Book 2 Part 5 Chapter 1 (Chapter 143 overall)

Chapter Summaries: Dole: Pierre's unhappiness. Death of Iosiph Alekseyevitch. Pierre's dissipation. Pierre welcomed in Moscow. His generosity. Retired Court-Chamberlains. The great question "Why?" Strong drink. The falsehood of life.
Briggs: Moscow. Pierre ruminates over what to with himself.
Maude: Pierre's life in Moscow. Asks himself: 'What for?' and "Why?"
Pevear and Volkhonsky: Pierre in Moscow. Moral dilemmas.

Translation:

Part the Fifth. I. Pierre after the matchmaking of Prince Andrey and Natasha, without every obvious cause, suddenly felt the impossibility of continuing the former life. As he was firmly convinced in the truths opened to him by his benefactor, as he was happy in that first time in the hobbies of the internal work of self-improvement, which he gave up with such a heat, after the engagement of Prince Andrey with Natasha and after the death of Iosif Alekseevich, about which he received news almost at that same time, — all the beauty of this previous life suddenly went missing for him. Stayed only a skeleton of life: his house with his brilliant wife, using now the graces of one important face, acquainted with all of Petersburg and service with boring formalities. And this former life suddenly with an unexpected abomination was presented to Pierre. He ceased to write in his diary, avoided the society of the brothers, began again to ride to the club, began again to drink much, again got close with idle company and started to lead such a life that Countess Elen Vasilievna considered it fit to make to him a strict comment. Pierre felt that she was right, and so that not to compromise his wife, left for Moscow. In Moscow, only as he entered into his huge house with the withered and dying princess, with huge servants, only as he saw — driving by the city — that Iverskaya chapel with countless lights of candles before golden robes, that Kremlin area with unbroken snow, these cabbies and shacks of Sivtseva Vrazhka, saw the old people of Moscow, willing nothing and in a hurry for nowhere and surviving the century, he saw the old ladies, Moscow mistresses, Moscow balls and the Moscow English club, — he felt himself in the house a quiet refuge. He became in Moscow quietly heated, habitually dirty, as in an old smock. All of Moscow society began from old women to children, as their long time expected guest, whose place was always ready and not occupied, — accepted Pierre. For the Moscow world, Pierre was a very cute, kind, smart, fun, generous eccentric, scattered and sincere, Russian, old cut baron. His purse was always empty, because of how open it was for all. The benefits, bad pictures, statues, charitable society, gypsies, school, subscription dinners, binges, masons, churches, books — no one and nothing received rejection, and if it would not have been for two of his friends, who occupied much of his money and who took him under their guardianship, he would have handed all out. At the club there was not a lunch, or an evening without him. Only as he leaned over in his place on the couch after two bottles of Margot, he was surrounded, and tied up in talk, disputes, and jokes. Where there was a quarrel, he — only with his good smile and by his way of saying a joke, — reconciled. The masonic dining room lodges were boring and sluggish, should he not be there. When after a single dinner he, with a good and sweet smile, handed over to the requests of fun company, lifted so to go with them, between the youth were heard joyful, solemn shouting. At the ball he was dancing, if not getting cavalier. The young ladies and young women loved him for that he, not caring for whom, was with all equally kind, especially after dinner. “He is lovely, he has no sex,”520 was said about him. Pierre was that retired good-naturedly surviving his century in Moscow chamberlain, what kind there were hundreds of. How would he have been terrified, should seven years to that backwards, when he only had arrived from behind the borders, someone would have said to him that he needed to search for nothing and dream up that his track was for a long time pierced, defined eternally, and that as he twirled, he would be all in his position. He would not have believed that! Did he not in all of his soul desire to produce a republic in Russia, the very Napoleon, the philosopher, the tactician, the victor of Napoleon? Didn’t he see the opportunity and passionately desire to be reborn from the vicious kind of humanity and himself lead to the higher extent of perfection? Didn’t he establish schools and hospitals and let go of his peasants by free will? But instead only this, here, he, a rich husband of a wrong wife, a chamberlain in retirement, affectionately ate, drank and unbuttoned a little to scold the government, a member of the Moscow English club and loved by all members of Moscow society. He for long could not make up with that thought that he ate with those very retired Moscow chamberlains, the type of which he so deeply despised seven years to that backwards. Sometimes he comforted himself with the thoughts that this is only so, meanwhile, he leads this life; but then he was terrified by another idea that so, meanwhile, now how many people entered as he, with all their teeth and hair in this life and in this club exited from there without one tooth and without hair. In minutes of pride, when he thought about his position, to him it seemed that he was really different, special from those retired chamberlains, which he despised before, that those were vulgar and stupid, satisfied and reassured of his position, "but I now am all displeased, all I want to do is something for humanity," — he spoke to himself in minutes of pride. —"but maybe and all those of my friends, exactly so the same, as