Briggs: She had written under pressure from the countess.
Pevear and Volokhonsky: The circumstances behind Sonya's letter. The question of Prince Andrei's recovery. Sonya remembers fortune-telling at Otradnoe.
Translation:
VIII.
The letter of Sonya to Nikolay, arriving as an implementation of his prayers, was written from Trinity. Here is what it was caused by. The idea about the marriage of Nikolay to a rich bride all more and more occupied the old countess. She knew that Sonya was the chief obstacle for this. And the life of Sonya, in the latter time, in particular after the letter of Nikolay, describing his meeting at Bogucharovo with Princess Marya, became harder and harder in the house of the countess. The countess did not omit one case for insulting or a cruelly hinting Sonya.
Yet a few days before the departure from Moscow, touched and agitated by all that what was happening, the countess, calling on to herself Sonya, instead of reproach and requirements, with tears turned to her with a plea about for her to donate herself, would be repaying for all that was for done for her, by that, so that to tear up her communication with Nikolay.
— I will not be calm while you do not give me these promises.
Sonya burst into tears hysterically, answering through sobbing that she will do all, that she in all was ready, but did not give direct promises, and in her soul it could not be decided to that what from her was required. The need was to sacrifice herself for the happiness of the family, which nursed and educated her. Sacrificing herself for the happiness of others was the habit of Sonya. Her position in the house was such that only in the way she by sacrificing could show her virtues and she was used to and loved to sacrifice herself. Yet before, in all the actions of self-sacrifice, she with joy recognized that she, by sacrificing herself, by this elevates her price in the eyes of herself and others, and becomes more worthy of Nicolas, whom she loved more only in life; but now as a victim she should take place so to refuse from that for her formed all the reward of victims, all the meaning of life. And for the first time in her life she felt bitterness to those people which benefited her so that to more painfully torture; felt envy to Natasha, never experiencing anything like that, never was needed in victim and forcing others to sacrifice themselves, and all the same was by all beloved. And for the first time Sonya felt, how from her quiet, pure love to Nicolas suddenly began to grow out a passionate feeling, which stood higher than rules, virtues, and religion; and under the influence of this feeling, Sonya, unwittingly learning her dependent life of secrecy, in common undefined words in an answer to the countess, avoided talking with her and decided to wait for a date with Nikolay so that at this appointment not to free, but, the opposite, forever bundle him up with her.
The chores and horror of the last days of the stay of the Rostovs in Moscow drowned out in Sonya her burdened gloomy thought. She was happy to find salvation from them in practical activities. Yet when she recognized the presence in their house of Prince Andrey, despite all her sincere pity, which she tested to him and to Natasha, a joyful and superstitious feeling that God did not want so that she was torn apart with Nicolas, overcame her. She knew that Natasha loved only Prince Andrey and did not stop loving him. She knew that now brought together, in these scary conditions, they again will fall in love with each other and that then Nikolay owing to the kinship which will be between them, cannot be to marry Princess Marya. Despite all the horror only happening on the last day and in the time of the first days of travels, this feeling, this consciousness of the interference of providence in her personal affairs, pleased Sonya.
From Trinity to Lavra the Rostovs were done for the first day of their travel.
In the hotel at Lavra the Rostovs were set aside three large rooms, from which one occupied Prince Andrey. The wounded was on this day much better. Natasha sat with him. In the neighboring room were sitting the count and countess, respectfully chatting with an abbot who visited their long-standing acquaintances and depositors. Sonya sat here the same and she was tormented by curiosity about what Prince Andrey said with Natasha. She from behind the door listened to the sounds of their voices. The door of the room of Prince Andrey opened. Natasha with a thrilled face exited from there and did not notice the raising to her halfway and undertaking behind the broad sleeve of the right hand of the monk, came up to Sonya and took her behind the arm.
— Natasha, what are you? Go here, — said the countess.
Natasha came up under the blessing and the abbot advised to turn for help to God and his Pleasing.
Immediately after the withdrawal of the abbot, Natasha took behind the hand of her friend and went with her in the empty room.
— Sonya, yes? He will live? — she said. — Sonya, how happy I am and how I am unhappy! Sonya, darling, — all by old. Only would he live. He may not... because of how, because... of how... — and Natasha burst into tears.
— So! I knew this! Thank God, — spoke Sonya. — He will live!
Sonya was excited not less for her friend and her fear and grief, and their own personal, not expressing any thoughts. She sobbingly kissed, consoled Natasha. "Only would he be alive!" she thought. After crying, talking and wiping tears, both friends came up to the door of Prince Andrey. Natasha, carefully opening the door, peeked in the room. Sonya nearby with her stood at the half-open door.
Prince Andrey lied high on three pillows. His pale face was quiet, his eyes closed and it was seen how he smoothly breathed.
— Ah, Natasha! — suddenly almost cried out Sonya, clutching for the hand of her cousin and stepping back from the door.
— What? What? — asked Natasha.
— This is that, that, here... — said Sonya with a pale face and trembling lips.
