Book 2 Part 5 Chapter 5 (Chapter 147 overall)

Chapter Summaries: Dole: Boris in Moscow. The Karagins. Julie Karagina's character. Capping verses. Boris's sentimentality. The colossal estates turn the scale. Julie's diplomacy. Boris proposes to Julie.
Briggs: Boris empathizes with Julie in her 'melancholy'. His proposal is accepted.
Maude: Boris and Julie. Their melancholy. Boris proposes and is accepted
Pevear and Volkhonsky: Boris proposes to Julie.

Translation:

V.

Marriage to a rich bride in Petersburg failed Boris and he with this same purpose had arrived in Moscow. In Moscow Boris was found in indecision between two very rich brides— Juli and Princess Marya. Although Princess Marya, despite her ugliness, seemed to him more attractive than Juli, for some reason it was awkward for him to look at Bolkonskaya. In his last appointment with her, at the name day of the old prince, in all his attempts to begin talking with her about his feelings, she answered him out of place and obviously did not listen to him.

Juli was the opposite, although in her special, peculiar way, willingly accepting his courting.

Juli was 27 years-old. After the death of her brothers, she had become extremely rich. She was now completely ugly; but thought that she not only was so the same good, but still much more attractive than she was before. In this delusion she was supported by how first she had become a very rich bride, but second that the older she became, by that she was safer for men, by that freer were men to handle her and, not taking on themselves any obligation, use her for dinners, evenings and busy society gathered at her. A man, which nine years backwards was afraid to ride every day at a house where there was a 17 year-old young lady, so that not to compromise her and bundle up himself, now drove to her boldly every day and approached her not as with a young lady and bride, but as with a familiar, not having sex.

The house of the Karagins was in this winter in Moscow a very enjoyable and hospitable house. Besides called evenings and dinners, every day at the Karagins was going a great society, in particular of men, dining at the 12th hour of the night and lingering to the 3rd hour. There was not a ball, walk, or theatre, which would omit Juli. Her toilette was always the most fashionable. Yet, despite this, Juli seemed disappointed to all, saying to everyone that she did not believe in friendship, in love, or in the joys of life, and awaited reassurance only there. She learned herself the tone of girls, carrying great disappointment, girls, as if losing their favorite man or were cruelly deceived by them. Although nothing like that with her had happened, on her was a look, as if such had, and she even believed that she had much suffered in life. This melancholy, not interfering with her having fun, did not hinder the arriving at her young people from nicely spending their time. Every guest, coming by her, gave back their duty to the melancholic mood of the mistress and then occupied with worldly conversations, dancing, mental games, and tournaments of rhyming games, which were in fashion at the Karagins. Only some young people, in the number of which was Boris, more deepened in the melancholic mood than Juli, and with these young people she had more long and solitary conversations about the vain and mundane, and they opened their albums, inscribed sad images, sayings and poems.

Juli was especially affectionate to Boris: pitied about his early disappointment in life, offered him that consolation of friendship which she could propose, herself so much suffering in life, and opened to him her album. Boris painted in her album two woods and wrote: Rural woods, your dark twigs shake off my gloom and melancholy.528

In another location he painted a tomb and wrote:

Death saving and death calm;

Oh! Against misery there is no other asylum.529

Juli said that this was lovely.

— There is something infinitely charming in the smile of melancholy,530 — she told Boris word for word written from this place of the book.

— This beam light in shadows, a shade between sadness and despair which indicates the opportunity of consolation.531

On this Boris wrote her poems:

Poisonous food for too sensitive a soul,

you, without which happiness would for me be impossible,

tender melancholy, oh, come to console me,

come, calm the torment of my gloomy solitude

and annex the secret sweet treat

by these tears which I feel during.532

Juli played Boris on the harp the saddest nocturnes. Boris was reading to her out loud Poor Lise and not a time interrupted his reading from excitement, exciting his breathing. Meeting in big society, Juli and Boris looked at each other as at the only people in the world indifferent, understanding one another.

Anna Mihaylovna, often traveling to the Karagins, formed a party with the mother, and between that directed a faithful reference about what would be given back for Juli (given back were both the Penza estates and the Nizhny Novgorod forest). Anna Mihaylovna, with dedication of will, providence, and affection, watched on the sophisticated sadness which tied her son with the rich Juli.

— All so the same lovely and melancholic, our pretty Juli,533 — she said of the daughter. — Boris says that he has a resting soul in your house. He has so many carried disappointments and is so sensitive, — she said to the mother.

— Ah, my friend, how I have gotten attached to Juli in the latter time, — she said to her son, — you cannot describe! Yes, and who may not love her? This is such an unearthly being! Ah, Boris, Boris! — she fell silent in a moment. — And how I pity her maman (mama), — she continued, — now she showed me reports and letters from Penza (at their huge estate) and she is poor all alone herself: she is so deceived!

