Briggs: In Petersburg Helene converts to Catholicism and plans remarriage.
Maude (chapters 6-7): Helene in Petersburg. Conversion to Catholicism and plans for remarriage
Pevear and Volokhonsky (chapters 6-7): Helene in Petersburg. Two suitors. Her conversion to Catholicism. The question of remarriage. Bilibin's views. She writes to Pierre.
Translation:
VI.
Elen, returning together with the court from Vilna to Petersburg, was found in a difficult position.
In Petersburg Elen enjoyed the special patronage of a noble, occupying one of the higher posts in the state. At Vilna she had already gotten closer with a young foreign prince. When she returned to Petersburg, the prince and grandee were both in Petersburg, both stated their right, and for Elen presented a still new in her career task: to keep their close relationship with both, not offending one.
That what would seem hard and even impossible for another woman, the not once made to get deep into thoughts Countess Bezuhova not for nothing was seen to enjoy a reputation as the smartest woman. If she would have begun to hide her actions, getting out cunningly from the awkward situation, she would by this ruin her business, realizing herself guilty; but Elen, the opposite, right away, as a truly great person, which may do all that what she wants to, placed herself in the position of rightness, in which she sincerely believed, but all others in the position of guilty.
At the first time as the young, foreign face allowed himself to make to her reproaches, she, proudly holding up her beautiful head and in a half turn to him, firmly said:
— That egoism and cruelty of men! I awaited nothing better. A woman brings herself in sacrifice to you; she suffers, and that is her reward. Your highness, what have you the right to require from my report in my affections and astounded feelings? These people, formerly more than a father.737
The face wanted to say something. Elen interrupted him. — Well yes, maybe,— she said, — the feeling, which he nourishes to me, is not totally paternal; but after all from this I should not refuse him from my home. I am not a man, so that to pay in ingratitude. And will be known your highness, in what my sincere feelings I give back to report only God and my conscience,738 — she finished, touching her hand to her highly ascended beautiful breast and looking at the sky.
— But listen to me, for God.
— Marry me, and I will do your work.
— But this is impossible.
— You do not honor to descend into marriage with me, you...739 — cryingly, said Elen.
The face began to comfort her; Elen again through tears said (as he would forget), that nothing may interfere her to exit to get married, that there are examples (then still were little examples, but she called Napoleon and other high persons), that she was never a wife to her husband, that she was brought as a victim.
— But laws, religion... — now handed over, said the face.
— Laws, religion...in what would they were invented, if they could not do this! — said Elen.
The major face was surprised by that how such a simple reasoning could not come to his head, and turned for advice to the saints of the brothers of the society of Jesus, with which found out loved ones and relations.
In a few days after this, at one of the charming holidays, which gave Elen, at their country house at stone island, she was presented the middle-aged, with white as snow hair and black, brilliant eyes, charming Mr Jober, a Jesuit in short dress,740 which for long in the garden, in the world of illumination and in the sounds of music, conversed with Elen about love to God, to Christ, to the heart of God’s mother and about the consolations delivered in this and in the future life united in the true, Catholic religion. Elen was touched, and a few times in her and in m-r Jobert’s eyes were standing tears and trembling voices. The dance, at which an admirer came to call Elen, upsetting her conversation with her future; guardian of conscience,741 but on the next day m-r de Jobert came one night to Elen, and from this time often began to visit her.
One day he drove to the countess at the Catholic temple, where she became on her knees before the altar, to which was summed up. The middle-aged, charming Frenchman placed her head in his hand and, as she herself then told, she felt something in a kind of breath of fresh wind, which got off in her soul. To her it was explained that this was grace.742
Then to her was brought an abbot in a long dress,743 he confessed her and let her go of her sins. On the next day to her was brought a box, in which was the sacrament, and left in her home for use. After several days Elen, to his pleasure, recognized that she now marched in the true, Catholic church, and that on the next day the Pope himself recognized her and sent her some paper.
