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Nightman
" A wise man once said, forgiveness is divine but never pay full price for a late pizza. "
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Post by Nightman on Apr 25, 2017 5:19:03 GMT
Kutuzov orders retreat through Moscow Battle of Tarutino
Battle of Malo-Yaroslavets Cossacks harry the French at Vyazma t SmoMnik
H
and 20
Oct. 24 Nov. 2 Nov. 9- Nov. 14
Nov. i6-2oBattles at Krasnoe Nov. 21 Ney, with rearguard, reaches Orsh i6Nov. 26-28 Crossing of the Berezina
Dec. 5 Napoleon abandons the army at Smorg6ni Dec. 18 He reaches Paris
XVI
Book One: 1805
CHAPTER I
WELL, PRINCE, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Buonapartes. But I warn you, if you don't tell me that this means war, if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by that Antichrist I real- ly believe he is Antichrist I will have nothing more to do with you and you are no longer my friend, no longer my 'faithful slave,' as you call yourself! But how do you do? I see I have frightened you sit down and tell me all the news."
It was in July, 1805, and the speaker was the well-known Anna Pdvlovna Sch^rer, maid of honor and favorite of the Empress Marya Fe- dorovna. With these words she greeted Prince Vasili Kurdgin, a man of high rank and impor- tance, who was the first to arrive at her recep- tion. Anna Pdvlovna had had a cough for some days. She was, as she said, suffering from la grippe; grippe being then a new word in St. Petersburg, used only by the elite.
All her invitations without exception, writ- ten in French, and delivered by a scarlet-liver- ied footman that morning, ran as follows:
"If you have nothing better to do, Count [or Prince], and if the prospect of spending an evening with a poor invalid is not too terrible, I shall be very charmed to see you tonight be- tween 7 and 10 Annette Sch^rer."
"Heavens! what a virulent attack!" replied the prince, not in the least disconcerted by this reception. He had just entered, wearing an em- broidered court uniform, knee breeches, and shoes, and had stars on his breast and a serene expression on his flat face. He spoke in that refined French in which our grandfathers not only spoke but thought, and with the gentle, patronizing intonation natural to a man of importance who had grown old in society and at court. He went up to Anna Pavlovna, kissed her hand, presenting to her his bald, scented, and shining head, and complacently seated himself on the sofa.
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Post by Nightman on Apr 25, 2017 5:19:23 GMT
"First of all, dear friend, tell me how you
are. Set your friend's mind at rest," said he without altering his tone, beneath the polite- ness and affected sympathy of which indiffer- ence and even irony could be discerned.
"Can one be well while suffering morally? Can one be calm in tirrfes like these if one has any feeling?" said Anna Pdvlovna. "You are staying the whole evening, I hope?"
"And the fete at the English ambassador's? Today is Wednesday. I must put in an appear- ance there," said the prince. "My daughter is coming for me to take me there."
"I thought today's fete had been canceled. I confess all these festivities and fireworks are becoming wearisome."
"If they had known that you wished it, the entertainment would have been put off," said the prince, who, like a wound-up clock, by force of habit said things he did not even wish to be believed.
"Don't tease! Well, and what has been de- cided about Novosiltsev's dispatch? You know everything."
"What can one say about it?" replied the prince in a cold, listless tone. "What has been decided? They have decided that Buonaparte has burnt his boats, and I believe that we are ready to burn ours."
Prince Vastti always spoke languidly, like an actor repeating a stale part. Anna Pdvlovna Scherer on the contrary, despite her forty years, overflowed with animation and impulsiveness. To be an enthusiast had become her social vo- cation and, sometimes even when she did not feel like it, she became enthusiastic in order not to disappoint the expectations of those who knew her. The subdued smile which, though it did not suit her faded features, al- ways played round her lips expressed, as in a spoiled child, a continual consciousness of her charming defect, which she neither wished, nor could, nor considered it necessary, to correct.
In the midst of a conversation on political matters Anna Pdvlovna burst out:
"Oh, don't speak to me of Austria. Perhaps
WAR AND PEACE
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Post by Nightman on Apr 25, 2017 5:19:42 GMT
I don't understand things, but Austria never has wished, and does not wish, for war. She is betraying us! Russia alone must save Europe. Our gracious sovereign recognizes his high vo- cation and will be true to it. That is the one thing I have faith in! Our good and wonder- ful sovereign has to perfonn the noblest role on earth, and he is so virtuous and noble that God will not forsake him. He will fulfill his vocation and crush the hydra of revolution, which has become more terrible than ever in the person of this murderer and villain! We alone must avenge the blood of the just one. . . . Whom, I ask you, can we rely on? . . . Eng- land with her commercial spirit will not and cannot understand the Emperor Alexander's loftiness of soul. She tias refused to evacuate Malta. She wanted to find, and still seeks, some secret motive in our actions. What answer did Novosiltsev get? None. The English have not understood and cannot understand the self- abnegation of our Emperor who wants noth- ing for himself, but only desires the good of mankind. And what have they promised? Noth- ing! And what little they have promised they will not perform! Prussia has always declared that Buonaparte is invincible and that all Europe is powerless before him. . . . And I don't believe a word that Hardenburg says, or Haugwitz either. This famous Prussian neu- trality is just a trap. I have faith only in God and the lofty destiny of our adored monarch. He will save Europe!"
She suddenly paused, smiling at her own impetuosity.
"I think," said the prince with a smile, "that if you had been sent instead of our dear Wintzingerode you would have captured the King of Prussia's consent by assault. You are so eloquent. Will you give me a cup of tea?"
"In a moment. X propos"she added, becom- ing calm again, "I am expecting two very in- teresting men tonight, le Vicomte de Morte- mart, who is connected with the Montmoren- cys through the Rohans,oneof the best French families. He is one of the genuine dmigrh, the good ones. And also the Abbe* Morio. Do you know that profound thinker? He has been re- ceived by the Emperor. Had you heard?"
"I shall be delighted to meet them," said the prince. "But tell me," he added with studied carelessness as if it had only just occurred to him, though the question he was about to ask was the chief motive of his visit, "is it true that the Dowager Empress wants Baron Funke to be appointed first secretary at Vienna? The baron
by all accounts is a poor creature."
Prince Vasfli wished to obtain this post for his son, but others were trying through the Dowager Empress Mdrya Fedorovna to secure it for the baron.
Anna Pdvlovna almost closed her eyes to in- dicate that neither she nor anyone else had a right to criticize what the Empress desired or was pleased with.
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Post by Nightman on Apr 25, 2017 5:20:02 GMT
"Baron Funke has been recommended to the Dowager Empress by her sister," was all she said, in a dry and mournful tone.
As she named the Empress, Anna Pdvlovna's face suddenly assumed an expression of pro- found and sincere devotion and respect min- gled with sadness, and thisoccurred every time she mentioned her illustrious patroness. She added that Her Majesty had deigned to show Baron Funke beaucoup d'estime, and again her face clouded over with sadness.
The prince was silent and looked indiffer- ent. But, with the womanly and courtierlike quickness and tact habitual to her, Anna Pdv- lovna wished both to rebuke him (for daring to speak as he had done of a man recommended to the Empress) and at the same time to con- sole him, so she said:
"Now about your family. Do you know that since your daughter came out everyone has been enraptured by her? They say she is amaz- ingly beautiful."
The prince bowed to signify his respect and gratitude.
"I often think," she continued after a short pause, drawing nearer to the prince and smil- ing amiably at him as if to show that political and social topics were ended and the time had come for intimate conversation "I often think how unfairly sometimes the joys of life are dis- tributed. Why has fate given you two such splendid children? I don't speak of Anatole, your youngest. I don't like him," she added in a tone admitting of no rejoinder and raising her eyebrows. "Two such charming children. And really you appreciate them less than any- one, and so you don't deserve to have them."
And she smiled her ecstatic smile.
"I can't help it," said the prince. "Lavater would have said I lack the bump of paternity."
"Don't joke; I mean to have a serious talk with you. Do you know I am dissatisfied with your younger son? Between ourselves" (and her face assumed its melancholy expression), "he was mentioned at Her Majesty's and you were pitied. . . ."
The prince answered nothing, but she
BOOK ONE
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Post by Nightman on Apr 25, 2017 5:20:22 GMT
looked at him significantly, awaiting a reply. He frowned.
"What would you have me do?" he said at last. "You know I did all a father could for their education, and they have both turned out fools. Hippolyte is at least a quiet fool, but Anatole is an active one. That is the only dif- ference between them." He said this smiling in a way more natural and animated than usual, so that the wrinkles round his mouth very clearly revealed something unexpectedly coarse and unpleasant.
"And why are children born to such men as you? If you were not a father there would be nothing I could reproach you with," said Anna Pdvlovna, looking up pensively.
"I am your faithful slave and to you alone I can confess that my children are the bane of my life. It is the cross I have to bear. That is how I explain it to myself. It can't be helped!"
