Volume 1

PART ONE

I

Eh bien, mon prince. Gênes et Lucques ne sont plus que des apanages, des estates, de la famille Buonaparte. Non, je vous préviens, que si vous ne me dites pas, que nous avons la guerre, si vous vous permettez encore de pallier toutes les infamies, toutes les atrocités de cet Antichrist (ma parole, j"y crois) - je ne vous connais plus, vous n"êtes plus mon ami, vous n"êtes plus my faithful slave, comme vous dites. [Well, prince, Genoa and Lucca have become no more than estates of the Bonaparte family. you won’t tell me that we are at war, if you still allow yourself to defend all the nasty things, all the horrors of this Antichrist (really, I believe that he is the Antichrist) - I don’t know you anymore, you are no longer my friend, you are no longer mine faithful slave, as you say.] Well, hello, hello. Je vois que je vous fais peur, [I see that I'm scaring you,] sit down and tell me.

This is what the famous Anna Pavlovna Sherer, maid of honor and close associate of Empress Maria Feodorovna, said in July 1805, meeting the important and official Prince Vasily, who was the first to arrive at her evening. Anna Pavlovna had been coughing for several days; she had flu as she said ( flu was then a new word, used only by rare people). In the notes sent out in the morning by the red footman, it was written without distinction in all:

“Si vous n"avez rien de mieux à faire, M. le comte (or mon prince), et si la perspective de passer la soirée chez une pauvre malade ne vous effraye pas trop, je serai charmée de vous voir chez moi entre 7 et 10 heures. Annette Scherer>.

[If you, Count (or Prince), have nothing better in mind and if the prospect of an evening with a poor sick woman does not frighten you too much, then I will be very glad to see you today between seven and ten o’clock. Anna Scherer.]

Dieu, quelle virulente sortie [Oh! what a cruel attack!] - answered, not at all embarrassed by such a meeting, the prince who entered, in an embroidered court uniform, in stockings, shoes, with stars, with a bright expression on his flat face. He spoke that refined French, in which our grandfathers not only spoke, but also thought, and with those quiet, patronizing intonations that are characteristic of a significant person who has grown old in the world and at court. He walked up to Anna Pavlovna, kissed her hand, offering her his perfumed and shining bald head, and sat down calmly on the sofa.

Avant tout dites moi, comment vous allez, chère amie? [First of all, tell me, how is your health?] Reassure your friend,” he said, without changing his voice and in a tone in which, due to decency and sympathy, indifference and even mockery shone through.

How can you be healthy when you suffer morally? Is it possible to remain calm in our time when a person has feelings? - said Anna Pavlovna. - You are with me all evening, I hope?

What about the holiday of the English envoy? It's Wednesday. “I need to show myself there,” said the prince. - My daughter will pick me up and take me.

I thought the current holiday was cancelled. Je vous avoue que toutes ces fêtes et tous ces feux d "artifice commencent à devenir insipides. [I confess, all these holidays and fireworks are becoming unbearable.]

“If they knew that you wanted this, the holiday would have been cancelled,” said the prince, out of habit, like a wound-up clock, saying things that he did not want to be believed.

Ne me tourmentez pas. Eh bien, qu"a‑t‑on décidé par rapport à la dépêche de Novosiizoff? Vous savez tout. [Don’t torment me. Well, what did they decide on the occasion of Novosiltsov’s dispatch? You know everything.]

How can I tell you? - said the prince in a cold, bored tone. - Qu"a‑t‑on décidé? On a décidé que Buonaparte a brûlé ses vaisseaux, et je crois que nous sommes en train de brûler les nôtres. [What did they decide? They decided that Bonaparte burned his ships; and we too, it seems , ready to burn ours.] - Prince Vasily always spoke lazily, like an actor speaking the role of an old play. Anna Pavlovna Sherer, on the contrary, despite her forty years, was full of animation and impulses.

Being an enthusiast made her social status, and sometimes, when she didn’t even want to, she, in order not to deceive the expectations of people who knew her, became an enthusiast. The restrained smile that constantly played on Anna Pavlovna’s face, although it did not match her outdated features, expressed, like spoiled children, the constant consciousness of her dear shortcoming, from which she does not want, cannot and does not find it necessary to correct herself.

In the middle of a conversation about political actions, Anna Pavlovna became heated.

Oh, don't tell me about Austria! I don’t understand anything, maybe, but Austria has never wanted and does not want war. She's betraying us. Russia alone must be the savior of Europe. Our benefactor knows his high calling and will be faithful to it. That's one thing I believe in. Our good and wonderful sovereign has the greatest role in the world, and he is so virtuous and good that God will not leave him, and he will fulfill his calling to crush the hydra of the revolution, which is now even more terrible in the person of this murderer and villain. We alone must atone for the blood of the righteous: Who can we rely on, I ask you?: England, with its commercial spirit, will not and cannot understand the full height of the soul of Emperor Alexander. She refused to clean up Malta. She wants to see, looking for the underlying thought of our actions. What did they say to Novosiltsov?: Nothing. They did not understand, they cannot understand the selflessness of our emperor, who wants nothing for himself and wants everything for the good of the world. And what did they promise? Nothing. And what they promised will not happen! Prussia has already declared that Bonaparte is invincible and that all of Europe can do nothing against him: And I do not believe a single word of either Hardenberg or Gaugwitz. Cette fameuse neutralité prussienne, ce n"est qu"un piège. [This notorious neutrality of Prussia is only a trap.] I believe in one God and in the high destiny of our dear emperor. He will save Europe!: - She suddenly stopped with a smile of mockery at her ardor.

