Book 2 Part 5 Chapter 22 (Chapter 164 overall)

Chapter Summaries: Dole: Pierre delivers Prince Andrei's message. Pierre's outburst of frankness. The comet of 1812.
Briggs: Pierre assures Natasha of his devotion. The great comet of 1812.
Maude: Pierre and Natasha. He tells her of his devotion. The great comet of 1812
Pevear and Volokhonsky: Pierre takes the packet to Marya Dmitrievna. Natasha asks to see him. Consolations and confessions. Pierre's joy. The comet of 1812.

Translation:

XXII. On this same night, Pierre went to the Rostovs, so to perform his commission. Natasha was in bed, the count was at the club, and Pierre, delivering the letters to Sonya, went to Marya Dmitrievna, who was interested in knowing about how Prince Andrey accepted the news. In nine minutes Sonya entered to Marya Dmitrievna. — Natasha indispensably wants to see Count Peter Kirillovich, — she said. — And how again, whether to her you lead? In there you are not tidied up, — said Marya Dmitrievna. — No, she is dressed and exited into the living room, — said Sonya. Marya Dmitrievna only shook her shoulders. — When the countess comes, it will torture me really. You look the same, do not talk to her alone, — she turned to Pierre. — And scolding her spirit is not enough, so pathetic, so pathetic! Natasha, emaciated, with a pale and strict face (really not ashamed, which Pierre saw) stood by the middle of the living room. When Pierre appeared at the door, she hurried, obviously in indecision as to whether to come to him or to wait for him. Pierre hastily came up to her. He thought that she to him, as always, would serve her hand; but she, closely coming up to him, stopped, heavily breathing and lifelessly lowering her hand, completely in that same pose, in which she exited to the middle of halls, so that to sing, but really with another expression. — Petr Kirilych, — she began speaking fast, — Prince Bolkonsky was your friend, and he is your friend, — she mended (to her it seemed that all only was, and that now all is another). — he spoke to me to turn to you... Pierre silently sniffed his nose, looking at her. He before still in his soul reproached and tried to despise her; but now he was so made to pity her that in his soul were not places of reproach. — He is now here, say to him... for him to forg... forgive me. — she stopped and still more often began to breathe, but did not cry. — Yes... I said to him, — spoke Pierre, — but.. — he did not know what to say. Natasha apparently was scared by that thought which would come to Pierre. — No, I know that all is over, — she said hastily. — No, this may never be. I am tormented only by the evil which I did to him. Say only to him that I beg him to forgive, to forgive, to forgive me for all... — she shook all her body and sat in a chair. A still never tested sense of pity overwhelmed the soul of Pierre. — I told him, I all still a time will say to him, — said Pierre; — but... I would desire to know one... "What’s to know?" asked the look of Natasha. — I would desire to know, whether you loved... — Pierre did not know how to call Anatole and was red at the thought about him, — whether you loved this evil man? — Do not call him bad, — said Natasha. — but I do not — I know nothing... — she again cried. And still more the sense of pity, tenderness and love overcame Pierre. He heard as under his glasses flowed tears and hoped that she did not notice. — I will not speak more, my friend, — said Pierre. So weird suddenly for Natasha seemed this gentle, tender, and sincere voice of his. — I will not speak, my friend, I will say all to him; but about one thing I beg you — count me as your friend, and if you need help, advice, or simply need to pour out your soul to someone — not now, but when in you is a clear will and soul — remember about me. — He took and kissed her hand. — I will be happy, if in this condition you will... — Pierre was embarrassed. — Do not speak with me so: I will not stand this! — cried out Natasha and she wanted to leave from the room, but Pierre kept her behind the arm. He knew that he needed to still say something to her. Yet when he said this, he was surprised by the words themselves. — Stop, stop, all life is ahead of you, — he said to her. — For me? No! For me all disappeared, — she said with shame and self-deprecation. — All disappeared? — he repeated. — If I was not I, but the most beautiful, smartest and best person in the world, and I was free, I would this moment on a knee request your hand and love. Natasha for the first time after many days cried in tears of thanks and affection and looking at Pierre exited from the room. Pierre also following behind her almost ran out into the hall, holding tears of affection and happiness, crushing his throat, not getting into the sleeves in the allotment of the fur coat and sat down on the sleigh. — Now where do you order? — asked the coachman. "Where?" asked Pierre to himself. "Where again can I go now? Is it really in the club or to visitors?" All people seemed so pathetic, so poor in comparison with that feeling of affection and love which he felt, and in comparison with that softened, grateful look, which she the last time from behind tears looked at him. — Home, — said Pierre, despite the nine degrees frost throwing open the bearish fur coat on his wide, happily breathing breast. It was frosty and clear. Above the dirty, semi-dark street, above black roofs stood a dark, starry sky. Pierre, only looking at the sky, did not feel the offensive baseness of the only earthly in comparison with the highness in which was found in his soul. At the entrance to the Arbat area, a huge space of starry dark sky opened the eyes of Pierre. Almost in the middle of this sky above Prechistensky Boulevard, surrounded by the sprinkled with all parties of stars, but distinguished from all by the proximity to land, a white light with a long, raised up tail, stood the huge bright comet of the year 1812, that comet itself, which foreshadowed, as was said, all sorts of horrors and the end of the world. Yet in Pierre this bright star with the long radiant tail did not excite a scary feeling. Oppositely, Pierre was happy, wet from tears in his eyes, watching this bright star, which, as if, with inexpressible speed flying through immeasurable space by parabolic lines, suddenly, as a pierced arrow on land, slapped here to another selected by it place in the black sky, and stopped, vigorously holding up its tail, shining and playing its white light between the countless other, shimmering stars. To Pierre it seemed that this star quite answered to that what was in his blossoming to new life, softened and encouraged soul.
Time: that evening, ten minutes later
Mentioned: 1812

