Book 2 Part 3 Chapter 15 (Chapter 118 Overall)

Chapter Summaries: Dole: On the way. The arrival. The notabilities. Countess Bezukhaya. Pierre. Prince Andrei.
Briggs: Natasha makes a good impression. Pierre is seen talking to Andrey.

Translation:

XV.

Natasha from the morning of this day had not had a minute of freedom, and had not once managed to think about what she was to be.

In the damp, cold air, in the cramped and incomplete, dark swaying carriages, she for the first time lively represented to herself what awaited her there at the ball, in the lit halls — the music, the flowering plants, dancing, the sovereign, all the brilliant young people of Petersburg. That what awaited her, was so perfect that she did not believe even that this would be: so this was incongruous with the impression of the cold, cramped and dark carriages. She understood all that awaited her, only then, when, having passed by the red cloth entrance, she entered to the canopy, took off her fur coat and went nearby with Sonya ahead of her mother between the colors of the lighted stairs. Only then she remembered how she needed to keep herself at the ball and tried to accept that majestic manner, which she counted necessary for girls at the ball. Yet fortunately to her she felt that her eyes were scattered: she saw nothing clearly, her pulse beat one hundred times in the moment, and the blood began to knock at her heart. She could not accept those manners, which would make her funny, and went, freezing from excitement and trying by all her forces to only hide it. And this was that manner itself, which only more went with her. Ahead and behind them, with so the same quiet conversations and in so the same ballroom dresses, entered the visitors. The mirrors by the stairs reflected the white, blue, and pink dresses, with diamonds and pearls on open hands and necks.

Natasha watched the mirrors and in the reflection could not distinguish herself from the others. All mixed in one brilliant procession. At the entrance in the first hall, a uniform rumble of voices, steps, and cheers — stunned Natasha; the light and shine still more blinded her. The master and hostess, already for half an hour standing at the entrance door and speaking only those same words including: “very, very glad to see you,”505 so the same meeting the Rostovs with Peronskaya.

Two girls in white dresses, with equal roses in black hair, equally sat down, but unwittingly the hostess stopped longer to look at the thin Natasha. She looked at her, and she alone especially smiled at the addition to her master’s smile. Looking at her, the hostess remembered, maybe, their golden, irrevocable girlish time, and their first ball. The master also spent his eyes at Natasha and asked the count, which was his daughter?

— Lovely!506 — he said, kissing the tips of her fingers.

In the hall were standing visitors, crowding together at the entrance of the door, expecting the sovereign. The countess fit into the first ranks of this crowd. Natasha heard and felt that a few voices asked about her and looked at her. She understood that she liked that which turned her attention, and this observation somewhat calmed her.

“They are such the same as us, the same and worse than us" — she thought.

Peronskaya called to the countess the most significant persons arriving at the ball.

— This here is the Dutch messenger, see the gray hair, — said Peronskaya, pointing at an old man with silver gray curly, abundant hair, surrounded by ladies, which he for some reason forced to laugh.

— But here she is, the Tsarina of Petersburg, Countess Bezuhova, — she said, pointing at the entering Elen.

— How good! Do not yield Marya Antonovna; see how behind her curls the young and old. And the good, and the smart...the prince is speaking... without the mind of her. But here are those two, though bad, and still more surround.

She pointed out the passing through the hall lady with a very ugly daughter.

— This is a millionaire’s bride, — said Peronskaya. — but here are grooms.

— This is the brother of Bezuhova — Anatole Kuragin, — she said, pointing at the handsome cavalry guard which passed by them, with a high raised head giving a look somewhere. — How good! Whether it is not true? They say he will marry this rich one. And your cousin, Drubetskoy, also very wrapped up. They say, millions. — So the same, this is the French messenger himself, — she answered about Kolenkour to a question of the countess of who this is. — Look, how it’s something like the tsar. But all the same nice, an extremely nice Frenchman. No dearer for society. But here she is! No, all is better for our Marya Antonovna! And how simply dressed. A beauty!

— But this is that thick, in glasses, freemason of the world, — said Peronskaya, pointing at Bezuhov. — With his wife placed nearby: that pea jester!