“I think,” said the prince, smiling, “that if you had been sent instead of our dear Winzengerode, you would have taken the consent of the Prussian king by storm.” You are so eloquent. Will you give me some tea?

Now. “A propos,” she added, calming down again, “today I have two very interesting person, le vicomte de MorteMariet, il est allié aux Montmorency par les Rohans, [By the way, - Viscount Mortemar,] he is related to Montmorency through the Rohans,] one of the best surnames in France. This is one of the good emigrants, the real ones. And then l "abbé Morio: [Abbé Morio:] do you know this deep mind? He was accepted by the sovereign. Do you know?

A! “I will be very glad,” said the prince. “Tell me,” he added, as if he had just remembered something and especially casually, while what he was asking about was the main purpose of his visit, “it is true that l"impératrice-mère [the Empress-Mother] wishes appointment of Baron Funke as first secretary in Vienna? C "est un pauvre sire, ce baron, à ce qu"il paraît. [This baron seems to be an insignificant person.] - Prince Vasily wanted to appoint his son to this place, which through Empress Maria Feodorovna tried to deliver to the baron.

Anna Pavlovna almost closed her eyes as a sign that neither she nor anyone else could judge what the Empress wanted or liked.

Monsieur le baron de Funke a été recommandé à l "impératrice‑mère par sa soeur, [Baron Funke was recommended to the Empress Mother by her sister," she just said in a sad, dry tone. While Anna Pavlovna named the Empress, her face suddenly presented a deep and sincere expression of devotion and respect, combined with sadness, which happened to her every time she mentioned her high patron in a conversation. She said that Her Majesty deigned to show Baron Funke beaucoup d'estime, [a lot of respect, ] and again her gaze became sad.

The prince fell silent indifferently. Anna Pavlovna, with her characteristic courtly and feminine dexterity and quick tact, wanted to hit the prince for daring to speak in such a way about the person recommended to the empress, and at the same time to console him.

Mais à propos de votre famille, [Speaking of your family,] - she said, - do you know that your daughter has been fait les délices de tout le monde since she left. On la trouve belle, comme le jour. [is the delight of the whole society. They find her as beautiful as day.]

The prince bent down as a sign of respect and gratitude.

“I often think,” Anna Pavlovna continued after a moment of silence, moving towards the prince and smiling affectionately at him, as if showing by this that political and social conversations were over and now intimate conversations began, “I often think how unfairly the happiness of life is sometimes distributed. Why did fate give you such two nice children (with the exception of Anatole, your youngest, I don’t love him, she interjected peremptorily, raising her eyebrows) - such lovely children? And you, really, value them least of all and therefore are not worth them.

And she smiled with her with an enthusiastic smile.

Que voulez-vous? Lafater aurait dit que je n"ai pas la bosse de la paterienité, [What do you want? Lafater would say that I don’t have a bump parental love,] - said the prince.

Stop making jokes. I wanted to talk to you seriously. You know, I'm not happy with your smaller son. Between us, be it said (her face took on a sad expression), they spoke about him at Her Majesty’s and feel sorry for you:

The prince did not answer, but she silently, looking significantly at him, waited for an answer. Prince Vasily winced.

What do you want me to do! - he said finally. - You know, I did everything a father could to raise them, and both came out des imbeciles. [fools.] Ippolit, at least, is a calm fool, and Anatole is a restless one. “Here’s one difference,” he said, smiling more unnaturally and animatedly than usual, and at the same time especially sharply revealing something unexpectedly rough and unpleasant in the wrinkles that formed around his mouth.

And why would people like you have children? If you weren’t my father, I couldn’t blame you for anything,” said Anna Pavlovna, raising her eyes thoughtfully.

Je suis votre [I am your] faithful slave, et à vous seule je puis l "avouer. My children are ce sont les entraves de mon existence. [I can confess to you alone. My children are the burden of my existence.] - He paused, expressing a gesture of submission to cruel fate.

Anna Pavlovna thought about it.

Have you ever thought about marrying your prodigal son Anatoly? They say, she said, that old maids are ont la manie des Marieiages. [they have a mania to get married.] I don’t yet feel this weakness in me, but I have one petite personne [little person] who is very unhappy with her father, une parente à nous, une princesse [our relative, Princess] Bolkonskaya. - Prince Vasily did not answer, although with the speed of thought and memory characteristic of secular people, he showed with a movement of his head that he had taken this information into account.