He said no more, but expressed his resigna- tion to cruel fate by a gesture. Anna Pdvlovna meditated.
"Have you never thought of marrying your prodigal son Anatole?" she asked. "They say old maids have a mania for matchmaking, and though I don't feel that weakness in myself as yet, I know a little person who is very unhappy with her father. She is a relation of yours, Princess Mary Bolk6nskaya."
Prince Vasili did not reply, though, with the quickness of memory and perception befitting a man of the world, he indicated by a move- ment of the head that he was considering this information.
"Do you know," he said at last, evidently unable to check the sad current of his thoughts, "that Anatole is costing me forty thousand rubles a year? And," he went on after a pause, "what will it be in five years, if he goes on like this?" Presently he added: "That's what we
fathers have to put up with Is this princess
of yours rich?"
"Her father is very rich and stingy. He lives in the country. He is the well-known Prince Bolk6nski who had to retire from the army un- der the late Emperor, and was nicknamed 'the King of Prussia.' He is very clever but eccen- tric, and a bore. The poor girl is very unhappy. She has a brother; I think you know him, he married Lise Meinen lately. He is an aide-de- camp of Kutiizov's and will be here tonight."
"Listen, dear Annette," said the prince, sud- denly taking Anna Pdvlovna's hand and for some reason drawing it downwards. "Arrange that affair for me and I shall always be your
most devoted slave slaje with an /, as a village elder of mine writes in his reports. She is rich and of good family and that's all I want."
And with the familiarity and easy grace peculiar to him, he raised the maid of honor's hand to his lips, kissed it, and swung it to and fro as he lay back in his armchair, looking in another direction.
"Attendee" said Anna Pdvlovna, reflecting, "I'll speak to Lise, young Bolk6nski's wife, this very evening, and perhaps the thing can be arranged. It shall be on your family's behalf that I'll start my apprenticeship as old maid."
CHAPTER II
ANNA PAVLOVNA'S drawing room was gradually filling. The highest Petersburg society was as- sembled there: people differing widely in age and character but alike in the social circle to which they belonged. Prince Vasili's daughter, the beautiful Hlne, came to take her father to the ambassador's entertainment; she wore a ball dress and her badge as maid of honor. The youthful little Princess Bolkonskaya, known as la femme la plus sSduisante de Pfaersbourg? was also there. She had been married during the previous winter, and being pregnant did not go to any large gatherings, but only to small receptions. Prince Vasfli's son, Hippolyte, had come with Mortemart, whom he introduced. The Abb6 Morio and many others had also come.
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Post by Nightman on Apr 25, 2017 5:20:47 GMT
To each new arrival Anna Pdvlovna safcl, "You have not yet seen my aunt," or "You do not know my aunt?" and very gravely con- ducted him or her to a little old lady, wearing large bows of ribbon in her cap, who had come sailing in from another room as soon as the guests began to arrive; and slowly turning her eyes from the visitor to her aunt, Anna Pdv- lovna mentioned each one's name and then left them.
Each visitor performed the ceremony of greeting this old aunt whom not one of them knew, not one of them wanted to know, and not one of them cared about; Anna Pdvlovna observed these greetings with mournful and sol- emn interest and silent approval. The aunt spoke to each of them in the same words, about their health and her own, and the health of Her Majesty, "who, thank God, was better to- day." And each visitor, though politeness pre- vented his showing impatience, left the old woman with a sense of relief at having per- formed a vexatious duty and did not return to
1 The most fascinating woman in Petersburg.
WAR AND PEACE
her the whole evening.
The young Princess Bolk6nskaya had brought some work in a gold-embroidered vel- vet bag. Her pretty little upper lip, on which a delicate dark down was just perceptible, was too short for her teeth, but it lifted all the more sweetly, and was especially charming when she occasionally drew it down to meet the lower lip. As is always the case with a thoroughly at- tractive woman, her defectthe shortness of her upperlip and her half-open mouth seemed to be her own special and peculiar form of beauty. Everyone brightened at the sight of this pretty young woman, so soon to become a mother, so full of life and health, and carry- ing her burden so lightly. Old men and dull dispirited young ones who looked at her, after being in her company and talking to her a litttle while, felt as if they too were becoming, like her, full of life and health. All who talked to her, and at each word saw her bright smile and the constant gleam of her white teeth, thought that they were in a specially amiable mood that day.
The little princess went round the table with quick, short, swaying steps, her workbag on her arm, and gaily spreading out her dress sat down on a sofa near the silver samovar, as if all she was doing was a pleasure to herself and to all around her. "I have brought my work," said she in French, displaying her bag and addressing all present. "Mind, Annette, I hope you have not played a wicked trick on me," she added, turning to her hostess. "You wrote that it was to be quite a small reception, and just see how badly I am dressed." And she spread out her arms to show her short-waisted, lace-trimmed, dainty gray dress, girdled with a broad ribbon just below the breast.
"Soyez tranquille, Lise, you will always be prettier than anyone else," replied Anna Pdv- lovna.
"You know/' said the princess in the same tone of voice and still in French, turning to a general, "my husband is deserting me? He is going to get himself killed. Tell me what this wretched war is for?" she added, addressing Prince Vasfli, and without waiting for an an- swer she turned to speak to his daughter, the beautiful Hlne.
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Post by Nightman on Apr 25, 2017 5:21:09 GMT
"What a delightful woman this little prin- cess isl" said Prince Vasili to Anna Pdvlovna.
One of the next arrivals was a stout, heavily built young man with close-cropped hair, spec- tacles, the light-colored breeches fashionable at that time, a very high ruffle, and a brown
dress coat. This stout young man was an illegit- imate son^of Count Bezukhov, a well-known grandee of Catherine's time who now lay dy- ing in Moscow. The young man had not yet entered either the military or civil service, as he had only just returned from abroad where he had been educated, and this was his first ap- pearance in society. Anna Pdvlovna greeted him with the nod she accorded to the lowest hierarchy in her drawing room. But in spite of this lowest-grade greeting, a look of anxiety and fear, as at the sight of something too large and unsuited to the place, came over her face when she saw Pierre enter. Though he was cer- tainly rather bigger than the other men in the room, her anxiety could only have reference to the clever though shy, but observant and natural, expression which distinguished him from everyone else in that drawing room.
"It is very good of you, Monsieur Pierre, to come and visit a poor invalid," said Anna Pdv- lovna, exchanging an alarmed glance with her aunt as she conducted him to her.
Pierre murmured something unintelligible, and continued to look round as if in search of something. On his way to the aunt he bowed to the little princess with a pleased smile, as to an intimate acquaintance.
Anna Pdvlovna's alarm was justified, for Pierre turned away from the aunt without wait- ing to hear her speech about Her Majesty's health. Anna Pdvlovna in dismay detained him with the words: "Do you know the Abbe* Morio? He is a most interesting man."
"Yes, I have heard of his scheme for perpet- ual peace, and it is very interesting but hardly feasible."
"You think so?" rejoined Anna Pdvlovna in order to say something and get away to attend to her duties as hostess. But Pierre now com- mitted a reverse act of impoliteness. First he had left a lady before she had finished speak- ing to him, and now he continued to speak to another who wished to getaway. With his head bent, and his big feet spread apart, he began explaining his reasons for thinking the abbess plan chimerical.
"We will talk of it later," said Anna Pdv- lovna with a smile.
And having got rid of this young man who did not know how to behave, she resumed her duties as hostess and continued to listen and watch, ready to help at any point where the conversation might happen to flag. As the fore- man of a spinning mill, when he has set the hands to work, goes round and notices here a
BOOK ONE
spindle that has stopped or there one that creaks or makes more noise than it should, and hastens to check the machine or set it in proper motion, so Anna Pavlovna moved about her drawing room, approaching now a silent, now a too-noisy group, and by a word or slight re- arrangement kept the conversational machine in steady, proper, and regular motion. But amid these cares her anxiety about Pierre was evident. She kept an anxious watch on him when he approached the group round Morte- mart to listen to what was being said there, and again when he passed to another group whose center was the abbe*.
Pierre had been educated abroad, and this reception at Anna Pavlovna's was the first he had attended in Russia. He knew that all the intellectual lights of Petersburg were gathered there and, like a child in a toyshop, did not know which way to look, afraid of missing any clever conversation that was to be heard. See- ing the self-confident and refined expression on the faces of those present he was always ex- pecting to hear something very profound. At last he came up to Morio. Here the conversa- tion seemed interesting and he stood waiting for an opportunity to express his own views, as young people are fond of doing.
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Post by vegasflash on Apr 25, 2017 5:35:24 GMT
lol
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Post by acicm2 on Apr 25, 2017 5:39:04 GMT
[X]
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Post by Ghost Of N7_SP3CTR3 on Apr 25, 2017 5:39:42 GMT
Holy Shit.
