be seen, — said Dunyasha.

— My beauty that steals! — said from behind the door the entering nurse. — Ah those sleepyhead beauties!...

At a quarter to eleven they finally sat down in the carriages and went. But it was still needed to call to the Tavrichesky garden.

Peronskaya was already ready. Despite her old age and ugliness, in her was happening exactly that same that was in the Rostovs, although not with such haste (for her this was a habitual business), she was also perfumed, washed, and powdered her old, ugly body, also carefully washed behind the ears, and even so the same as at the Rostovs, the old maids enthusiastically admired the outfit of her madam, when she in a yellow dress with a cipher exited the living room. Peronskaya praised the toilette of the Rostovs.

The Rostovs praised her taste and toilette, and, taking care of the hairstyles and dresses, at eleven settled down by the carriages and went.

503 le réveillon, (the eve,)

504 à la grecque (Greek style)

Time: 31st of December, on the eve of the year 1810 (Dole adds O.S. Bell puts On the 31st of December, 1809. Maude adds New Year's Eve. On New Year's Eve 1809 in Briggs.), ten o'clock in the evening, five minutes to ten, fifteen minutes past ten (quarter past ten in Pevear and Volkhonsky, Mandelker, and Dunnigan), eleven o'clock (cut in Bell.)
Mentioned: half-past ten

Locations: house on the English Quay (...Embankment in Garnett.), the Rostov's house, Tauric Garden (Tauride palace in Bell. Tavrichesky Garden in Pevear and Volkhonsky, Dunnigan (who makes it plural) and Briggs. Taurida Gardens in Maude. Tavritchesky Garden in Garnett. Tauride Gardens in Mandelker.)
Mentioned: St. Petersburg

Pevear and Volokhonsky Notes:

New Year's Eve, plowing into 1810. The Rostovs are getting ready for the ball and Natasha's first. The too long dress and the mending of it by the maids. It is a house of love and slight irresponsibility.

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 *):

Catherine the Great (in reference to a grandee of her time that throws the New Year's ball)

Emperor Alexander ("emperor")

Marya Ignatyevna Peronskaya (as in Dole, Garnett, and Dunnigan. the first time we see her first two names. "...Ignatievna..." in Mandelker. "...Ignatevna.." in Wiener, just "Marya..." with no second name in Briggs. "Maria
Ignayevna..." in Edmonds. "Marie Ignatievna..." in Bell.)

Emperess dowager

Natasha

Countess Rostova ("her mamma")

Sonya (also "Sonyushka", though Briggs, Maude, and Edmonds don't use this alternative name.)

Count Rostov ("the count" and "papa")

Dunyasha

Old nyanya (Probably the nurse in chapter 18. "the nanny" in Mandelker. "old nurse" in Briggs, Dunnigan, Bell, and Edmonds. Just "nurse" in Wiener.)

(as expected in a ball, there are many characters that are basically undifferentiated or undefined, some notable ones include: the chief of police, a minister, the man who is better dressed then everyone else and knows
who everyone is, the maids helping Natasha, one of them with the name Mavrushka)

Abridged Versions: Chapter 5 in Bell. No break.
Gibian: Chapter 9: line break instead of chapter break at the end.

Fuller: Most of the intro of the chapter, with the guests waiting and trying to see if the Tsar was arriving yet has been removed to get to the Rostovs quicker. That section is basically preserved and followed by a line break.

Komroff: Some of the early detail, such as those waiting for and guessing whether the sovereign has come, is removed. The rest of the chapter is pretty well preserved and followed by a line break.

Kropotkin: Chapter 5: chapter is preserved.
Simmons: Chapter 9: most of the intro of the chapter, with the guests waiting and trying to see if the Tsar was arriving yet has been removed to get to the Rostovs quicker. The episode with the count is removed, Natasha's
too long skirt episode is shortened, and the ending of the chapter is removed. Line break instead of chapter break at the end.

Edmundson: Act Two Scene 17: Andrei and Pierre have an awkward conversation with Boris and we then transition into the ball scenes. The Count and Andrei also have a short conversation. There seems to be more

focus on the actual New Year than in the novel.

Act Two Scene 18: A very brief scene where Napoleon confronts Pierre about the relationship between his wife and Boris.

Additional Notes:

Carroll: Page 91: "In October, 1863, officials in Tula planned a glittering ball for the Tsar's son Alexander, who was visiting their provincial town. Sonya was ill and refused to appear in public. So Tolstoy invited Tanya to attend the royal event. Sonya herself stitched an elegant white gown for her sister. Later the girl's fear, shy dignity, and wild delight in the ball were ascribed to the character of Natasha in Tolstoy's greatest novel."

Nabokov (talking about Anna Karenina, which serves as a comparison here): Page 200: "Kitty's feelings before the ball are compared to those of a young man before a battle."

Bayley: Page 13: “Tolstoy himself may have come to reject the ballroom utterly and to emphasize with a certain relish of morbidity the frivolous emptiness of ordinary life, but the balance of his work is not really affected by this...

Troyat: Page 62: “In Moscow there was one ball after another. The ladies spent fortunes on clothes. Neither fatigue nor aching feet could dampen their enthusiasm as they swirled gracefully around the twenty-four-year old Czar whom they called “our angel clad in purple.” Alexander never went to bed before three in the morning.”

Pages 72-73 When the Naryshkins traveled they were accompanied by troops of intendants, secretaries, lady’s companions, and salaried artists. When they entertained, an orchestra of forty musicians amused the guests amid a profusion of flowers and expotic fruits; and they had three dinners served: Russian, French, and Italian. These receptions took place not only in Russia but abroad...When there was a reception His Majesty would open the ball by a polonaise with Maria Naryshkina, while the Master of the Royal Hunt (her husband) sadly shook his head..