Book 2 Part 3 Chapter 19 (Chapter 122 Overall)

Chapter Summaries: Dole: Prince Andrei calls upon the Rostofs. Charming Natasha. Her singing. Her effect on Prince Andrei.
Briggs: Andrey visits the Rostovs and is more enchanted by Natasha.
Maude: Prince Andrew calls on the Rostovs. Natasha's effect on him
Pevear and Volkhonsky: Prince Andrei calls on the Rostovs. Natasha's singing and its effect on him.

Translation:

XIX.

On the next day Prince Andrey went to visit some at homes where he had still not been, including Rostov's, with whom he renewed acquaintance at the last ball. Besides the laws of courtesy, by which he needed to be at the Rostovs, Prince Andrey wanted to see at this home, in particular, the brisk girl which left him a pleasant memory.

Natasha alone from the first met him. She was in a blue home dress, in which she seemed to Prince Andrey still better than in the ballroom. She and all the family of the Rostovs passed to Prince Andrey, as to an old friend, simply and welcomely. All the family, which was strictly judged before by Prince Andrey, now seemed to him a form of beautiful, simple and kind people. The hospitality and good nature of the old count, especially nicely startling in Petersburg, was such that Prince Andrey could not refuse from dinner. "Yes, these are kind, glorious people, — thought Bolkonsky, — of course, they do not understand in their hair this treasure, which they have in Natasha; but they are kind people which form the best background so that they are separated by this especially poetic, overflowing with life, lovely girl!"

Prince Andrey felt in Natasha a presence completely alien for him, of particular peace, full of some kind of unknown to him joys, this alien peace, which still then, as at Otradnoe alley and in the window on the lunar night, so teased him. Now this peace teased him more as an alien peace; but he himself, marching into it, found in it a new enjoyment for himself.

After dinner Natasha, by the request of Prince Andrey, went to the clavichord and began to sing. Prince Andrey stood at the window, talking with the ladies, and listened to her. In the middle of the phrases Prince Andrey fell silent and felt suddenly that to his throat approached tears, an opportunity which he did not know for himself. He looked at the singing Natasha, and in his soul happened something new and happy. He was happy and together with that was sad. He resolutely was not to cry about that, but he was ready to cry. About what? About previous love? About the little princess? About their disappointments?... About their hopes for the future?... Yes and no. The main thing that he wanted to cry about was the suddenly lively and conscious to him terrible opposite between something infinitely great and indefinable, formerly in him, and something narrow and bodily that was in himself and even was her. This opposite tormented and gladdened him in the time of her singing.

Only when Natasha finished singing, she came up to him and asked him how he liked her voice. She asked this and was embarrassed now after at how she said this, realizing that this was not needed to ask. He smiled, looking at her, and said that he liked her singing so the same, as that she did.

Prince Andrey late at night left from the Rostovs. He lied down to sleep by habit, but saw soon that he may not sleep. He lit a candle, sat on the bed, then got up, then again lied down, not feeling burdened by insomnia: so happy and new was his soul, as if he from a stuffy room got out into the free light of God. In his head it did not come for him to fall in love with Rostov; he did not think about her; he only imagined her herself, and owing to this all of his life presented to him in a new light. “From what do I fight, from what do I bother in this narrow, closed frame, when life, all life with all its joys are open to me?" — he spoke to himself. And he for the first time after a long time began to make happy plans for the future. He decided by himself that he needed to make an education for his son, find his educator and instruct him; then needed to exit and resign and go for abroad, seeing England, Switzerland, and Italy. "I need to use my freedom, while so much of myself feels the forces of youth — he spoke to himself. — Pierre was right, saying that I need to believe in the opportunity of happiness, so that to be happy, and I now believe in it. Leave the dead to bury the dead, but while alive, I need to live and be happy," he thought.

Time: the following day, after dinner, late in the evening

Locations: the Rostovs'
Mentioned: the ball, St. Petersburg, Otradnoe, abroad, England, Switzerland, and Italy

Pevear and Volokhonsky Notes:

Andrei now goes to visit the Rostovs to see Natasha again. "The whole family...seemed to him to consist of wonderful, simple, and kind people." Natasha sings for Andrei, who cries, "which he did not know was possible for
him...He was happy, but at the same time he felt sad." The inexplicable unhappiness of last chapter is met with the inexplicable happiness of this chapter. "And for the first time in a long while he began making happy plans
for the future. He decided that he must occupy himself with the education of his son..then he must retire from the service and go abroad."

"I must live and 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 Bolkonsky

Countess Natasha Rostova

Count Rostof ("the old count")

Liza ("the little princess")

Nikolai Bolkonsky ("his son")

Pierre

(the Rostofs are mentioned in general)

Abridged Versions: End of chapter 6 in Bell.
Gibian: Chapter 11

Fuller: Some details are removed, specifically his plans for his son and his plan to travel, but the chapter is pretty well preserved. Followed by a line break.

Komroff: Some of the reaction to Natasha's song is removed but the rest of the chapter is preserved.

Kropotkin: Chapter 8: Kropotkin fixes the time scale by saying "Two days later". Chapter is preserved.
Simmons: Chapter 11: Chapter is preserved.

Edmundson: Act Two Scene 19: After the singing and the Andrei/Natasha conversation, the Count and Countess talk about the two falling in love

and whether there is something wrong with it.

Additional Notes:

Christian: Page 4: “He emerged from his isolated and secluded life with Marya when he fell in love with Tatyana Behrs, Tolstoy’s sister-in-law, in the 1860s,

but their plans to marry came to nothing when Marya was informed of the situation and her gypsy parents threated to sue Sergey and cause a public

scandal. A further obstacle to the marriage of Sergey and Tatyana was the fact that under Russian law Sergey was considered to be a blood relation of

Tatyana’s because his brother was married to Tatyana’s sister, Sofya Andreyevna, and consequently such a marriage ws forbidden...He thought little

about the consequences of his actions. His life followed the line of least resistance; he let life do with him as it pleased.’” Page 5: “Sergey’s relationship with Tatyana Behrs was the basis for Tolstoy’s portrayal of the relationship of Andrey Bolkonsky with Natasha in War

and Peace….

Troyat: Page 317: Shelgunov...the author was preaching "Eastern fatalism against Western reason," that he and his ideas were "throttling all energy,

initiative and desire in the individual to improve his social condition and achieve happiness,"...None of his novels dealt with the issues that inflamed

public opinion: emancipation of the serfs, freedom of the press, reorganization of the courts, women's rights, government reform. It seemed as though,

but living in retirement on his estate, he was trying to ignore the present."

Page 323: "His people never merely smile, they do so "with suden good-will," "condescendingly," "with a touch of melancholy." The word "shade" is often

found in his writing, and proves the importance he attaches to the exact translation of an emotion. After his father's death, Pierre is received by Anna

Pavlovna "with a shade of mournfulness," Prince Andrey speaks of happiness "with a shade of bitterness and irony," in Nikolenka's love for his uncle

there is "a barely perceptible shade of contempt."