Book 2 Part 4 Chapter 9 (Chapter 138 Overall)

Chapter Summaries: Dole: The Christmas holidays at Otradnoye. Natasha's loneliness: "I want him." Natasha tries her power: rescues Mavrushka from Kondratyevna. Gives orders to the surly Foka. Madagascar. Natasha and Petya. Natasha and Sonya.
Briggs: Christmas at Otradnoye. Natasha is bored and depressed.
Maude: Christmas at Otradnoe. Natasha is depressed and capricious
Pevear and Volkhonsky (chapters 9-12): Christmastime at Otradnoe. The mummers. The night ride to Melyukovka. Fortune-telling.

Translation:

ІХ.

Came Christmastide, and besides the parade of masses, besides the solemn and boring congratulations of neighbors and the court, besides the putting on of all new dresses, there was not anything particular in commemorating Christmastide, but the calm 20 degree frost, in the bright blinding sun of the afternoon and in the starry winter light at night, felt the need of some commemoration of this time.

On the third day of the holiday after dinner all the homeworkers dispersed by their rooms. It was the most boring time of day. Nikolay, riding in the morning to neighbors, was asleep on the sofa. The old count rested in his office. In the living room behind a round table sat Sonya, sketching a pattern. The countess played cards. Nastasya Ivanovna the jester with a sad face sat in the window with two old ladies. Natasha entered into the room, came up to Sonya, looked at what she was making, then came up to her mother and silently stopped.

— For what do you go, so homeless? — said her mother. — What do you need?

— I need him... now, this moment I need him, — said Natasha, with glistening eyes and not smiling. The countess raised her head and intently looked at her daughter.

— Don’t look at me, Mama, do not look, I will now cry.

— Sit down, sit with me, — said the countess.

— Mama, I need him. For what does he so disappear, Mama?... — her voice broke off, tears squirted from her eyes, and she, so that to hide them, quickly turned and exited from the room. She exited to the sofa, stood, thought and went to the girls’. There the old maid grumbled at the young girl, out of breath, with coldness came running with the courtiers.

— That will play, — said the old woman, — in everything there is a time.

— Let her go, Kondratevna, — said Natasha. — Go, Mavrusha, go.

And letting go of Mavrusha, Natasha through the hall went into the front. An old man and two young lackeys played at cards. They interrupted the game and got up at the entrance of the young lady. "What would I have them do for me?" — thought Natasha.

— Yes, Nikita, come down please..."Where would I send him?" — Yes, come down at the servants and bring please a rooster; yes, but you, Misha, bring oats.

— A little oats you order? — funny and willingly said Misha.

— Go, go faster, — confirmed the old man.

— Fedor, but you get me chalk.

Passing by the barman, she ordered to serve samovar, although this was quite not the time.

The barman Foka was the most angry person of the home. Natasha above him loved to try her power. He did not believe her and went to ask, whether she really wanted it

— Really this young lady! — said Foka, feignedly frowning at Natasha.

No one in the house sent out so many people and gave them so many jobs as Natasha. She could not indifferently see people, so that not to send them somewhere. She tried, not as if angry, not as if swelling them in her, yet no people drew orders that they loved not to enforce as Natasha. “What would I do? Where would I go?" thought Natasha, slowly going by the corridor.

— Nastasya Ivanovna, what of will I give birth? — asked she to the jester, who in their women’s folk clothes was walking towards her.

— Of you fleas, dragonflies, blacksmiths, — was the response of the jester.

"My God, my God, all one and that same. Ah, where would I disappear? What would I with myself do?" And she quickly, knocking her feet, ran by the stairs to Fogel, which with his wife lived on the top floor. In Fogel’s were sitting two governesses, at the table were standing plates with raisins, walnuts and almond nuts. The governesses talked about where it was cheaper to live, in Moscow or in Odessa. Natasha sat down, listened to their conversation with a severe brooding face and got up.