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Post by Nightman on Apr 25, 2017 5:45:06 GMT
To each new arrival Anna Pdvlovna safcl, "You have not yet seen my aunt," or "You do not know my aunt?" and very gravely con- ducted him or her to a little old lady, wearing large bows of ribbon in her cap, who had come sailing in from another room as soon as the guests began to arrive; and slowly turning her eyes from the visitor to her aunt, Anna Pdv- lovna mentioned each one's name and then left them.
Each visitor performed the ceremony of greeting this old aunt whom not one of them knew, not one of them wanted to know, and not one of them cared about; Anna Pdvlovna observed these greetings with mournful and sol- emn interest and silent approval. The aunt spoke to each of them in the same words, about their health and her own, and the health of Her Majesty, "who, thank God, was better to- day." And each visitor, though politeness pre- vented his showing impatience, left the old woman with a sense of relief at having per- formed a vexatious duty and did not return to
1 The most fascinating woman in Petersburg.
WAR AND PEACE
her the whole evening.
The young Princess Bolk6nskaya had brought some work in a gold-embroidered vel- vet bag. Her pretty little upper lip, on which a delicate dark down was just perceptible, was too short for her teeth, but it lifted all the more sweetly, and was especially charming when she occasionally drew it down to meet the lower lip. As is always the case with a thoroughly at- tractive woman, her defectthe shortness of her upperlip and her half-open mouth seemed to be her own special and peculiar form of beauty. Everyone brightened at the sight of this pretty young woman, so soon to become a mother, so full of life and health, and carry- ing her burden so lightly. Old men and dull dispirited young ones who looked at her, after being in her company and talking to her a litttle while, felt as if they too were becoming, like her, full of life and health. All who talked to her, and at each word saw her bright smile and the constant gleam of her white teeth, thought that they were in a specially amiable mood that day.
The little princess went round the table with quick, short, swaying steps, her workbag on her arm, and gaily spreading out her dress sat down on a sofa near the silver samovar, as if all she was doing was a pleasure to herself and to all around her. "I have brought my work," said she in French, displaying her bag and addressing all present. "Mind, Annette, I hope you have not played a wicked trick on me," she added, turning to her hostess. "You wrote that it was to be quite a small reception, and just see how badly I am dressed." And she spread out her arms to show her short-waisted, lace-trimmed, dainty gray dress, girdled with a broad ribbon just below the breast.
"Soyez tranquille, Lise, you will always be prettier than anyone else," replied Anna Pdv- lovna.
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Post by Nightman on Apr 25, 2017 5:45:32 GMT
"You know/' said the princess in the same tone of voice and still in French, turning to a general, "my husband is deserting me? He is going to get himself killed. Tell me what this wretched war is for?" she added, addressing Prince Vasfli, and without waiting for an an- swer she turned to speak to his daughter, the beautiful Hlne.
"What a delightful woman this little prin- cess isl" said Prince Vasili to Anna Pdvlovna.
One of the next arrivals was a stout, heavily built young man with close-cropped hair, spec- tacles, the light-colored breeches fashionable at that time, a very high ruffle, and a brown
dress coat. This stout young man was an illegit- imate son^of Count Bezukhov, a well-known grandee of Catherine's time who now lay dy- ing in Moscow. The young man had not yet entered either the military or civil service, as he had only just returned from abroad where he had been educated, and this was his first ap- pearance in society. Anna Pdvlovna greeted him with the nod she accorded to the lowest hierarchy in her drawing room. But in spite of this lowest-grade greeting, a look of anxiety and fear, as at the sight of something too large and unsuited to the place, came over her face when she saw Pierre enter. Though he was cer- tainly rather bigger than the other men in the room, her anxiety could only have reference to the clever though shy, but observant and natural, expression which distinguished him from everyone else in that drawing room.
"It is very good of you, Monsieur Pierre, to come and visit a poor invalid," said Anna Pdv- lovna, exchanging an alarmed glance with her aunt as she conducted him to her.
Pierre murmured something unintelligible, and continued to look round as if in search of something. On his way to the aunt he bowed to the little princess with a pleased smile, as to an intimate acquaintance.
Anna Pdvlovna's alarm was justified, for Pierre turned away from the aunt without wait- ing to hear her speech about Her Majesty's health. Anna Pdvlovna in dismay detained him with the words: "Do you know the Abbe* Morio? He is a most interesting man."
"Yes, I have heard of his scheme for perpet- ual peace, and it is very interesting but hardly feasible."
"You think so?" rejoined Anna Pdvlovna in order to say something and get away to attend to her duties as hostess. But Pierre now com- mitted a reverse act of impoliteness. First he had left a lady before she had finished speak- ing to him, and now he continued to speak to another who wished to getaway. With his head bent, and his big feet spread apart, he began explaining his reasons for thinking the abbess plan chimerical.
"We will talk of it later," said Anna Pdv- lovna with a smile.
And having got rid of this young man who did not know how to behave, she resumed her duties as hostess and continued to listen and watch, ready to help at any point where the conversation might happen to flag. As the fore- man of a spinning mill, when he has set the hands to work, goes round and notices here a
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Nightman
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Post by Nightman on Apr 25, 2017 5:45:58 GMT
BOOK ONE
spindle that has stopped or there one that creaks or makes more noise than it should, and hastens to check the machine or set it in proper motion, so Anna Pavlovna moved about her drawing room, approaching now a silent, now a too-noisy group, and by a word or slight re- arrangement kept the conversational machine in steady, proper, and regular motion. But amid these cares her anxiety about Pierre was evident. She kept an anxious watch on him when he approached the group round Morte- mart to listen to what was being said there, and again when he passed to another group whose center was the abbe*.
Pierre had been educated abroad, and this reception at Anna Pavlovna's was the first he had attended in Russia. He knew that all the intellectual lights of Petersburg were gathered there and, like a child in a toyshop, did not know which way to look, afraid of missing any clever conversation that was to be heard. See- ing the self-confident and refined expression on the faces of those present he was always ex- pecting to hear something very profound. At last he came up to Morio. Here the conversa- tion seemed interesting and he stood waiting for an opportunity to express his own views, as young people are fond of doing.
CHAPTER III
ANNA PAVLOVNA'S reception was in full swing. The spindles hummed steadily and ceaselessly on all sides. With the exception of the aunt, beside whom sat only one elderly lady, who with her thin careworn face was rather out of place in this brilliant society, the whole com- pany had settled into three groups. One, chiefly masculine, had formed round the abbe". An- other, of young people, was grouped round the beautiful Princess Hlne, Prince Vasfli's daughter, and the little Princess Bolk6nskaya, very pretty and rosy, though rather too plump for her age. The third group was gathered round Mortemart and Anna Pavlovna.
The vicomte was a nice-looking young man with soft features and polished manners, who evidently considered himself a celebrity but out of politeness modestly placed himself at the disposal of the circle in which he found himself. Anna Pdvlovna was obviously serving him up as a treat to her guests. As a clever maitre d'hotel serves up as a specially choice delicacy a piece of meat that no one who had seen it in the kitchen would have cared to eat, so Anna Pavlovna served up to her guests, first the vicomte and then the abbe*, as peculiarly
choice morsels. The group about Mortemart immediately began discussing the murder of the Due d'Enghien. The vicomte said that the Due d'Enghien had perished by his own magna- nimity, and that there were particular reasons for Buonaparte's hatred of him.
"Ah, yes! Do tell us all about it, Vicomte," said Anna Pdvlovna, with a pleasant feeling that there was something a la Louis XV in the sound of that sentence: "Contez nous gela, Vicomte."
The vicomte bowed and smiled courteously in token of his willingness to comply. Anna Pavlovna arranged a group round him, invit- ing everyone to listen to his tale.
"The vicomte knew the due personally," whispered Anna Pdvlovna to one of the guests. "The vicomte is a wonderful raconteur," said she to another. "How evidently he belongs to the best society," said she to a third; and the vicomte was served up to the company in the choicest and most advantageous style, like a well-garnished joint of roast beef on a hot dish.
The vicomte wished to begin his story and gave a subtle smile.
"Come over here, Hlne, dear," said Anna Pvlovna to the beautiful young princess who was sitting some way off, the center of another group.
The princess smiled. She rose with the same unchanging smile with which she had first en- tered the room the smile of a perfectly beauti- ful woman. With a slight rustle of her white dress trimmed with moss and ivy, with a gleam of white shoulders, glossy hair, and sparkling diamonds, she passed between the men who made way for her, not looking at any of them but smiling on all, as if graciously allowing each the privilege of admiring her beautiful figure and shapely shoulders, back, and bosom which in the fashion of those days were very much exposed and she seemed to bring the glamour of a ballroom with her as she moved toward Anna Pavlovna. Hlene was so lovely that not only did she not show any trace of coquetry, but on the contrary she even appeared shy of her unquestionable and all too victori- ous beauty. She seemed to wish, but to be un- able, to diminish its effect.
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"How lovely!" said everyone who saw her; and the vicomte lifted his shoulders and dropped his eyes as if startled by something ex- traordinary when she took her seat opposite and beamed upon him also with her unchanging smile.