Natasha quietly shut the door and walked away from Sonya to the window, not understanding still what she said.
— You remember, — with a scared and solemn face said Sonya, — remember when I behind you in the mirror watched... at Otradnoe, at Christmastide… Remember, what I saw?...
— Yes, yes! — widely revealing her eyes, said Natasha, vaguely remembering that then Sonya said something about Prince Andrey, whom she saw lying.
— Remember? — continued Sonya. — I saw then and said to all, you and Dunyasha. I saw that he lied on a bed, — she said, at each details making a gesture of his hand with a raised finger, — and that he closed his eyes, and that he was covered with a pink blanket, and that he folded up his hands, — said Sonya, convinced by least how she described the seen by her now details that the very details she saw then. Then she saw nothing but told that she saw that it came in her head; but that she thought up then, presented to her so the same valid, as all other memories. That what she then said, that he turned back to her and smiled and was covered in something red, she not only remembered, but was firmly convinced that still then she said and saw that he was covered in pink, it was a pink blanket, and that his eyes were closed.
— Yes, yes, it was pink, — said Natasha, which also now, it seemed, remembered that it was pink and in this very thing saw the main extraordinary and mysterious predictions.
— Yet what the same does this mean? — thoughtfully said Natasha.
— Ah, I do not know how all this is unusual! — said Sonya, clutching behind her head.
In a few minutes Prince Andrey called and Natasha entered to him; but Sonya, tested a seldom tested by her excitement and affection, left at the window, pondering all the extraordinary what happened.
On this day was the case to send letters to the army and the countess wrote a letter to her son.
— Sonya, — said the countess, raising his head from the letter, when the niece passed by her. — Sonya, you do not write Nikolinka? — said countess in a quiet, faltered voice, and in the glance of her tired, watched through glasses eyes, Sonya read all that understood the countess under these words. In this glance expressed supplication, fear of rejection, and shame for that what was needed to ask, and readiness to irreconcilable hatred in the case of rejection.
Sonya came up to the countess and, becoming on her knees, kissed her hand.
— I will write, maman (mama), — she said.
Sonya was softened, excited and touched by all that what was happening on this day, in particular by that mysterious perfect fortune telling, which she now saw. Now, when she knew that by the occasion of the renewal of the relationship of Natasha with Prince Andrey, Nikolay could not marry Princess Marya, she with joy felt the return of this mood of self-sacrifice, to which she loved and was used to live. And with tears in her eyes and with the joy of consciously committing a generous act, she, a few times interrupted from tears, which beguiled her velvet, black eyes, wrote that touching letter, the reception of which so struck Nikolay.
Mentioned: a few days before their departure (also last days passed by the Rostovs in Moscow), Christmas
Locations: Troitsa, Troitsa Convent (monastery in Pevear and Volokhonsky, Maude, and Garnett.)
Mentioned: Bogucharovo, Moscow, the Rostovs' house, Otradnoe
Pevear and Volokhonsky Notes: A "Here is how it came about" chapter that shows the answering of Nikolai's prayer and the circumstances surrounding Sonya's letter. The countess, tearful, and causing Sonya to be tearful, treats Sonya terribly and pressures her to free Nikolai. Sonya, who was used to sacrificing in the household and had done so in order to earn Nikolai's love, is now being asked to sacrifice his love.
Sonya has a conversation with Natasha to bring Natasha into the fray and to show the weakness of memory and how people become convinced of the truthfulness of their memories. Line break after "all the extraordinariness of what had happened."
Sonya writes the letter freeing Nikolai not because she sincerely believed what she was writing but because of a combination of the countess's pressure and because she believes that Natasha and Andrei will get married, invalidating any relationship between Marya and Nikolai.
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 *):
Sonya
Nikolai (also "Nicolas" and "Nikolenka".)
Countess Rostova ("old countess" and "maman".)
Princess Mariya
Natasha
Prince Andrei (also "the wounded man")
Count Rostof ("count")
Dunyasha
Abridged Versions: Line break after "all the strangeness of what had happened" in Dole. Line break in the same place in Wiener, Dunnigan, Edmonds, Garnett, Mandelker, Briggs, and Maude.
End of Chapter 2 in Bell.
Gibian: line break after "strangeness of what had occurred." End of Chapter 2.
Fuller: We skip the Sonya section of the chapter and pick up where the Rostovs have stopped at the monastery. The chapter then ends, with a line break, early, stopping when Natasha bursts into tears. This cuts out the greater Sonya Natasha conversation as well as the countess Sonya conversation about writing the letter to Nikolai.
Komroff: The Sonya story to Natasha, discussing the pink coverlet is removed. After Sonya agrees to write Nicholas, the reflections she has are severely shortened (most likely because some of it is information we already saw in the chapter.)
Kropotkin: Chapter 6: The Sonya story to Natasha, discussing the pink coverlet is removed.
Bromfield: No corresponding chapter.
Simmons: most of Natasha and Sonya's conversation is removed. Line break after "'He will live.'" End of chapter 2.
Additional Notes:
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