— The island Madagascar, — she spoke. — Ма-da-gas-car, — she repeated clearly every syllable and not answering to the questions of m-me Schoss about what she spoke, exited from the room.

Petya, her brother, was also upstairs: he with his uncle arranged fireworks, which they contemplated to let at night.

— Petya! Petka! — she screamed at him, — Carry me downwards. — Petya ran up to her and set up his back. She jumped up on him, clasped his neck with her hands and he bouncingly ran with her. — No, you do not need to — The island Madagascar, — she spoke and, jumping off from him, went downwards.

As if bypassing her kingdom, testing her power and making sure that all were submissive, but was that all the same bored, Natasha went into the hall, took the guitar, sat in the dark corner behind the cupboard and began in bass sorting through the strings, making a phrase which she remembered from one opera heard in Petersburg together with Prince Andrey. For strangers listening to her on the guitar, something came out that had no sense, but in her imagination from behind these noises resurrected a whole row of memories. She sat behind the cupboard, directing her eyes to a strip of light falling from the barman’s door, listening to herself and remembering. She was found in the condition of memories.

Sonya passed to the barman with glass through the hall. Natasha looked at her at the slit of the barman’s door and to her it seemed that she remembered that from the barman’s door at the slit fell light and that Sonya passed with the glass. "Yes and this is exactly and exactly so," thought Natasha.

— Sonya, what is this? — shouted Natasha, sorting out her fingers in a thick string.

— Ah, you are here! — shuddering, said Sonya, coming up and listening. — I do not know. The Storm? — she said timidly, fearing to be mistaken.

"Well, here exactly so the same she is startled, exactly so the same came up and timidly smiled so when this already was," thought Natasha, "and exactly so the same... I thought that in her something is lacking."

— No, this is the choir from the Water Carrier, do you hear? — and Natasha finished singing the motive of the chorus, so that to give understanding to Sonya.

— You went where? — asked Natasha.

— To change the water in the glass. I am now finishing a painting pattern.

— You are always busy, but here I cannot be, — said Natasha. — But Nikolinka is where?

— Sleeping, it seems.

— Sonya, you go wake him up, — said Natasha. — Say that I call him to sing. — she sat, thinking about what this meant, that all this was and, not allowing the issue and any regretting about this, again in her imagination moved to that time when she was with him together, and he with lovers eyes watched her.

"Ah, soon would he arrive. I am so afraid that this will not be! But the main thing: I am getting old, here is what! Now will he not be here with me. But maybe, he now comes, now comes. Maybe he has arrived and sits there in the living room. Maybe, he still yesterday arrived and I have forgotten." She got up, placed the guitar and went into the living room. All the homeworkers, the teacher, the governesses and the visitors were sitting already behind the tea table. People were standing around the table, — but Prince Andrey was not, and was all the former life.

— But, here she is, — said Ilya Andreich, seeing the entered Natasha. — Well, sit down to me. — But Natasha stopped beside her mother, looking back around, as if she searched for something.

— Mama! — she spoke. — Give me him, give, Mama, quickly, quickly, — and again she with labor kept sobbing.

She sat down to the table and listened to the conversations of the seniors and Nikolay, who also came to the table. "My God, my God, those same faces, those same conversations, so the same Papa holds the cup and blows exactly so the same!" thought Natasha, with horror and a feeling of revulsion, rising in her against the whole home for that they were all the same.

After tea Nikolay, Sonya and Natasha went to the sofa, in their love corner, in which always began their most sincere conversations.

Time: Christmas holidays (Maude, Mandelker, Dunnigan, and Garnett remove holidays), third day of Christmas (Garnett, Dunnigan and Mandelker add week), after tea (when tea was over in Briggs)


Location: the Rostovs house in Otradnoe (not explicitly said)
Mentioned: Moscow, Odessa, the island of Madagascar, St. Petersburg

Pevear and Volokhonsky Notes:

Now it is Christmas. Natasha is extremely unhappy because of the absence of Andrei, but fills her time by ordering the servants around, "No one in the house ordered so many people around or gave them so much work as
Natasha. She could not look at people indifferently, without sending them somewhere. It seemed as if she were testing whether any of them would get angry or upset with her, but people liked carrying out Natasha's orders
as they did no one else's." But her boredom continues and "'My God, my God, the same faces, the same conversations, papa holding his cup in the same way and blowing in exactly the same way!" thought Natasha,
horrified at the feeling of revulsion rising in her against the whole household for being always the same."