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WAR AND PEACE
"Madame, I doubt my ability before such an audience," said he, smilingly inclining his head.
The princess rested her bare round arm on a little table and considered a reply unneces- sary. She smilingly waited. All the time the story was being told she sat upright, glancing now at her beautiful round arm, altered in shape by its pressure on the table, now at her still more beautiful bosom, on which she read- justed a diamond necklace. From time to time she smoothed the folds of her dress, and when- ever the story produced an effect she glanced at Anna Pavlovna, at once adopted just the expression she saw on the maid of honor's face, and again relapsed into her radiant smile.
The little princess had also left the tea table and followed Helne.
"Wait a moment, I'll get my work. . . . Now then, what are you thinking of?" she went on, turning to Prince Hippolyte. "Fetch me my workbag."
There was a general movement as the prin- cess, smiling and talking merrily to everyone at once, sat down and gaily arranged herself in her seat.
"Now I am all right," she said, and asking the vicomte to begin, she took up her work.
Prince Hippolyte, having brought the work- bag, joined the circle and moving a chair close to hers seated himself beside her.
Le charmant Hippolyte was surprising by his extraordinary resemblance to his beautiful sister, but yet more by the fact that in spite of this resemblance he was exceedingly ugly. His features were like his sister's, but while in her case everything was lit up by a joyous, self- satisfied, youthful, and constant smile of ani- mation, and by the wonderful classic beauty of her figure, his face on the contrary was dulled by imbecility and a constant expression of sullen self-confidence, while his body was thin and weak. His eyes, nose, and mouth all seemed puckered into a vacant, wearied gri- mace, and his arms and legs always fell into unnatural positions.
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Post by Nightman on Apr 25, 2017 5:46:53 GMT
"It's not going to be a ghost story?" said he, sitting down beside the princess and hastily adjusting his lorgnette, as if without this in- strument he could not begin to speak.
"Why no, my dear fellow," said the aston- ished narrator, shrugging his shoulders.
"Because I hate ghost stones," said Prince Hippolyte in a tone which showed that he only understood die meaning of his words after he had uttered them.
He spoke with such self-confidence that his hearers ould not be sure whether what he said was very witty or very stupid. He was dressed in a dark-green dress coat, knee breeches of the color of cuisse de nymphe effrayJe, as he called it, shoes, and silk stockings.
The vicomte told his tale very neatly. It was an anecdote, then current, to the effect that the Due d'Enghien had gone secretly to Paris to visit Mademoiselle George; thatat her house he came upon Bonaparte, who also enjoyed the famous actress' favors, and that in his pres- ence Napoleon happened to fall into one of the fainting fits to which he was subject, and was thus at the due's mercy. The latter spared him, and this magnanimity Bonaparte subse- quently repaid by death.
The story was very pretty and interesting, especially at the point where the rivals sud- denly recognized one another; and the ladies looked agitated.
"Charming!" said Anna PAvlovna with an in- quiring glance at the little princess.
"Charming!" whispered the little princess, sticking the needle into her work as if to testify that the interest and fascination of the story prevented her from going on with it.
The vicomte appreciated this silent praise and smiling gratefully prepared to continue, but just then Anna Pavlovna, who had kept a watchful eye on the young man who so alarmed her, noticed that he was talking too loudly and vehemently with the abbe", so she hurried to the rescue. Pierre had managed to start a conversation with the abb about the balance of power, and the latter, evidently interested by the young man's simple-minded eagerness, was explaining his pet theory. Both were talk- ing and listening too eagerly and too naturally, which was why Anna Pavlovna disapproved.
"The means are . . . the balance of power in Europe and the rights of the people," the abbe* was saying. "It is only necessary for one power- ful nation like Russia barbaric as she is said to be to place herself disinterestedly at the head of an alliance having for its object the mai n tenance of the balance of power of Europe, and it would save the world!"
"But how are you to get that balance?" Pierre was beginning.
At that moment Anna Pdvlovna came up and, looking severely at Pierre, asked the Italian how he stood the Russian climate. The Italian's face instantly changed and assumed an offen- sively affected, sugary expression, evidently habitual to him when conversing with women.
BOOK
"I am so enchanted by the brilliancy of the wit and culture of the society, more especially of the feminine society, in which I have had the honor of being received, that I have not yet had time to think of the climate," said he.
Not letting the abbe" and Pierre escape, Anna Pdvlovna, the more conveniently to keep them under observation, brought them into the larger circle.
CHAPTER IV
JUST THEN another visitor entered the drawing room: Prince Andrew Bolk6nski, the little princess' husband. He was a very handsome young man, of medium height, with firm, clear- cut features. Everything about him, from his weary, bored expression to his quiet, measured step, offered a most striking contrast to his lively little wife. It was evident that he not only knew everyone in the drawing room, but had found them to be so tiresome that it wearied him to look at or listen to them. And among all these faces that he found so tedious, none seemed to bore him so much as that of his pretty wife. He turned away from her with a grimace that distorted his handsome face, kissed Anna Pdvlovna's hand, and screwing up his eyes scanned the whole company.
"You are off to the war, Prince?" said Anna Pdvlovna.
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"General Kutuzov," said Bolk6nski, speak- ing French and stressing the last syllable of the general's name like a Frenchman, "has been pleased to take me as an aide-de-camp. . . ."
"And Lise, your wile?"
"She will go to the country."
"Are you not ashamed to deprive us of your charming wife?"
"Andre," said his wife, addressing her hus- band in the same coquettish manner in which she spoke to other men, "the vicomte has been telling us such a tale about Mademoiselle George and Buonaparte!"
Prince Andrew screwed up his eyes and turned away. Pierre, who from the moment Prince Andrew entered the room had watched him with glad, affectionate eyes, now came up and took his arm. Before he looked round Prince Andrew frowned again, expressing his annoyance with whoever was touching his arm, but when he saw Pierre's beaming face he gave him an unexpectedly kind and pleasant smile.
"There now! ... So you, too, are in the great world?" said he to Pierre.
"I knew you would be here," replied Pierre. "I will come to supper with you. May I?" he
ONE 7
added in a low voice so as not to disturb the vicomte who was continuing his story.
"No, impossible 1" said Prince Andrew, laughing and pressing Pierre's hand to show that there was no need to ask the question. He wished to say something more, but at that mo- ment Prince Vastti and his daughter got up to go and the two young men rose to let them pass.
"You must excuse me, dear Vicomte," said Prince Vasili to the Frenchman, holding him down by the sleeve in a friendly way to prevent his rising. "This unfortunate fete at the ambas- sador's deprives me of a pleasure, and obliges me to interrupt you. I am very sorry to leave your enchanting party," said he, turning to Anna Pdvlovna.
His daughter, Princess He*lene, passed be- tween the chairs, lightly holding up the folds of her dress, and the smile shone still more radiantly on her beautiful face. Pierre gazed at her with rapturous, almost frightened, eyes as she passed him.
"Very lovely," said Prince Andrew.
"Very," said Pierre.
In passing, Prince Vasili seized Pierre's hand and said to Anna Pdvlovna: "Educate this bear for me! He has been staying with me a whole month and this is the first time I have seen him in society. Nothing is so necessary for a young man as the society of clever women."
ANNA PAVLOVNA smiled and promised to take Pierre in hand. She knew his father to be a connection of Prince Vasili's. The elderly lady who had been sitting with the old aunt rose hurriedly and overtook Prince Vasfli in the anteroom. All the affectation of interest she had assumed had left her kindly and tear- worn face and it now expressed only anxiety and fear.
"How about my son Borfs, Prince?" said she, hurrying after him into the anteroom. "1 can't remain any longer in Petersburg. Tell me what news I may take back to my poor boy."
Although Prince Vasili listened reluctantly and not very politely to the elderly lady, even betraying some impatience, she gave him an ingratiating and appealing smile, and took his hand that he might not go away.
"What would it cost you to say a word to the Emperor, and then he would be transferred to the Guards at once?" said she.
"Believe me, Princess, I am ready to do all I can," answered Prince Vasili, "but it is dif-
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ficult for me to ask the Emperor. I should ad- vise you to appeal to Rumydntsev through Prince Golftsyn. That would be the best way."
The elderly lady was a Princess Drubet- skdya, belonging to one of the best families in Russia, but she was poor, and having long been out of society had lost her former influential connections. She had now come to Petersburg to procure an appointment in the Guards for her only son. It was, in fact, solely to meet Prince Vasfli that she had obtained an invita- tion to Anna Pdvlovna's reception and had sat listening to the vicomte's story. Prince Vasfli's words frightened her, an embittered look clouded her once handsome face, but only for a moment; then she smiled again and clutched Prince Vasili's arm more tightly.