I, fought, searched for something new, their roads in life, and so the same as I forced in the setting, society, breeds, that spontaneous force, against which is not a domineering person, were given there the same where I am," — he spoke to himself in minutes of modesty, and having lived in Moscow for some time, he did not despise it now, but started to love, respect and pity, so the same as himself, his by fate friends. In Pierre was not found, as before, the minutes of despair, blues and disgust to life; but that same disease, expressed before sharp seizures, was driven inward and for an instant did not leave him. "For why? What for? What is going on in the world?" — he asked himself with disbelief several times a day, unwittingly beginning to ponder on the meaning of the phenomena of life; but with experience knew that for these questions there were not answers, he hastily tried to turn away from them, took for a book, or hurried to the club, or to Apollon Nikolaevich to chat about city gossip. "Elen Vasilievna, never loved anyone besides their bodies and is one of the most stupid women in the world, — thought Pierre, — she is presented people on horseback minds of refinements, and before her are adored. Napoleon Bonaparte was despised by all before those while he was great, and with those as he has become a miserable comedian — the Emperor Franz gets to propose to him his daughter as an illegal spouse. The Spaniards send prayers to God through Catholic clergy in gratitude for how they conquered the French on the 14th of June, but the French send prayers through that same Catholic clergy about how they on the 14th of June conquered the Spaniards. My brother masons swear in blood that they to all are ready to sacrifice for those near, but do not pay the only fallen in fees for the poor and intrigue Astrea against seeking Manna, and bother about the present Scottish carpet and about acts, the sense of which they do not know who writes it, and which no one needs. All of us profess the Christian law of forgiving resentment and love to neighbor — the law, owing to which we erected in Moscow forty and forty churches, but yesterday spotted the whipping of an escaped man, and this minister of the same law itself of love and forgiveness, the priest, gave the soldier to kiss the cross before execution." So thought Pierre, and this all, common by all the relationship of the lie, as he was used to it, as if something new, at any time astonished him. —"I understand this lie and confusion, — he thought, — but am I to say to all of them, what I understand? I have tried and have always found that they in the depth of their soul understand that the same as I, but are trying only to not see it. It has become so needed! But to where do I disappear?" — thought Pierre. He felt the unhappy ability of many, especially Russian people, — the ability to see and believe in the opportunity of good and the truth, and also clearly see the evil and lies of life, for this so that to be in their forces to take in it serious participation. Any region of labor in his eyes united with evil and tricks. What he tried to be for what he took — the evil and lies repelled him and obstructed him in the way of all of his activities. But between that need was to live, the need was to be busy. Also fearful was to be under the oppression of these insoluble issues of life, and he gave back to his first hobbies, so that to only forget them. He drove in all kinds of society, drank much, bought pictures and built, but the main thing was reading. He was reading and was reading everything that hit under his arm, and was reading so that, having arrived home, when the lackeys were still undressing him, he, already had taken a book, was reading — and from reading went over to sleep, and from sleep to chatter in the living rooms and club, from chatter to revelry and women, from revelry again to chatter, reading and blame. Drinking wine for him became all the more and more physical and together with a moral need. Despite that what his doctor said to him, that with his corpulence, wine for him was dangerous, he very much drank. He became quite okay only then, when he, himself not noticing how, tipping into his big mouth a few glasses of wine, felt the pleasant of warmth in his body, tenderness to all his neighbor and the readiness of his mind to superficially respond to all ideas, not deeping in its essence. Only drinking a bottle or two of wine, he was vaguely aware that that intricate, terrible knot of life, which terrified him before, was not so scary as it seemed to him. With the noise in his head, chatting, listening to conversations or reading after lunch and dinner, he incessantly saw this knot, somewhere around him. Yet only under the influence of wine he spoke to himself: "This is nothing. This I am unraveling — here in me is a ready explanation. Yet now once, — I after this will think over all of it!" Yet the after this never came. On an empty stomach, in the morning, all the former questions presented so the same insoluble and terrible, and Pierre hastily seized for a book and rejoiced when someone came to him. Sometimes Pierre remembered about hearing a story about how in war soldiers, found out under shots in cover, when there is nothing to do, carefully seek for themselves an occupation, for that it is easier to carry across the danger. And Pierre to all people presented such soldiers, fleeing from life: who is ambition, who is cards, who is writing laws, who is women, who is toys, who is horses, who is politics, who is hunting, who is wine, who is state business. "No worthless, or important, all care: only would to save from it as I can!" thought Pierre. —"Only would I not see it, this terrible it." 520 "Il est charmant, il n’a pas de sexe"  ("He's charming, he has no sex")  