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 *):

Nikolai

Count Ilya Andreyitch Rostof (also "the old count")

Sonya

Countess Rostova ("the countess", "mamma", and "mother")

Nastasya Ivanovna (also "the buffoon")

Natasha

Prince Andrei (significantly "him")

Nikita (the lackey Natasha makes get a "cock.")

Misha (the lackey Natasha sends to get "some oats". "Micha" in Bell.)

Feodor (the old man Natasha sends to get "a piece of chalk". "Fyodor" in Mandelker, Garnett, and Dunnigan. "Fedor" in Bell and Wiener.)

Foka (the butler.)

Vogel (and his wife are mentioned in relation with his room.)

Madame Schoss (previously "Chausse" in Dole. One of the two governesses.)

Petya (also "brother". With his tutor. Mandelker also prints "Petka".)

(also an elderly chambermaid...scolding a young girl". The former named Kondratyevna, the latter Mavrusha, as in Dole, Dunnigan, and Briggs. Edmonds has the former, the latter she spells Mavrushka. Mandelker and
Wiener agree with Dole, Dunnigan, and Briggs on the latter but spell the former Kondratevna. "Kondratievna" and "Mavroucha" in Bell.)

Abridged Versions: No break in Bell.
Gibian: Chapter 9

Fuller: Entire chapter is cut.

Komroff: Most of the middle of the chapter is cut, such as Natasha commanding the servants, her repeating Madagascar, and her wandering the house is severely shortened. Line break at end

Kropotkin: Chapter 4: Nastasya Ivanovna, not introduced in the earlier chapters, which were cut in this version, is cut here. Rest of chapter seems preserved.

Bromfield: Chapter 5: At Yuletide. Natasha goes around and instead of saying she wants "him", says she wants "a husband". No break.
Simmons: Chapter 9: The opening of the chapter setting up the Christmas holiday is removed. The bossing of the servants by Natasha is removed, as is the island of Madagascar.

Additional Notes: This chapter in particular accentuates the waiting aspect of the novel, in which not a lot happens. The entire part not only is filled with a lack of plot and overall development, but it

is perhaps the largest cultural and custom section of the novel (with the hunt, the shawl dance, and the Christmas time). This is probably why the section is chopped to pieces in adaptations and

abridgments, if not removed all together (the Soviet Union film adaptation is a notably exception, which seems to prove the overall point). It is also probably the section of the novel that has aged

worse than any other section of the novel, with the hunting section turning off modern audiences (and is incompatible with Tolstoy's later thought), the song and dance portion with Uncle and

Natasha is long and hard to visualize (the Soviet film does a great job with it), while the Christmas divining ritual and mummer ceremony seem almost alien.

I did not mention the different ways the translations handle temperature, but here is the Maude note: "the thermometric scale, where the freezing point of water is set at 0 degrees; roughly -13 degrees
Faherenheit, -25 degrees Centigrade".

Garnett: "Fortune-telling rituals were traditional during the Christmas season, when young girls tried to foresee their future husbands by using such prompts as scattered grain and poultry--the pattern of seeds remaining
after the fowl had eaten was read for significance--basin of water, mirrors, and candle wax. Tolstoy's description evokes parallel situations in Vasily Zhukovsky's poem "Svetlanan" (1808-1812) and Alexander Pushkin's Eugene Onegin (1833), thereby establishing another element in the literary genealogy of Russian
heroines that links Natasha with Pushkin's Tatyana and Zhukovsky's Svetlana."