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Influence in society, however, is capital which has to be economized if it is to last. Prince Vasfli knew this, and having once realized that if he asked on behalf of all who begged of him, he would soon be unable to ask for himself, he became chary of using his influ- ence. But in Princess Drubetskdya's case he felt, after her second appeal, something like qualms of conscience. She had reminded him of what was quite true; he had been indebted to her father for the first steps in his career. More- over, he could see by her manners that she was one of those womenmostly mothers who, having once made up their minds, will not rest until they have gained their end, and are pre- pared if necessary to go on insisting day after day and hour after hour, and even to make scenes. This last consideration moved him.
"My dear Anna Mikhdylovna," said he with his usual familiarity and weariness of tone, "it is almost impossible for me to do what you ask; but to prove my devotion to you and how I re- spect your father's memory, I will do the im- possibleyour son shall be transferred to the
Guards. Here is my hand on it. Are you satis- fied?" *
"My dear benefactor! This is what I ex- pected from you I knew your kindness!" He turned to go.
"Wait just a word! When he has been trans- ferred to the Guards . . ." she faltered. "You are on good terms with Michael Ilari6novich Kuttizov . . . recommend Boris to him as adju- tant! Then I shall be at rest, and then . . ."
Prince Vasili smiled.
"No, I won't promise that. You don't know how Kutiizov is pestered since his appoint- ment as Commander in Chief. He told me himself that all the Moscow ladies have con- spired to give him all their sons as adjutants."
"No, but do promise! I won't let you go! My dear benefactor . . ."
"Papa," said his beautiful daughter in the same tone as before, "we shall be late."
"Well, au revoir! Good-by! You hear her?"
"Then tomorrow you will speak to the Em- peror?"
"Certainly; but about Kutiizov, I don't promise."
"Do promise, do promise, Vasfli!" cried Anna Mikhdylovna as he went, with the smile of a coquettish girl, which at one time prob- ably came naturally to her, but was now very ill-suited to her careworn face.
Apparently she had forgotten her age and by force of habit employed all the old fem- inine arts. But as soon as the prince had gone her face resumed its former cold, artificial ex- pression. She returned to the group where the vicomte was still talking, and again pretended to listen, while waiting till it would be time to leave. Her task was accomplished.
CHAPTER V
"AND what do you think of this latest com- edy, the coronation at Milan?" asked Anna Pavlovna, "and of the comedy of the people of Genoa and Lucca laying their petitions before Monsieur Buonaparte, and Monsieur Buonaparte sitting on a throne and granting the petitions of the nations? Adorable! It is enough to make one's head whirl! It is as if the whole world had gone crazy."
Prince Andrew looked Anna Pdvlovna straight in the face with a sarcastic smile.
" 'Dieu me la donne, gare a qui la touched J They say he was very fine when he said that," he remarked, repeating the words in Italian:
1 God has given it to me, let him who touches it beware)
BOOK
" 'Dio mi rha dato. Guai a chi la tocchi!' "
"I hope this will prove the last cft*op that will make the glass run over," Anna Pavlovna continued. "The sovereigns will not be able to endure this man who is a menace to every- thing."
"The sovereigns? I do not speak of Russia," said the vicomte, polite but hopeless: "The sovereigns, madame . . . What have they done for Louis XVII, for the Queen, or for Madame Elizabeth? Nothing!" and he became more an- imated. "And believe me, they are reaping the reward of their betrayal of the Bourbon cause. The sovereigns! Why, they are sending am- bassadors to compliment the usurper."
And sighing disdainfully, he again changed his position.
Prince Hippolyte, who had been gazing at the vicomte for some time through his lor- gnette, suddenly turned completely round to- ward the little princess, and having asked for a needle began tracing the Conde* coat of arms on the table. He explained this to her with as much gravity as if she had asked him to do it.
"Baton de gueules, engrele de gueules d' azurmaison Condd," said he.
The princess listened, smiling.
"If Buonaparte remains on the throne of France a year longer," the vicomte continued, with the air of a man who, in a matter with which he is better acquainted than anyone else, does not listen to others but follows the cur- rent of his own thoughts, "things will have gone too far. By intrigues, violence, exile, and executions,French society I mean good French society will have been forever destroyed, and then . . ."
He shrugged his shoulders and spread out his hands. JPierre wished to make a remark, for the conversation interested him, but Anna Pdvlovna, who had him under observation, in- terrupted:
"The Emperor Alexander," said she, with the melancholy which always accompanied any reference of hers to the Imperial family, "has declared that he will leave it to the French people themselves to choose their own form of government; and I believe that once free from the usurper, the whole nation will cer- tainly throw itself into the arms of its rightful king," she concluded, trying to be amiable to the royalist emigrant.
. "That is doubtful," said Prince Andrew. "Monsieur le Vicomte quite rightly supposes that matters have already gone too far. I think it will be difficult to return to the old regime."
ONE 9
"From what I have heard," said Pierre, blushing and breaking into the conversation, "almost all the aristocracy has already gone over to Bonaparte's side."
"It is the Buonapartists who say that," re- plied the vicomte without looking at Pierre. "At the present time it is difficult to know the real state of French public opinion."
"Bonaparte has said so," remarked Prince Andrew with a sarcastic smile.
It was evident that he did not like the vi- comte and was aiming his remarks at him, though without looking at him.
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Post by Nightman on Apr 25, 2017 5:48:34 GMT
" 'I showed them the path to glory, but they did not follow it,' " Prince Andrew continued after a short silence, again quoting Napoleon's words. " 'I opened my antechambers and they crowded in.' I do not know how far he was justified in saying so."
"Not in the least," replied the vicomte. "Aft- er the murder of the due even the most par- tial ceased to regard him as a hero. If to some people," he went on, turning to Anna Pav- lovna, "he ever was a hero, after the murder of the due there was one martyr more in heav- en and one hero less on earth."
Before Anna Pdvlovna and the others had time to smile their appreciation of the vi- comte's epigram, Pierre again broke into the conversation, and though Anna Pdvlovna felt sure he would say something inappropriate, she was unable to stop him.
"The execution of the Due d'Enghien," de- clared Monsieur Pierre, "was a political neces- sity, and it seems to me that Napoleon showed greatness of soul by not fearing to take on him- self the whole responsibility of that deed."
"Dieu! Mon Dieu!" muttered Anna Pav- lovna in a terrified whisper.
"What, Monsieur Pierre . . . Do you con- sider that assassination shows greatness of soul?" said the little princess, smiling and drawing her work nearer to her.
"Oh! Oh!" exclaimed several voices.
"Capital!" said Prince Hippolyte in Eng- lish, and began slapping his knee with the palm of his hand.
The vicomte merely shrugged his shoulders. Pierre looked solemnly at his audience over his spectacles and continued.
"I say so," he continued desperately, "be- cause the Bourbons fled from the Revolution leaving the people to anarchy, and Napoleon alone understood the Revolution and quelled it, and so for the general good, he could not stop short for the sake of one man's life."
1O
"Won't you come over to the other table?" suggested Anna Pvlovna,
But Pierre continued his speech without heeding her.
"No," cried he, becoming more and more eager, "Napoleon is great because he rose su- perior to the Revolution, suppressed its a- buses, preserved all that was good in itequal- ity of citizenship and freedom of speech and of the press and only for that reason did he obtain power."
"Yes, if having obtained power, without a- vailing himself of it to commit murder he had restored it to the rightful king, I should have called him a great man," remarked the vi- comte.
"He could not do that. The people only gave him power that he might rid them of the Bourbons and because they saw that he was a great man. The Revolution was a grand thing!" continued Monsieur Pierre, betraying by this desperate and provocative proposition his ex- treme youth and his wish to express all that was in his mind.
"What? Revolution and regicide a grand thing? . . . Well, after that . . . But won't you come to this other table?" repeated Anna Pdv- lovna.
"Rousseau's Contrat social," said the vi- comte with a tolerant smile.
"I am not speaking of regicide, I am speak- ing about ideas."
"Yes: ideas of robbery, murder, and regi- cide," again interjected an ironical voice.
"Those were extremes, no doubt, but they are not what is most important. What is im- portant are the rights of man, emancipation from prejudices, and equality of citizenship, and all these ideas Napoleon has retained in full force."
"Liberty and equality," said the vicomte contemptuously, as if at last deciding seriously to prove to this youth how foolish his words were, "high-sounding words which have long been discredited. Who does not love liberty and equality? Even our Saviour preached lib- erty and equality. Have people since the Rev- olution become happier? On the contrary. We wanted liberty, but Buonaparte has destroyed it."
Prince Andrew kept looking with an a- mused smile from Pierre to the vicomte and from the vicomte to their hostess. In the first moment of Pierre's outburst Anna Pdvlovna, despite her social experience, was horror- struck. But when she saw that Pierre's sacri-
WAR AND PEACE
legious words had not exasperated the vi- comte, ahd had convinced herself that it was impossible to stop him, she rallied her forces and joined the vicomte in a vigorous attack on the orator.
"But, my dear Monsieur Pierre," said she, "how do you explain the fact of a great man executing a due or even an ordinary man who is innocent and untried?"
"I should like," said the vicomte, "to ask how monsieur explains the iSthBrumaire; was not that an imposture? It was a swindle, and not at all like the conduct of a great man!"