Boris a little bit noticeably smiled, listening to his mother. He meekly laughed above her ingenuous cunning, but listened and sometimes asked her carefully about the Penza and Nizhny Novgorod estates.

Juli now for a long time awaited a proposal from her melancholic adorer and was ready to accept him; but some secret sense of disgust to her, and to her passionate wish to exit to get married, to her unnaturalness, and a sense of horror before the abdication of an opportunity of present love still stopped Boris. His term of holiday was now finished. The whole day and every single day he spent at the Karagins, and every day, reasoning  with myself, Boris spoke to himself that tomorrow he will make a proposal. Yet in the presence of Juli, looking at her red face and chin, almost always showered in powder, at her wet eyes and at the expression of her face, expressing the usual readiness from melancholy immediately and already to cross to the unnatural delight of conjugal happiness, Boris could not say the decisive words; despite that, he already for a long time in his imagination counted himself the owner of the Penza and Nizhny Novgorod estates and distributed use with their income. Juli saw the hesitation of Boris and sometimes to her came the idea that she was disgusting to him; but immediately again the female self-delusion presented her comfort, and she said to herself that he was shy only from love. Her melancholy however began to go over into irritability, and not long before the departure of Boris, she took a resolute plan. In that very time, as finished the term of holiday for Boris, in Moscow and, himself of course being in the living room of the Karagins, appeared Anatole Kuragin, and Juli, suddenly leaving melancholy, had become very fun and attentive to Kuragin.

— My dear,— said Anna Mihaylovna to her son, — I know from faithful sources that Prince Vasiliy sends his son so that to marry him to Juli.534 I so love Juli that it would pity me and her. How do you think, my friend? — said Anna Mihaylovna.

The idea of staying foolish and for nothing lose all this month of heavy melancholic service at Juli’s and seeing all painted now and used as it should be by his imagination the income from the Penza estates in the hands of another — in particular in the hands of the stupid Anatole, insulted Boris. He went to the Karagins with a solid intention to make a proposal. Juli met him with a fun and carefree look, carelessly told about how funny she was at yesterday’s ball, and asked when he would ride. Despite that Boris had arrived with the intention to speak about his love and because of it contemplated being gentle, he irritably started to speak about female impermanence: about how a woman easily may go over from sadness to joy and how their location of spirit depends only on those who they care for. Juli was offended and said that this really is that a woman needs variety, that all one and the same bother each.

— For this I would advise you... — was starting Boris, wishing to say a jab to her; but at that same moment to him had come an offensive idea that he may leave from Moscow, not having reached his goals and for nothing having lost his proceedings (what with him had never happened). He stopped in the middle of his speech, lowered his eyes so that to not see her unpleasant, annoyed and indecisive face and said: — I am really not with you, so that to argue with you. The opposite... — he looked at her, so to make sure, whether or not he could continue. All her irritation suddenly disappeared, and her anxiously, asking eyes were with greed waiting and directed at him. "I always can settle down so that to seldom see her," thought Boris. "But the business began and must be done!" he flared up blushing, raised to her eyes and said to her: — You know my feelings to you! — to speak more was not needed: the face of Juli shone with triumph and complacency; but she forced Boris to say to her everything that one says in these cases, to say that he loves her, and had never loved one woman more than her. She knew that for the Penza estates and Nizhny Novgorod forest she could require this and she received what she demanded.

The fiance with the bride, not remembering more about woods or sprinkling their gloom and melancholy, made plans about the future brilliant home in Petersburg, making a visit and prepared everything for a brilliant wedding.

528 Arbres rustiques, vos sombres rameaux secouent sur moi les ténèbres et la mélancolie. (Rustic trees, your dark twigs are shaking darkness and melancholy over me.)

529 "La mort est secourable et la mort est tranquille.

"Ah! contre les douleurs il n’y a pas d’autre asile". ("Death is helpful and death is calm. "Ah! Against pain there is no other asylum.")

530 Il y a quelque chose de si ravissant dans le sourire de là mélancolie, (There is something so lovely in the smile of that melancholy,)

531 C’est un rayon de lumière dans l’ombre, une nuance entre la douleur et le désespoir, qui montre la consolation possible. (It's a ray of light in the shadow, a nuance between pain and despair, which shows the possible consolation.)

532 "Aliment de poison d’une âme trop sensible,

"Toi, sans qui le bonheur me serait impossible,

"Tendre mélancolie, ah, viens me consoler,

"Viens calmer les tourments de ma sombre retraite

"Et mêle une douceur secrète

"A ces pleurs, que je sens couler". 