Pierre was walking, waddling his thick body, pushing apart the crowd, nodding to the right and left so the same carelessly and good-naturedly, as he was walking by the crowd of a bazaar. He promoted through the crowd, obviously looking for someone.

Natasha with joy watched the familiar face of Pierre, this pea jester, as Peronskaya called him, and knew that Pierre sought them, and in particular her, out in the crowd. Pierre promised her to be at the ball and to represent her to the cavaliers.

Yet, not reaching to them, Bezuhov had stopped beside a short, very beautiful brunette in a white uniform, who, standing up at the window, talked with some tall man in stars and a ribbon. Natasha immediately again recognized the short young human in a white uniform: this was Bolkonsky, who seemed to her extremely rejuvenated, cheered up and prettier.

— Here is another familiar, Bolkonsky, see, Mama? — said Natasha, pointing at Prince Andrey. — Remember, he spent the night at us in Otradnoe.

— Ah, you know him? — said Peronskaya. — I cannot stand him. To him now everyone with their mind has gone off.507 And such pride that there is no boundary! He went by daddy. And contacted with Speransky, writing some projects. See how with the ladies he turns! She with him speaks, but he turns away, — she said, pointing to him. — I would have finished him, if only he with me so entered, as with these ladies.

505 "charmé de vous voir", ("charmed to see you",)

506 Charmante! (Charming!)

507 Il fait à présent la pluie et le beau temps. (It is now raining and shining.)

Time: See previous chapter

Mentioned: morning, St. Petersburg, half an hour, Dutch, French, the Rostovs' at Otradnoe

Locations: See previous chapter

Pevear and Volokhonsky Notes:

"Natasha had not had a free moment since the morning of that day and had never once had time to think about what lay ahead of her." Her bewilderment is somewhat like the soldiers in battle, unable to apprehend everything
that is going on. They see the famous people at the ball, including Helene and Anatole. Pierre and Andrei are also at the ball and Natasha sees the two.

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 *):

Natasha

Sonya

Countess Rostova ("her mother")

Emperor Alexander ("sovereign")

Peronskaya

Countess Ellen Bezukhaya (with "tsaritsa of Petersburg" or "Queen of Petersburg")

Marya Antonovna (as in Dole, Wiener, Garnett, and Mandelker. Could be argued as a reference. "Maria Antonovna" in Edmonds, with an added parenthetical of "this was the Tsar's favourite." "Marie Antonovna" in Bell)

Anatol Kuragin (these characters that are just named by Peronskaya don't really appear or do anything, which is why I'm just counting them as references)

Boris ("Drubetskoi")

Caulaincourt

Pierre (also "Bezukhoi" and "the universal Freemason")

Prince Andrei Bolkonsky

Nikolai Bolkonsky ("his father")

Speransky

(of course, many many guests at the ball, including the host and hostess, the Dutch ambassador, an unnamed prince that has apparently fallen in love with Ellen, and a woman and her daughter being wooed by Anatole)

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

Fuller: The discussion of the different people at the ball by Peronsky is removed, concentrating on Natasha seeing Pierre and Bolkonsky. No break.

Komroff: Some of the early chapter detail is removed, but the chapter is pretty well preserved and followed by a line break.

Kropotkin: Chapter 6: Chapter is preserved, but no break.
Simmons: Chapter appears preserved other than the hosts at the first of the chapter. Line break instead of chapter break.

Additional Notes:

Troyat: Page 113: “Alexander...received Caulaincourt with marked kindness, he appointed as ambassador to Paris Count Peter Tolstoy, who was fiercely opposed to the French alliance.”

Davidov: Page 63: "Caulaincourt came in with a courtly, yet haughty and insolent air. He had been sent by Napoleon to invite our Emperor to attend manoeuvers at 6 o'clock and dinner afterwards. Thereafter, when he was

French ambassador in St Petersburg, his pomposity and aloofness became even more intolerable; but God, you should have seen him eight years later in Paris on the morning of our triumphal entrance into that capital!"

Durant: Page 696: Caulaincourt (Napoleon’s ambassador to Russia) was impressed by the development of Alexander...Poland divided them...Alexander urged Austria to join him in an attack upon Napoleon’s forces in

Poland...Austria refused.