"And the prisoners he killed in Africa?That was horrible!" said the little princess, shrug- ging her shoulders.
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Post by Nightman on Apr 25, 2017 5:52:40 GMT
"He's a low fellow, say what you will," re- marked Prince Hippolyte.
Pierre, not knowing whom to answer, looked at them all and smiled. His smile was unlike the half-smile of other people. When he smiled, his grave, even rather gloomy, look was instan- taneously replaced by another a childlike, kindly, even rather silly look, which seemed to ask forgiveness.
The vicomte who was meeting him for the first time saw clearly that this young Jacobin was not so terrible as his words suggested. All were silent.
"How do you expect him to answer you all at once?" said Prince Andrew. "Besides, in the actions of a statesman one has to distinguish between his acts as a private person, as a gen- eral, and as an emperor. So it seems to me."
"Yes, yes, of course!" Pierre chimed in, pleased at the arrival of this reinforcement.
"One must admit," continued Prince An- drew, "that Napoleon as a man was great on the bridge of Arcola, and in the hospital at Jaffa where he gave his hand to the plague- stricken; but . . . but there are other acts which it is difficult to justify."
Prince Andrew, who had evidently wished to tone down the awkwardness of Pierre's re- marks, rose and made a sign to his wife that it was time to go.
Suddenly Prince Hippolyte started up mak- ing signs to everyone to attend, and asking them all to be seated began:
"I was told a charming Moscow story today and must treat you to it. Excuse me, Vicomte I must tell it in Russian or the point will be lost. . . ." And Prince Hippolyte began to tell his story in sucli Russian as a Frenchman would speak after spending about a year in
BOOK ONE
Russia. Everyone waited, so emphatically and eagerly did he demand their attention to his story.
"There is in Moscow a lady, une dame, and she is very stingy. She must have two footmen behind her carriage, and very big ones. That was her taste. And she had a lady's maid, also big. She said . . ."
Here Prince Hippolyte paused, evidently collecting his ideas with difficulty.
"She said ... Oh yes! She said, 'Girl,' to the maid, 'put on a livery, get up behind the car- riage, and come with me while I make some calls/ "
Here Prince Hippolyte spluttered andburst out laughing long before his audience, which produced an effect unfavorable to the narra- tor. Several persons, among them the elderly lady and Anna Pavlovna, did however smile.
"She went. Suddenly there was a great wind. The girl lost her hat and her long hair came down. . . ." Here he could contain himself no longer and went on, between gasps of laugh- ter: "And the whole world knew. . . ."
And so the anecdote ended. Though it was unintelligible why he had told it, or why it had to be told in Russian, still Anna Pdvlovna and the others appreciated Prince Hippolyte's social tact in so agreeably ending Pierre's un- pleasant and unamiable outburst. After the anecdote the conversation broke up into in- significant small talk about the last and next balls, about theatricals, and who would meet whom, and when and where.
CHAPTER VI
HAVING THANKED Anna Pavlovna for her 'charming soiree, the guests began to take their leave.
Pierre was ungainly. Stout, about the aver- age height, broad, with huge red hands; he did not know, as the saying is, how to enter a draw- ing room and still less how to leave one; that is, how to say something particularly agreeable before going away. Besides this he was absent- minded. When he rose to go, he took up in- stead of his own, the general's three-cornered hat, and held it, pulling at the plume, till the general asked him to restore it. All his absent- mindedness and inability to enter a room and converse in it was, however, redeemed by his kindly, simple, and modest expression. Anna Pdvlovna turned toward him and, with a Christian mildness that expressed forgiveness of his indiscretion, nodded and said: "I hope to see you again, but I also hope you will change
your opinions, my dear Monsieur Pierre."
When she said this, he did not reply and only bowed, but again everybody saw his smile, which said nothing, unless perhaps, "Opinions are opinions, but you see what a capital, good- natured fellow I am." And everyone, includ- ing Anna Pavlovna, felt this.
Prince Andrew had gone out into the hall, and, turning his shoulders to the footman who was helping him on with his cloak, listened in- differently to his wife's chatter with Prince Hippolyte who had also come into the hall. Prince Hippolyte stood close to the pretty, pregnant princess, and stared fixedly at hei through his eyeglass.
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Post by Nightman on Apr 25, 2017 5:53:12 GMT
"Go in, Annette, or you will catch cold," said the little princess, taking leave of Anna Pavlovna. "It is settled," she added in a low voice.
Anna Pavlovna had already managed to speak to Lise about the match she contem- plated between Anatole and the little princess' sister-in-law.
"I rely on you, my dear," said Anna Pdv- lovna, also in a low tone. "Write to her and let me know how her father looks at the mat- ter. An revoir!"znd she left the hall.
Prince Hippolyte approached the little prin- cess and, bending his face close to her, began to whisper something.
Two footmen, the princess' and his own, stood holding a shawl and a cloak, waiting for the conversation to finish. They listened to the French sentences which to them were meaningless, with an air of understanding but not wishing to appear to do so. The princess as usual spoke smilingly and listened with a laugh.
"I am very glad I did not go to the ambas- sador's," said Prince Hippolyte "so dull. It has been a delightful evening, has it not? Delightful!"
"They say die ball will be very good," re- plied the princess, drawing up her downy lit- tle lip. "All the pretty women in society will be there."
"Not all, for you will not be there; not all," said Prince Hippolyte smiling joyfully; and snatching the shawl from the footman, whom he even pushed aside, he began wrapping it round the princess. Either from awkwardness or intentionally (no one could have said which) after the shawl had been adjusted he kept his arm around her for a long time, as though embracing her.
Still smiling, she gracefully moved away,
IS
turning and glancing at her husband. Prince Andrew's eyes were closed, so weary and sleepy did he seem.
"Are you ready?" he asked his wife, look- ing past her.
Prince Hippolyte hurriedly put on his cloak, which in the latest fashion reached to his very heels, and, stumbling in it, ran out into the porch following the princess, whom a footman was helping into the carriage.
"Princesse, au revoir" cried he, stumbling with his tongue as well as with his feet.
The princess, picking up her dress, was tak- ing her seat in the dark carriage, her husband was adjusting his saber; Prince Hippolyte, un- der pretense of helping, was in everyone's way.
"Allow me, sir/' said Prince Andrew in Rus- sian in a cold, disagreeable tone to Prince Hippolyte who was blocking his path.
"I am expecting you, Pierre," said the same voice, but gently and affectionately.
The postilion started, the carriage wheels rattled. Prince Hippolyte laughed spasmod- ically as he stood in the porch waiting for the vicomte whom he had promised to take home.
"Well, mon cher" said the vicomte, having seated himself beside Hippolyte in the car- riage, "your little princess is very nice, very nice indeed, quite French," and he kissed the tips of his fingers. Hippolyte burst out laugh- ing.
"Do you know, you are a terrible chap for all your innocent airs," continued the vicomte. "I pity the poor husband, that little officer who gives himself the airs of a monarch."
Hippolyte spluttered again, and amid his laughter said, "And you were saying that the Russian ladies are not equal to the French? One has to know how to deal with them."
Pierre reaching the house first went into Prince Andrew's study like one quite at home, and from habit immediately lay down on the sofa, took from the shelf the first book that came to his hand (it was Caesar's Commen- taries), and resting on his elbow, began read- ing it in the middle.
"What have you done to Mile Sch^rer? She will be quite ill now," said Prince Andrew, as he entered the study, rubbing his small white hands.
Pierre turned his whole body, making the sofa creak. He lifted his eager face to Prince Andrew, smiled, and waved his hand.
"That abbl is very interesting but he does
WAR AND PEACE
not see the thing in the right light. ... In my opinion perpetual peace is possible but I do not know how to express it ... not by a bal- ance of political power. . . ."
It was evident that Prince Andrew was not interested in such abstract conversation.
"One can't everywhere say all one thinks, mon cher. Well, have you at last decided on anything? Are you going to be a guardsman or a diplomatist?" asked Prince Andrew after a momentary silence.
Pierre sat up on the sofa, with his legs tucked under him.
"Really, I don't yet know. I don't like either the one or the other."
"But you must decide on somethingl Your father expects it."
Pierre at the age of ten had been sent a- broad with an abb as tutor, and had remained away till he was twenty. When he returned to Moscow his father dismissed the abbe* and said to the young man, "Now go to Petersburg, look round, and choose your profession. I will agree to anything. Here is a letter to Prince Vasili, and here is money. Write to me all about it, and I will help you in everything." Pierre had already been choosing a career for three months, and had not decided on any- thing. It was about this choice that Prince Andrew was speaking. Pierre rubbed his fore- head.
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Post by Nightman on Apr 25, 2017 5:53:38 GMT
"But he must be a Freemason," said he, re- ferring to the abb whom he had met that evening. (
"That is all nonsense." Prince Andrew again interrupted him, "let us talk business. Have you been to the Horse Guards?"