Time: undefined.
Mentioned: seven years before, 14th of June

Locations: Pierre's house in St. Petersburg, his Moscow house
Mentioned: the Iver chapel (the Iverskaya Chapel in Pevear and Volkhonsky and Dole. Iversky chapel in Garnett and Briggs. Dropped in Mandelker, Maude, and Dunnigan, unless it is the Iberian shrine. Virgin of Iverskaia in Bell.), the Kremlin square, Sivtsev Vrazhok (...Vrazhek in Pevear and Volkhonsky and Dole. shops of Kitaigorod in Bell.), the English club, Russia (and Russian), Spaniards, French, Scotch

Pevear and Volokhonsky Notes:

A really strong inner monologuing Pierre chapter in which very little happens (the only event is Pierre's moving to Moscow) but is extremely important to understanding the characters and themes of the novel as a whole (for now, most of this post is just quotes. Hopefully I'll add more commentary later).

Pierre, and how the engagement of Andrei and Natasha has affected him. Iosif Alexeevich has died and "the whole charm of that former life suddenly vanished for him...that former life suddenly presented itself to Pierre with unexpected vileness."

He "began drinking heavily again." He leaves Moscow to avoid his wife.

"the dried- and drying-up princesses"

"saw old Moscow men, who desired nothing and were not hurrying anywhere as they lived out their lives"

"For him Moscow was comfortable, warm, habitual, and dirty, like an old dressing gown."

Moscow society also accepts Pierre, while St. Petersburg had rejected him.

"His purse was always empty, because it was open to everyone...he would have given everything away."

"He's charming, he has no sex," they said of him."

"How horrified he would have been if, seven years ago, when he had just come from abroad, someone had told him that there was no need to seek or invent anything, that his rut had long been carved out for him and
determined from all eternity...Had he not wished with all his soul to establish a republic in Russia, then to become a Napoleon himself"

"For a long time he could not reconcile himself to the thought that he was that very same retired Moscow gentleman-in-waiting the type of which he had so deeply despised seven years ago."

"by force of circumstances, society, breeding, by that elemental force against which man is powerless, were brought to where I am now,"

"Napoleon Bonaparte was scorned by everyone as long as he was great, but now that he's become a pathetic comedian, the emperor Franz seeks to offer him his daughter as an illegitimate wife."

"The Spanish offer up prayers to God through the Catholic clergy in thanksgiving for having defeated the French on the fourteenth of June, and the French offer up prayers through the same Catholic clergy for having
defeated the Spanish on the fourteenth of June."

"yesterday a deserted was flogged to death, and a priest, a servant of that same law of love and forgiveness, gave him the cross to kiss before the execution."

"He experienced the unfortunate ability of many people, especially Russians--the ability to see and believe in the possibility of goodness and truth, and to see the evil and falsehood of life too clearly to be able to
participate in it seriously."

"Drinking wine became more and more of a physical and at the same time moral need for him."

The analogy of the knot. The wine helps it become less terrifying and feel that it can "disentangle it".

Connection to the idleness of Nikolai with his regiment in Part 4: "Sometimes Pierre remembered stories he had heard about how soldiers at war, taking cover under enemy fire, when there is nothing to do, try to
find some occupation for themselves so as to endure the danger more easily."

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 *):

Pierre

Prince Andrei

Natasha

Iosiph Alekseyevitch (also "Benefactor". Garnett also adds "the old freemason".)

Countess Elena Vasilyevna (also "wife")

Napoleon Bonaparte

Apollon Nikolayevitch ("....Nikolayevich" in Briggs, Dunnigan, and Edmonds. "....Nikolaevich" in Mandelker and Weiner. Bell cuts the name and just uses “a friend”.)

Emperor Franz

Emperor Franz's daughter (who will be Napoleon's wife)

(Pierre's acquaintances and brethren are referenced in general. Different people in Moscow are also mentioned in general, as are different Moscow women and girls, also the deserter who was flogged to death
and the priest that blessed it. Pierre's valet is also referenced.)

Abridged Versions: Start of Part Fifth in Dole.

Start of Part Five in Edmonds, Briggs, Mandelker, and Dunnigan.

Start of Book Eight in Maude.  

Start of Part Eight in Garnett. Start of Part the Eighth in Weiner. Chapter 15 in Bell.
Gibian: Start of Book Eight: 1811-1812.