All, that was done for this time around her and with her, all this attention, addressed to her so many smart people expressed in these pleasant, sophisticated ways, and the deeper purity at which she was now found (she carried all this time white dresses with white ribbons), all this delivered her pleasure; but from behind this pleasure she in the moment did not miss her goals. And as it always is that in the case of the tricks of a daft person spends more smart, she, realizing that the objective of all these words and hassle consisted predominantly in so that, turning her to Catholicism, taking from her money in favor of various Jesuits (about to her made hints), Elen, before giving money, insisted so that above her were performed those various operations which would free her from her husband. To her were understandable the matters of every religion consisting only so that the satisfaction of human desires complies with famous decency. And with this purpose she, in one of her conversations with the confessor strongly demanded from him an answer to the question about in which the least of her marriage connects her.
They were sitting in the living room at the window. It was dusk. From the window it smelled of flowers. Elen was in a white dress, translucent at her breast and shoulders. The abbot, well fattened, with a chubby, smoothly shaved beard, an enjoyable strong mouth and white hands, stacked meekly on his lap, sat close to Elen, and with a subtle smile on his lips, peacefully admired her beautiful look, watching her face occasionally, and expounded to her his look to the occupied question. Elen, anxiously smiling, saw his curly hair, smoothly shaved, blackened full cheeks and at all moments were waiting for a new turnover in conversation. Although the abbot was obviously enjoying the beauty of his interlocutor, he was carried away by the mastery of his affairs.
The move of the reasoning chief conscience was next. In the ignorance of the meanings that you undertook, you gave the vow of marital allegiance to a person, which with their parties, marched into marriage not believing in the religious matters of marriage, committed blasphemy. This marriage did not have the twofold meanings which it should have. Yet despite that vow he tied you. You retreated from him. What did you accomplish by this? Venial sin or mortal sin?744 Péché veniel (venial sin), because of how you without evil intent accomplished the act. Should you now, with the purpose to have children, would march in a new marriage, that sin of yours could be forgiven. Yet the question again breaks up in two: first...
— Yet I think, — said the suddenly bored Elen, with her charming smile, — that I, marching in the true religion, cannot be tied by that what was imposed in me by a false religion.
The guardian of conscience745 was amazed by this decree before him with such the simplicity of Columbov eggs. He was delighted at the unexpected speed of the success of his teaching, but could not refuse from their mental labors, building the argument.
— We will analyze the business, countess,746 — he said with a smile and began to refute the reasoning of his spiritual daughter.
737 Voilà l’égoisme et la cruauté des hommes! Je ne m’attendais pas à autre chose. La femme se sacrifie pour vous, elle souffre, et voilà sa récompense. Quel droit avez vous, Monseigneur, de me demander compte de mes amitiés, de mes affections? d’est un homme qui a été plus qu’un père pour moi. (Here is the egoism and cruelty of men! I did not expect anything else. The woman sacrifices herself for you, she suffers, and here is her reward. What right have you, My lord, to ask me to account for my friendships, my affections? is a man who has been more than a father to me.)
738 Eh bien, oui, peut être qu’il a pour moi d’autres sentiments que ceux d’un père, mais ce n’est pas une raison pour que je lui ferme ma porte. Je ne suis pas un homme pour être ingrate. Sachez, Monseigneur, pour tout ce qui a rapport à mes sentiments intimes, je ne rends compte qu’à Dieu et à ma conscience, (Well, yeah, maybe he has more feelings for me than a father, but that is no reason for me to close my door to him. I am not a man to be ungrateful. Know, My lord, for all that relates to my intimate feelings, I only give an account to God and to my conscience,)
739 — Mais écoutez moi, au nom de Dieu.
— Epousez moi, et je serai votre esclave.
— Mais c’est impossible.
— Vous ne daignez pas descendre jusqu’à moi, vous...
(-But listen to me, in the name of God.
- Marry me, and I will be your slave.
- But it's impossible.
- You don't deign to descend to me, you...)