"No, I have not; but this is what I have been thinking and wanted to tell you. There is a war now against Napoleon. If it were a war for freedom I could understand it and should be the first to enter the army; but to help England and Austria against the greatest man in the world is not right."
Prince Andrew only shrugged his shoulders at Pierre's childish words. He put on the air of one who finds it impossible to reply to such nonsense, but it would in fact have been difficult to give any other answer than the one Prince Andrew gave to this naive question.
"If no one fought except on his own con- viction, there would be no wars," he said.
"And that would be splendid," said Pierre.
Prince Andrew smiled ironically.
"Very likely it would be splendid, but it will never come about. . . ."
BOOK ONE
"Well, why are you going to the war?" asked Pierre. t
"What for? I don't know. I must. Besides that I am going . . ." He paused. "I am going because the life I am leading here does not suit mel"
CHAPTER VII
THE RUSTLE of a woman's dress was heard in the next room. Prince Andrew shook himself as if waking up, and his face assumed the look it had had in Anna Pdvlovna's drawing room. Pierre removed his feet from the sofa. The princess came in. She had changed her gown for a house dress as fresh and elegant as the other. Prince Andrew rose and politely placed a chair for her.
"How is it," she began, as usual in French, settling down briskly and fussily in the easy chair, "how is it Annette never got married? How stupid you men all are not to have mar- ried her! Excuse me for saying so, but you have no sense about women. What an argu- mentative fellow you are, Monsieur Pierre!"
"And I am still arguing with your husband. I can't understand why he wants to go to the war," replied Pierre, addressing the princess with none of the embarrassment so commonly shown by young men in their intercourse with young women.
The princess started. Evidently Pierre's words touched her to the quick.
"Ah, that is just what I tell himl" said she. "I don't understand it; I don't in the least un- derstand why men can't live without wars. How is it that we women don't want anything of the kind, don't need it? Now you shall judge between us. I always tell him: Here he is Uncle's aide-de-camp, a most brilliant posi- tion. He is so well known, so much appreciated by everyone. The other day at the Aprksins' I heard a lady asking, 'Is that the famous Prince Andrew?' I did indeed." She laughed. "He is so well received everywhere. He might easily become aide-de-camp to the Emperor. You know the Emperor spoke to him most gra- ciously. Annette and I were speaking of how to arrange it. What do you think?"
Pierre looked at his friend and, noticing that he did not like the conversation, gave no reply.
"When are you starting?" he asked.
"Oh, don't speak of his going, don't! I won't hear it spoken of," said the princess in the same petulantly playful tone in which she had spoken to Hippolyte in the drawing room and
which was so plainly ill-suited to the family circle of which Pierre was almost a member. "Today when I remembered that all these de- lightful associations must be broken off ... and then you know, Andr . . ." (she looked significantly at her husband) "I'm afraid, I'm afraid!" she whispered, and a shudder ran down her back.
Her husband looked at her as if surprised to notice that someone besides Pierre and him- self was in the room, and addressed her in a tone of frigid politeness.
"What is it you are afraid of, Lise? I don't understand," said he.
"There, what egotists men all are: all, all egotists! Just for a whim of his own, goodness only knows why, he leaves me and locks me up alone in the country."
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Post by Nightman on Apr 25, 2017 5:54:03 GMT
"With my father and sister, remember," said Prince Andrew gently.
"Alone all the same, without my friends. . . . And he expects me not to be afraid."
Her tone was now querulous and her lip drawn up, giving her not a joyful, but an ani- mal, squirrel-like expression. She paused as if she felt it indecorous to speak of her preg- nancy before Pierre, though the gist of the matter lay in that.
"I still can't understand what you are afraid of," said Prince Andrew slowly, not taking his eyes off his wife.
The princess blushed, and raised her arms with a gesture of despair.
"No, Andrew, I must say you have changed. Oh, how you have . . ."
"Your doctor tells you to go to bed earlier," said Prince Andrew. "You had better go."
The princess said nothing, but suddenly her short downy lip quivered. Prince Andrew rose, shrugged his shoulders, and walked about the room.
Pierre looked over his spectacles with nai've surprise, now at him and now at her, moved as if about to rise too, but changed his mind.
"Why should I mind Monsieur Pierre being here?" exclaimed the little princess suddenly, her pretty face all at once distorted by a tear- ful grimace. "I have long wanted to ask you, Andrew, why you have changed so to me? What have I done to you? You are going to the war and have no pity for me. Why is it?"
"Lise!" was all Prince Andrew said. But that one word expressed an entreaty, a threat, and above all conviction that she would herself re- gret her words. But she went on hurriedly:
"You treat me like an invalid or a child. I
WAR AND PEACE
see it all! Did you behave like that six months ago?"
"Lise, I beg you to desist," said Prince An- drew still more emphatically.
Pierre, who had been growing more and more agitated as he listened to all this, rose and approached the princess. He seemed un- able to bear the sight of tears and was ready to cry himself.
"Calm yourself, Princess! It seems so to you because ... I assure you I myself have experi- enced . . . and so ... because . . . No, excuse me! An outsider is out of place here . . . No, don't distress yourself . . . Good-by!"
Prince Andrew caught him by the hand.
"No, wait, Pierre! The princess is too kind to wish to deprive me of the pleasure of spend- ing the evening with you."
"No, he thinks only of himself," muttered the princess without restraining her angry tears.
"Lise!" said Prince Andrew dryly, raising his voice to the pitch which indicates that pa- tience is exhausted.
Suddenly the angry, squirrel-like expression of the princess' pretty face changed into a win- ning and piteous look of fear. Her beautiful eyes glanced askance at her husband's -face, and her own assumed the timid, deprecating expression of a dog when it rapidly but feebly wags its drooping tail.
"M on Dieu, rnon Dieu!" she muttered, and lifting her dress with one hand she went up to her husband and kissed him on the forehead.
"Good night, Lise," said he, rising and cour- teously kissing her hand as he would have done to a stranger.
CHAPTER VIII
THE FRIENDS were silent. Neither cared to be- gin talking. Pierre continually glanced at Prince Andrew; Prince Andrew rubbed his forehead with his small hand.
"Let us go and have supper," he said with a sigh, going to the door.
They entered the elegant, newly decorated, and luxurious dining room. Everything from the table napkins to the silver, china, and glass bore that imprint of newness found in the households of the newly married. Halfway through supper Prince Andrew leaned his el- bows on the table and, with a look of nervous agitation such as Pierre had never before seen on his face, began to talk as one who has long had something on his mind and suddenly de- termines to speak out.
"Never, never marry, my dear fellow! That's
my advice: never marry till you can say to yoursel f that you have done all you are capa- ble of, and until you have ceased to love the woman of your choice and have seen her plain- ly as she is, or else you will make a cruel and irrevocable mistake. Marry when you are old and good for nothing or all that is good and noble in you will be lost. It will all be wasted on trifles. Yes! Yes! Yes! Don't look at me with such surprise. If you marry expecting anything from yourself in the future, you will feel at every step that for you all is ended, all is closed except the drawing room, where you will be ranged side by side with a court lackey and an idiot! . . . But what's the good? . . ." and he waved his arm.
Pierre took off his spectacles, which made his face seem different and the good-natured expression still more apparent, and gazed at his friend in amazement.
"My wife," continued Prince Andrew, "is an excellent woman, one of those rare women with whom a man's honor is safe; but, O God, what would I not give now to be unmarried! You are the first and only one to whom I men- tion this, because I like you."
As he said this Prince Andrew was less than ever like that Bolk6nski who had lolled in Anna Pavlovna's easy chairs and with half- closed eyes had uttered French phrases be- tween his teeth. Every muscle of his thin face was now quivering with nervous excitement; his eyes, in which the fire of life had seemed extinguished, now flashed with brilliant light. It was evident that the more lifeless he seemed at ordinary times, the more impassioned he be- came in these moments of almost morbid irri- tation.
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Post by Nightman on Apr 25, 2017 5:54:33 GMT
"You don't understand why I say this," he continued, "but it is the whole story of life. You talk of Bonaparte and his career," said he (though Pierre had not mentioned Bona- parte), "but Bonaparte when he worked went step by step toward his goal. He was free, he had nothing but his aim to consider, and he reached it. But tie yourself up with a woman and, like a chained convict, you lose all free- dom! And all you have of hope and strength merely weighs you down and torments you with regret. Drawing rooms, gossip, balls, van- ity, and triviality these are the enchanted circle I cannot escape from. I am now going to the war, the greatest war there ever was, and I know nothing and am fit for nothing. I am very amiable and have a caustic wit," continued Prince Andrew, "and at Anna Pdv-
BOOK ONE
lovna's they listen to me. And that stupid set without whom my wife cannot exist, an4 those women ... If you only knew what those society women are, and women in general I My father is right. Selfish, vain, stupid, trivial in every- thingthat's what women are when you see them in their true colors! When you meet them in society it seems as if there were something in them, but there's nothing, nothing, noth- ing! No, don't marry, my dear fellow; don't marry!" concluded Prince Andrew.
