Book 2 Part 3 Chapter 17 (Chapter 120 Overall)

Chapter Summaries: Dole: Prince Andrei dances a cotillion with Natasha. Reminds her of his visit to Otradnoye. Natasha's naive enthusiasm.
Briggs: Andrey decides he must marry Natasha. Pierre feels humiliated by his wife.

Translation:

XVII.

After Prince Andrey, to Natasha came up Boris, inviting her to dance, then came up that dancing adjutant beginning the ball, and more young people, and Natasha, delivering her redundant cavaliers to Sonya, happy and flushed, did not stop dancing the whole evening. She did not notice and did not see what occupied all at this ball. She not only did not notice how the sovereign for long spoke with the French messenger, how he especially graciously spoke with such and such lady, how the such and such prince did such and such and said that and that, how Elen had big success and was honored the particular attention of such and such; she did not even see the sovereign and notice how only after he departed the ball revived more. At one of the fun cotillions, before dinner, Prince Andrey again was dancing with Natasha. He reminded her about their first goodbyes at Otradnoe alley and about how she could not fall asleep in the lunar night, and how he unwittingly heard her. Natasha blushed at this reminder and tried to justify it, as if there was some shameful feeling in which Prince Andrey unwittingly overheard her.

Prince Andrey, as all people grown up in the world, loved to meet in the world those that had not in themselves a common societal fingerprint. And such was Natasha, with her surprise, joy, timidity, and even mistakes in the French language. He especially tenderly and carefully approached and spoke with her. Sitting beside her, talking with her about the most simple and worthless subjects, Prince Andrey admired the joyous shine of her eyes and smile, related not to spoken speeches, but to her internal happiness. At that time as Natasha chose and she with a smile got up and danced by the hall, Prince Andrey admired in particular her timid grace. At the mid cotillion Natasha, finishing the figure, still heavily breathing, fit to his place. A new admirer again invited her. She was tired and out of breath, and apparently thought to refuse, but immediately again funnily raised her hand on the shoulder of the cavalier and smiled at Prince Andrey.

"I would be happy to relax and to sit with you, I am tired; but you see how I am chosen, and I am happy to that, and I am happy, and I love all, and we all understand this," and much and much more said this smile. When the admirer left her, Natasha ran across the hall, so that to take two given figures.

"Should she approach before to her cousin, but then to another lady, then she will be my wife," Prince Andrey said completely suddenly to himself, looking at her. She came up before to her cousin.

"What nonsense sometimes comes into my head! — thought Prince Andrey; — But right only in that this girl is such a sweetheart, so special, that she will not dance here for months and come to get married... this here is a rarity," he thought, when Natasha mended a reclined in the corsage rose, sitting beside him.

At the end of the cotillion the old count came up in his blue tailcoat to the dancing. He invited to himself Prince Andrey and asked his daughter whether she was having fun. Natasha did not answer and only smiled such a smile, which with reproach said: "How can you ask about this?"

— Such fun, as never in my life! — she said, and Prince Andrey saw how fast was rising her thin hand, so to embrace her father and immediately again it was lowered. Natasha was so happy as never in her life. She was in that higher steps of happiness, when a person is done quite nice and good, and does not believe in the opportunity of evil, misfortunes and grief.

—————

Pierre at this ball for the first time felt himself offended by that position which his wife occupied in the higher sphere. He was morose and scattered. Across his forehead was a wide fold, and he, standing up at the window, watched through his glasses, seeing nobody.

Natasha, directing to dinner, passed by him.

The dark, unhappy face of Pierre struck her. She stopped against him. She wanted to help him and deliver him her surplus happiness.

— How fun, count, — she said, — is it not really?

Pierre absent-mindedly smiled, obviously not understanding what was said to him.

— Yes, I am very glad, — he said.

"How may he be unhappy in something, — thought Natasha. — especially such a good one as this Bezuhov?" In the eyes of Natasha all arriving at the ball were equally kind, lovely, beautiful people, affectionate to each other: no one could offend each other, because all must have been happy.

Time: see previous chapter, before supper
Mentioned: a month

Locations: see previous chapter
Mentioned: French, Otradnoe

Pevear and Volokhonsky Notes:

Natasha is able to avoid and ignore all the political intrigue and has dancers all night interested in her and Sonya. Andrei tells Natasha about the moonlit night.