740 m-r de Jobert, un Jésuite à robe courte, (Mr. de Jobert, a Jesuit in a short robe,)
741 directeur de conscience (director of conscience)
742 la grâce. (grace.)
743 à robe longue, (long dress,)
744 Péché veniel or péché mortel? (Veniel sin or mortal sin?)
745 Directeur de conscience (director of conscience)
746 Entendons nous, comtesse, (Listen, countess,)
Time: undefined, a few days later, the following day, evening, one day
Mentioned: a few days
Locations: St. Petersburg, Stone Island (Kamenny Island in Pevear and Volokhonsky)
Mentioned: Vilna, French
Pevear and Volokhonsky Notes: We flip to Helene, who finds "herself in a difficult situation." She tries to maintain a relationship with two different men but is able to make this situation work for her by believing sincerely that she is in the right and others are in the wrong. She eventually has a relationship with a M.Jobert (who is repeatedly called "not-too-young") who converts her to Catholicism.
"To her mind, the meaning of any religion consisted only in observing certain decencies while satisfying human desires."
She uses the religion to get out of her marriage to Pierre in a comical scene that paints the character of her "spiritual advisor".
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 *):
Countess Ellen Bezukhaya
Napoleon
Pierre (only "her husband")
M. de Jobert (Bell spells out "Monseiur". Also her "directeur de conscience".)
Abridged Versions: Start of Chapter 11 in Bell.
Gibian: Chapter 5: line break instead of chapter break.
Fuller: Entire chapter is cut.
Komroff: Chapter is preserved and followed by a line break.
Kropotkin: Chapter 2: Chapter is preserved.
Bromfield: No apparent corresponding chapter.
Simmons: Chapter 5: entire chapter is cut and replaced with "An old grandee, occupying one of the highest posts in the Empire, and a young foreign prince vie with each other for Helene's favors. She decides to marry one of them and to this end allows herself to be converted to Catholicism in order to obtain a dispensation from the Pope annulling her marriage. In August she sends a letter to Pierre asking him to carry out the formalities necessary for a divorce."
Additional Notes: Maude: "a box containing the Sacred Host: leaving a box of concentrated hosts for an individual to take at their convenience is not, and never was, a typical practice for any order of the Roman Catholic Church. Until the last three decades of the twentieth century communion wafers could be handled only by a priest, and would be placed on the tongue of the communicant only during Mass or the last rites. There was, however, a practice of reserving hosts in a tabernacle in the private chapels of the wealthy families of Europe for purposes of veneration and private Masses."
"The Jesuit spiritual director in Tolstoy's satirical account is more interested in theological hair-splitting or in impressing his new convert than in correct catechesis"
Troyat/Pinkham: Page 237-238: “Since numerous cases of conversion to Catholicism had been observed in high society, the Jesuits were driven out of St. Petersburg and sent to Polotsk.”
Anna Karenina (Pevear and Volokhonsky): "The theological works of Khomiakov (endnote: "A.S. Khomiakov (1804-60), religious philosopher and poet, an important representative of the Slavophile movement, wrote about the Byzantine origin of Russian history.")...He (Levin) was struck first by the thought that it is not given to man to comprehend divine truths, but it is given to an aggregate of men united by love - the Church. He rejoiced at the thought of how much easier it was to believe in the presently existing, living Church, which constitutes the entire faith of men, which has God at its head and is therefore holy and infallible, and from it to receive one's beliefs about God, creation, the fall, redemption, than to begin with God, the distant, mysterious God, creation, and so on. But later, having read a history of the Church by a Catholic writer and a history of the Church by an Orthodox writer, and seeing that the two Churches, infallible in their essence, rejected each other, he became disappointed in Khomiakov's teaching about the Church as well, and this edifice fell to dust just as the philosophical edifices had done."
Johnson: Page 80: “if a Russian princess married Bonaparte, she would be forced to abjure Orthodoxy and embrace Catholicism. That might stir up the czar’s Catholic subjects in Poland”
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