Fuller: Entire Chapter is cut.

Komroff: Start of Book Eight: 1811-1812. The chapter ends a little early at “But that later on never came” but the rest of the chapter is preserved. Followed by a line break.

Kropotkin: Start of 1811 Part Eighth: “In 1811 there are murmurs against Napoleon in the European courts. His prohibition of trade with England is costly to everyone, including Russia, and the Tsar countenances
the reception of British merchantmen at his ports. Napoleon is on the offensive in Spain, but cannot dislodge the British; he is harassed by Spanish and Portuguese guerrillas; the expense of the war is weakening
him, and as he loses in strength, the European nations gain courage to oppose him. Russia is apprehensive of Napoleon’s continuing encroachments, particularly opposing French annexation of the Duchy of
Oldenburg, domain of the Tsar’s uncle. Napoleon is resentful of Russia’s trade with Britain.”

Chapter is preserved.

Bromfield: Chapter 7: Emphasis that Pierre is not jealous and no mention that Iosiph Alekseyevitch, though his distaste for freemasonry is mentioned. Mention of him wanting to drink the rum on the window-ledge
in the talk of what he had wanted to accomplish. More of an explicit contrast between Pierre and Andrei’s philosophies, reminding the reader of the how they viewed life in their conversation. When Pierre is thinking
about the absurd contradictions of the world, he mentions Bolkonsky’s treatment of his daughter, Speransky’s exile, and “Lord Pitt talks about grain, but it’s not what he thinks.” He doesn’t mention the contradiction
of the church blessing the execution or the religious battles (but he does mention the Masons infighting). The chapter continues after “that terrible it”, with some of the information about how he is viewed in society
that comes earlier in the chapter in the latter version but also he has “rhyming verse competitions with V.L. Pushkin and P.I. Kutuzov”. Also an explicit mention of his renewing of friendship with Dolokhov and Anatole,
which just doesn’t happen in the latter version.
Simmons: Start of 1811-1812: chapter is shortened by removing the description of the different sections of Moscow and Pierre's place in society. Pierre's reflection on how men had grown old in his situation is removed.

Additional Notes: Maude: “Napoleon turned his attentions to the Archduchess Marie-Louise, the eighteen-year-old daughter of the Austrian emperor. They married in March 1810 and the following year Marie-Louise
gave birth to a son, Francois-Charles-Joseph to whom Napoleon gave the title ‘King of Rome’.

Garnett: “The battle of Medina del Rio Seco, on July 14, 1808, ended in an overwhelming victory for the French. Tolstoy erroneously refers to this battle as having taken place on June 14.”

“The similie comparing Piere’s embrace of the traditional Russian way of life with an old dressing gown recalls Ivan Goncharov’s Oblomov, hero of the 1858 novel of the same name.”

Anna Karenina (Pevear and Volokhonsky): "he no longer had the intellectual work that formerly had taken up the greater part of his time. Sergei Ivanovich was intelligent, educated, healthy, energetic and did not

know where to apply his energy. Conversations in drawing rooms, conferences, meetings, committees, wherever one could talk, took up part of his time; but as an inveterate city-dweller, he did not allow himself

to be totally consumed by talking, as his inexperienced brother did when he was in Moscow; he was still left with considerable leisure and mental force."

Raeff (page 160): "The ritual aspect of Masonry appealed to a service nobility that, without the traditions of feudalism or chivalry, was eager to create its own aristocratic code of behavior and set of values.

Infatuation with the ceremonial aspect no doubt led to the establishment of lodges of a purely social character, dedicated to entertainment and good living. This was frequently the case in the capitals and

residences of the idle and wealthy nobility, for whom the lodges served the same purpose that fraternities and clubs had on the campus of socially select English and American universities. There is no

question that in Russia this type of lodge merely served as a screen to corruption, debauchery, and vice."

What is Religion and of What Does Its Essence Consist: Page 114: “What is it the Turkish sultan guards, and what does he cling on to above all else? Why on entering a town does the Russian emperor first

of all kiss the icons and relics? And why, despite all the lustre of culture he so effects, and regardless of whether it si opportune, does the German emperor speak of God, Christ, the sanctity of religion, and

oaths, etc. in all of his speeches? It is because they all know that their power rests on the army, and the possibility of an army existing at all rests on religion. If wealthy people happen to be particularly religious

and pretend to be believers, going to Church and observing the sabbath, they do all this on the whole because their instinct for self-preservation warns them that their exclusive and privileged position in society

is bound to the religion they profess.”