"Prince Andrei, like all people who have grown up in society, liked to encounter things in society that did not have the general society stamp on them. And Natasha was just that, with her astonishment, joy, and timidity, and even her mistakes in French." Similar to how Berg had, Andrei "unexpectedly" resolves to have Natasha as his wife.

"Natasha was happier than she had ever been before in her life. She was in that highest degree of happiness when a person becomes perfectly kind and good, and does not believe in the possibility of evil, unhappiness, and grief."

Line break after this, now focusing on Pierre, who is sullen over his wife being accepted in society and he not. "In Natasha's eyes, all who were at the ball were equally kind, nice, wonderful people, and loved each other: no one could offend anyone, and therefore they should all be happy."

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 *):

Prince Andrei

Boris

Natasha

Sonya

Emperor Alexander ("the emperor" and "the sovereign")

Caulaincourt ("the French ambassador")

Ellen

Count Rostov ("the old count")

Pierre Bezukhoi

(also the master of ceremonies, who opened the ball, and several other young men)

Abridged Versions:

Line break after "does not believe in the possibility of evil, unhappiness, or sorrow" in Mandelker. Edmonds, Maude, Dunnigan, Garnett, Wiener, and Dole have one in the same spot. End of Chapter 6 in Bell.
Gibian: end of Chapter 9.

Fuller: A lot of the detail about the Princes and Tsar, that are mentioned sarcastically anyway, as Natasha did not listen to them, are removed. However, the rest of the chapter is preserved, including the line break before the change to Pierre. There doesn't appear to be a line break at the end of the chapter, but the next section switches to the next page, making it hard to tell.

Komroff: The line break to Pierre at the ball comes immediately after Natasha first goes to her cousin (meaning Andrei will marry her). Since the next section starts on the next page, it is hard to tell if there is a line break or not.

Kropotkin: Chapter 7: Chapter is preserved besides the line break.
Simmons: end of Chapter 9.

Additional Notes: Bayley's intro to Anna Karenina: "The two heroines, Natasha in War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are, as it were, embodiments of his outsize egoism -- their femaleness its expression as a great source and reservoir of life and feeling. For there is nothing solitary, detached or inward-looking about Tolstoy's sense of himself as a physical being."

Troyat: Page 321: "she (Natasha Rostov) pursues her hectic course toward happiness, she acts as a link between all the main characters of the book. Every one, at some point, draws near to her, is lit up by and glows in her flame"

Bayley's intro to Eugene Onegin: Page 17: "We can see Tatyana in Dostoyevsky's spirited Dunya, the sister of Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment, who is himself in a sense a figure evolved from Onegin. And her influence on Tolstoy's Natasha of War and Peace is just as evident."

Dmitry S. Mirsky: About Tolstoy: "One of the basic contradictions in Tolstoy is that between his irrational vitality (which in War and Peace triumphs especially in the figure of Natasha) and his all-penetrating analytical rationalism"

Introduction to Fuller's abridgment War and Peace: “These are members of the same generation...there is a gap of sixteen years been the oldest, Andrey, and the youngest, Natasha..the characters appear not so much specific people as representatives of phases in the progression of or cycle of life--childhood and youth, maturity (marriage and family life), old age, and death"

Moser and Rowe: "Page 45: “The intensity of Natasha’s and Pierre’s experiences is indirectly but all the more powerfully--conveyed by the momentary impairment of their sight and hearing.”

Page 57: “Natasha, Pierre, and Kutuzov sense a current in their lives and flow with it; Prince Andrew resists"

Tolstoya (Song Without Words): Page 221: “When did this happen? In real love it’s never possible to trace the exact moment when it begins. Two people see each other today, they meet happily tomorrow, and a week later each feels bored without the beloved; a month later they spend a wonderful evening together and chat so warmly...And in three or more months--there’s no longer any life or happiness without the other person”

Bayley/Johnson/Pushkin: Page 16: Tatyana appeared by contrast the ideal Russian woman, whose emotions are instant and genuine, and who expresses the energy and life-force latent in the Russian character."

Troyat Page 277: “The war years had separated him from his mistress, the beautiful Maria Naryshkina. Since then she had traveled a great deal in Russia and abroad, accompanied by a princely retinue, had had affairs with other men, and had thus lost the hold over Alexander that “the power of habit” had given her.”