("Poisonous food of a too sensitive soul,

"You, without whom happiness for me would be impossible,

"Tender melancholy, ah, come to console me,

"Come calm the torments of my dark retreat

"And mixes a secret sweetness

"To these tears, which I feel flowing".)

533 Toujours charmante et mélancolique, cette chère Julie, (Always charming and melancholy, this dear Julie,)

534 Mon cher, je sais de bonne source que le Prince Basile envoie son fils à Moscou pour lui faire épouser Julie. (My dear, I know from a good source that Prince Basil is sending his son to Moscow to have him marry Julie.)

Time: undefined.
Mentioned: the name day of the prince, winter, midnight, three o'clock, to-day

Locations: Moscow, house of the Karagins
Mentioned: St. Petersburg, Penza estates, Nizhni-Novgorod forests (no hyphen in Pevear and Volkhonsky or Dunnigan. Nizhny Novgorod in Briggs. Nizhegorod in Maude and Mandelker. Nizhnigorod in Garnett.)

Pevear and Volokhonsky Notes: Switch to Boris' point of view, confirming Pierre's suspicions that he is there to marry either Julie or Marya. At 27, Julie "was by now utterly plain", but doesn't realize it, again confirming Tolstoy's obvious belief that women are only really attractive when they are very young. The way age affects how people treat women is interesting and comes back to chapter 1 of the novel and Pavlovna's thoughts about being "an old maid".

"Julie seemed disappointed in everything, said to everyone that she believed neither in friendship, nor in love, nor in any of the joys of life, and expected peace only there. She adopted the tone of a girl who has lived through
a great disappointment, a girl who, as it were, has lost a beloved man or been cruelly deceived by him. Though none of it had happened to her..."

Boris and Julie's French verses to each other occupy a lot of space.

Boris reads Poor Liza, note: "A novel by the Russian writer and historian Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin (1766-1826), published in 1792. It marked the shift in Russian literature from classicism to "sensibility."'

Boris keeps resolving to propose to her and have her estates and money. However, he can't or doesn't do it and Anatole walks into the picture. Boris eventually proposes:

"She made Boris say everything that is said on such occasions, that he loved her and had never loved any woman more than her. She knew she could demand that in exchange for the Penza estates and the Nizhni Novgorod
woodlands, and she got what she demanded."

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 *):

Boris

Julie Karagina (her brothers are referenced and undifferentiated.)

Marya Lvovna Karagin (just “Julie’s mother”)

Princess Mariya (also “Bolkonsky’s daughter”)

Prince Nikolai (“old prince”)

Anna Mikhailovna

Anatol Kurgain

Prince Vasili

Abridged Versions: Chapter 17 in Bell.
Gibian: Chapter 5

Fuller: Entire Chapter is cut.

Komroff: All of the poems and songs are cut. However, the rest of the chapter is preserved and followed by a line break.

Kropotkin: Chapter 3: All the poems and songs are removed, but rest of chapter is preserved.

Bromfield: Chapter 10: Julie is the daughter of Marya Dmitrievna, who has lost her sons and is ready to get rid of Julie. The courting and the poetry of Julie and Boris is severely shortened. Natasha still considered Boris
“her property” and is annoyed by the proposal. Boris’s delay and berating of her before he proposes, as well as the conversations with his mother, is not here.
Simmons: Chapter 5: cut and replaced with "Boris, though he prefers the heiress Princess Mary, who is uninterested, woos her friend, the rich and unattractive Julie Karagina, prompted by his doting mother. His hesitancy
because of her repulsiveness is cured by Anatole Kuragin's suit. Boris proposes and is joyfully accepted."

Additional Notes: Mandelker: (Poor Liza): “It describes the misfortunes of a peasant girl who falls in love with a nobleman, is abandoned by him, and drowns herself in a pond”.

The Peasant in Literature by Donald Fanger Page 239: “‘Poor Liza” (and the vogue it inspired) did soften the hearts of readers--for what that may have been worth. A whole generation was moved to exclaim with Karamzin:

“Ah, I love those objects which move my heart and force me to shed tears of tender grief.” (As late as 1876 an edition of 12,000 copies was printed.)”

Komroff: He never surprises you. All his characters are recognizable, most of them are normal. Even his villain, Anatole Kuragin, seems merely an impetuous fool compared to the monsters of labyrinthine viciousness that

our Southern novelists can create with a touch of the pen. He isn’t even a good story-teller, if by a good story-teller one means a master of suspense. You do not read War and Peace in order to see “how it comes out”, any

more than you live your life in order to see how it will end…

The Devil (Maude): "she did not feel much anxiety about Eugene's position, because she was confident that he would make a brilliant marriage which would put everything right and he could make a very brilliant marriage:

she knew a dozen families who would be glad to give their daughters to him. And she wished to arrange the matter as soon as possible."