Locations: Marya Dmitrievna's, Arbat Square
Mentioned: the club, Pierre's home, Prechistenski Boulevard (Prechistensky... in Briggs, Dunnigan, and Garnett. Prechistenka... in Mandelker)

Pevear and Volokhonsky Notes: "Natasha, wasted, with a pale and stern face (not at all shamefaced as Pierre expected her to be)"

Pierre and Natasha's conversation, with the most important lines being: "If I were not I, but the handsomest, brightest, and best man in the world, and I was free, I would go on my knees this minute and ask for your hand and
your love."

After Pierre leaves: "All people seemed so pitiful, so poor in comparison with the feeling of tenderness and love he experienced, in comparison with that softened, grateful glance she had given him at the last moment through
her tears."

He sees the comet of the year 1812, "that same comet which presaged, as they said, all sorts of horrors and the end of the world....It seemed to Pierre that this star answered fully to what was in his softened and encouraged
soul, now blossoming into new life."

End of Volume II.

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 (also “Count Piotr Kirillovitch”)

Natasha

Count Rostof (“count”)

Sonya

Marya Dmitrievna

Prince Andrei Bolkonsky

Countess Rostova (“countess”)

Anatol

Abridged Versions: End of Volume 2 in Dole and Briggs.

End of Book 2 in Edmonds, Mandelker, and Dunnigan.

End of Book 8 in Maude

End of Part 8 in Garnett.

End of Volume 2 of War and Peace and Volume 6 of The Complete Works of Count Tolstoy in Weiner.

End of Volume 1 (of The Invasion 1807-1812) in Bell.
Gibian: Chapter 22: end of Book Eight.

Fuller: Chapter is preserved, end of Part Six.

Komroff: Pierre and Natasha’s conversation is basically preserved, but the comet at the end of the chapter is removed. End of Book 8.

Kropotkin: Chapter 16: Chapter is preserved, end of Part Eighth.
Simmons: Chapter 22: end of Book Eight.

Edmundson: Act Three Scene 14: After Pierre leaves, instead of a comet, he sees Napoleon and tells him how leaves Natasha. There is also a bit at the end where all the characters appear on stage wounded.

Additional Notes: “comet of 1812: Discovered by Honore Flaugerues (1755-1835) on March 25, 1811, the Great Comet (or Comet Flaugerues) was visible from April 1811 to January 1812. A comet was rumored to have
been seen in the year of Napoleon’s birth (1769); the superstitious Napoleon, who attributed special significance to astronomical phenomena, went so far as to base military decisions on their sightings.”

Sofiya Andreevna Tolstaya Song Without Words

Page 197: “‘Ah! There it is, my star. All spring it’s been both delighting and annoying me. For some reason it’s just as meaningful to me as the comet was for Pierre in War and Peace,...Sasha said to herself. “Not for

anything in the world would I give up this bright, new love, from which I’ve nothing special to expect in the future but which, among the minor states of ordinary, everyday life, with its boredom, suffering, and emptiness,

shines so brightly in my soul like this bright greenish star amid the innumerable large and small stars disappearing into space, just like Pierre’s dazzling comet.”’

Nabokov: At Anna's bedside, when she is very sick after bearing Vronski's child and certain of her impending death (which, however, does not come), Karenin forgives Vronski and takes his hand with a true feeling of

Christian humility and generosity. He will change back later to his chilly unpleasant personality, but at the moment the proximity of death illumes the scene and Anna in a subconscious way loves him as much as she

loves Vronski...this feeling of sincerity and kindliness does not last long..."

Groskop: Page 24: “I can’t help feeling that Tolstoy wanted God to take his revenge on Anna Karenina (for being a dirty, filthy adulteress) but, at the same time, the human being in him (who had committed a lot of dirty,

filthy adultery himself) sees her fragility and attractiveness as a (Page 25) person and wants to forgive her. The contradictory nature of the epigraph is a clue as to why Anna Karenina is such a complicated novel and

does not deliver a clear, unambiguous message about how to live.”