"It seems funny to me," said Pierre, "that you, you should consider yourself incapable and your life a spoiled life. You have every- thing before you, everything. And you . . ."
He did not finish his sentence, but his tone showed how highly he thought of his friend and how much he expected of him in the fu- ture.
"How can he talk like that?" thought Pierre. He considered his friend a model of perfec- tion because Prince Andrew possessed in the highest degree just the very qualities Pierre lacked, and which might be best described as strength of will. Pierre was always astonished at Prince Andrew's calm manner of treating everybody, his extraordinary memory, his ex- tensive reading (he had read everything, knew everything, and had an opinion about every- thing), but above all at his capacity for work and study. And if Pierre was often struck by Andrew's lack of capacity for philosophical meditation (to which he himself was particu- larly addicted), he regarded even this not as a defect but as a sign of strength.
Even in the best, most friendly and sim- plest relations of life, praise and commenda- tion are essential, just as grease is necessary to wheels that they may run smoothly.
"My part is played out," said Prince An- drew. "What's the use of talking about me? Let us talk about you," he added after a si- lence, smiling at his reassuring thoughts.
That smile was immediately reflected on Pierre's face.
"But what is there to say about me?" said Pierre, his face relaxing into a careless, merry smile. "What am I? An illegitimate son!" He suddenly blushed crimson, and it was plain that he had made a great effort to say this. "With- out a name and without means . . . And it really . , ." But he did not say what "it really" was. "For the present I am free and am all right. Only I haven't the least idea what I am to do; I wanted to consult you seriously."
Prince Andrew looked kindly at him, yet
his glance friendly and affectionate as it was expressed a sense of his own superiority.
"I am fond of you, especially as you are the one live man among our whole set. Yes, you're all right! Choose what you will; it's all the same. You'll be all right anywhere. But look here: give up visiting those Kurdgins and lead- ing that sort of life. It suits you so badly all this debauchery, dissipation, and the rest of it!"
"What would you have, my dear fellow?" answered Pierre, shrugging his shoulders. "Women, my dear fellow; women!"
"I don't understand it," replied Prince An- drew. "Women who are comme il faut, that's a different matter; but the Kuragins' set of women, 'women and wine,' I -don't under- stand!"
Pierre was staying at Prince Vasili Kurdgin's and sharing the dissipated life of his son Ana- tole, the son whom they were planning to re- form by marrying him to Prince Andrew's sister.
"Do you know?" said Pierre, as if suddenly struck by a happy thought, "seriously, I have long been thinking of it. ... Leading such a life I can't decide or think properly about any- thing. One's head aches, and one spends all one's money. He asked me for tonight, but 1 won't go."
"You give me your word of honor not to go?"
"On my honor!"
CHAPTER IX
1 r WAS past one o'clock when Pierre left his friend. It was a cloudless, northern, summer night. Pierre took an open cab intending to drive straight home. But the nearer he drew to the house the more he felt the impossibility of going to sleep on such a night. It was light enough to see a long way in the deserted street and it seemed more like morning or evening than night. On the way Pierre remembered that Anatole Kuragin was expecting the usual set for cards that evening, after which there was generally a drinking bout, finishing with visits of a kind Pierre was very fond of.
"I should like to go to Kuragin's," thought he.
But he immediately recalled his promise to Prince Andrew not to go there. Then, as hap- pens to people of weak character, he desired so passionately once more to enjoy that dissi- pation he was so accustomed to that he de- cided to go. The thought immediately occurred
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Post by Nightman on Apr 25, 2017 5:56:10 GMT
WAR AND PEACE
to him that his promise to Prince Andrew was of no account, because before he gave it he had already promised Prince Anatole to come to his gathering; "besides," thought he, "all such 'words of honor' are conventional things with no definite meaning, especially if one considers that by tomorrow one may be dead, or something so extraordinary may happen to one that honor and dishonor will be all the samel" Pierre often indulged in reflections of this sort, nullifying all his decisions and in- tentions. He went to Kurdgin's.
Reaching the large house near the Horse Guards' barracks, in which Anatole lived, Pierre entered the lighted porch, ascended the stairs, and went in at the open door. There was no one in the anteroom; empty bottles, cloaks, and overshoes were lying about; there was a smell of alcohol, and sounds of voices and shouting in the distance.
Cards and supper were over, but the visitors had not yet dispersed. Pierre threw off his cloak and entered the first room, in which were the remains of supper. A footman, thinking no one saw him, was drinking on the sly what was left in the glasses. From the third room came sounds of laughter, the shouting of famil- iar voices, the growling of a bear, and general commotion. Some eight or nine young men were crowding anxiously round an open win- dow. Three others were romping with a young bear, one pulling him by the chain and trying to set him at the others.
"I bet a hundred on Stevens!" shouted one.
"Mind, no holding on I" cried another.
"I bet on Dolokhovl" cried a third. "Kura- gin, you part our hands."
"There, leave Bruin alone; here's a bet on."
"At one draught, or he loses!" shouted a fourth.
"Jacob, bring a bottle!" shouted the host, a tall, handsome fellow who stood in the midst of the group, without a coat, and with his fine linen shirt unfastened in front. "Wait a bit, you fellows. . . . Here is Pdtya! Good man!" cried he, addressing Pierre.
Another voice, from a man of medium height with clear blue eyes, particularly strik- ing among all these drunken voices by its sober ring, criedfrom thewindow: "Comehere; part the bets!" This was D61okhov, an officer of the Semenov regiment, a notorious gambler and duelist, who was living with Anatole. Pierre smiled, looking about him merrily.
"I don't understand. What's it all about?"
"Wait a bit, he is not drunk yet! A bottle
here," said Anatole, and taking a glass from the ta^le he went up to Pierre.
"First of all you must drink!"
Pierre drank one glass after another, look- ing from under his brows at the tipsy guests who were again crowding round the window, and listening to their chatter. Anatole kept on refilling Pierre's glass while explaining that D61okhov was betting with Stevens, an Eng- lish naval officer, that he would drink a bottle of rum sitting on the outer ledge of the third- floor window with his legs hanging out.
"Go on, you must drink it all," said Anatole, giving Pierre the last glass, "or I won't let you go!"
"No, I won't," said Pierre, pushing Anatole aside, and he went up to the window.
D61okhov was holding the Englishman's hand and clearly and distinctly repeating the terms of the bet, addressing himself particu- larly to Anatole and Pierre.
D61okhov was of medium height, with curly hair and light-blue eyes. He was about twenty- five. Like all infantry officers he wore no mus- tache, so that his mouth, the most striking feature of his face, was clearly seen. The lines of that mouth were remarkably finely curved. The middle of the upper lip formed a sharp wedge and closed firmly on the firm lower one, and something like two distinct smiles played continually round the two corners of the mouth; this, together with the resolute, inso- lent intelligence of his eyes, produced an effect which made it impossible not to notice his face. D61okhov was a man of small means and no connections. Yet, though Anatole spent tens of thousands of rubles, D61okhov lived with him and had placed himself on such a footing that all who knew them, including Ana- tole himself , respected him more than they did Anatole. D61okhov could play all games and nearly always won. However much he drank, he never lost his clearheadedness. Both Kurdgin and D61okhov were at that time notorious among the rakes and scapegraces of Petersburg.
The bottle of rum was brought. The window frame which prevented anyone from sitting on the outer sill was being forced out by two footmen, who were evidently flurried and in- timidated by the directions and shouts of the gentlemen around.
Anatole with his swaggering air strode up to the window. He wanted to smash something. Pushing away the footmen he tugged at the frame, but could not move it. He smashed a pane.
BOOK ONE
"You have a try, Hercules/' said he, Burning to Pierre.
Pierre seized the crossbeam, tugged, and wrenched the oak frame out with a crash.
"Take it right out, or they'll think I'm hold- ing on," said D61okhov.
"Is the Englishman bragging? . . . Eh? Is it all right?" said Anatole.
"First-rate," said Pierre, looking at D61ok- hov, who with a bottle of rum in his hand was approaching the window, from which the light of the sky, the dawn merging with the after- glow of sunset, was visible.
D61okhov,the bottle of rum still in his hand, jumped onto the window sill. "Listen!" cried he, standing there and addressing those in the room. All were silent.
"I bet fifty imperials" he spoke French that the Englishman might understand him, but he did not speak it very well "I bet fifty im- perials ... or do you wish to make it a hun- dred?" added he, addressing the Englishman.
"No, fifty," replied the latter.
"All right. Fifty imperials . . . that I will drink a whole bottle of rum without taking it from my mouth, sitting outside the window on this spot" (he stooped and pointed to the sloping ledge outside the window) "and with- out holding on to anything. Is that right?"
"Quite right," said the Englishman.
Anatole turned to the Englishman and tak- ing him by one of the buttons of his coat and looking down at him the Englishman was short began repeating the terms of the wager to him in English.
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