No, you know that this Anatole costs me 40,000 a year,” he said, apparently unable to control the sad train of his thoughts. He paused.

What will happen in five years if it goes like this? Voilà l "avantage d" être père. [This is the benefit of being a father.] Is she rich, your princess?

The father is very rich and stingy. He lives in the village. You know, this famous Prince Bolkonsky, who was dismissed under the late emperor and nicknamed the Prussian king. He is a very smart person, but strange and difficult. La pauvre petite est malheureuse, comme les pierres. [The poor thing is as unhappy as stones.] She has a brother who recently married Lise Meinen, Kutuzov’s adjutant. He will be with me today.

Ecoutez, chère Annette, [Listen, dear Annette,] - said the prince, suddenly taking his interlocutor by the hand and bending it down for some reason. - Arrangez‑moi cette affaire et je suis votre [Arrange this affair for me, and I am yours forever] most faithful slave à tout jamais pan, comme mon headman m"écrit des [as my headman writes to me] reports: peace-er-p!. She has a good name and is rich. Everything I need.

And he, with those free and familiar, graceful movements that distinguished him, took the maid of honor by the hand, kissed her and, having kissed her, waved the maid of honor's hand, lounging on the chair and looking to the side.

Attendez [Wait], - said Anna Pavlovna, thinking. - I’ll talk to Lise today (la femme du jeune Bolkonsky). [with Lisa (the wife of young Bolkonsky).] And maybe this will work out. Ce sera dans votre famille, que je ferai mon apprentissage de vieille fille. [In your family, I will begin to learn the craft of a spinster.]

Part one

I

- Eh bien, mon prince. Gênes et Lucques ne sont plus que des apanages, des estates, de la famille Buonaparte. Non, je vous préviens que si vous ne me dites pas que nous avons la guerre, si vous vous permettez encore de pallier toutes les infamies, toutes les atrocités de cet Antichrist (ma parole, j'y crois) – je ne vous connais plus , vous n'êtes plus mon ami, vous n'êtes plus my faithful slave, comme vous dites. Well, hello, hello. Je vois que je vous fais peur, sit down and tell me.

This is what the famous Anna Pavlovna Sherer, maid of honor and close associate of Empress Maria Feodorovna, said in July 1805, meeting the important and official Prince Vasily, who was the first to arrive at her evening. Anna Pavlovna had been coughing for several days; she had flu, as she spoke (flu was then a new word, used only by rare people). In the notes sent out in the morning by the red footman, it was written without distinction in all:

“Si vous n'avez rien de mieux à faire, Monsieur le comte (or mon prince), et si la perspective de passer la soirée chez une pauvre malade ne vous effraye pas trop, je serai charmée de vous voir chez moi entre 7 et 10 heures. Annette Scherer"

“If they knew that you wanted this, the holiday would be cancelled,” said the prince, out of habit, like a wound-up clock, saying things that he did not want to be believed.

- Ne me tourmentez pas. Eh bien, qu’a-t-on décidé par rapport à la dépêche de Novosilzoff? Vous savez tout.

- How can I tell you? - said the prince in a cold, bored tone. - Qu'a-t-on décidé? On a décidé que Buonaparte a brûlé ses vaisseaux, et je crois que nous sommes en train de brûler les nôtres.

Prince Vasily always spoke lazily, like an actor speaking the role of an old play. Anna Pavlovna Sherer, on the contrary, despite her forty years, was full of animation and impulses.

Being an enthusiast became her social position, and sometimes, when she didn’t even want to, she, in order not to deceive the expectations of people who knew her, became an enthusiast. The restrained smile that constantly played on Anna Pavlovna’s face, although it did not match her outdated features, expressed, like spoiled children, the constant consciousness of her dear shortcoming, from which she does not want, cannot and does not find it necessary to correct herself.

In the middle of a conversation about political actions, Anna Pavlovna became heated.

– Oh, don’t tell me about Austria! I don’t understand anything, maybe, but Austria has never wanted and does not want war. She's betraying us. Russia alone must be the savior of Europe. Our benefactor knows his high calling and will be faithful to it. That's one thing I believe in. Our good and wonderful sovereign has the greatest role in the world, and he is so virtuous and good that God will not leave him, and he will fulfill his calling to crush the hydra of the revolution, which is now even more terrible in the person of this murderer and villain. We alone must atone for the blood of the righteous. Who should we rely on, I ask you?.. England, with its commercial spirit, will not and cannot understand the full height of the soul of Emperor Alexander. She refused to clean up Malta. She wants to see, looking for the underlying thought of our actions. What did they say to Novosiltsev? Nothing. They did not understand, they cannot understand the selflessness of our emperor, who wants nothing for himself and wants everything for the good of the world. And what did they promise? Nothing. And what they promised will not happen! Prussia has already declared that Bonaparte is invincible and that all of Europe can do nothing against him... And I don’t believe a single word of either Hardenberg or Gaugwitz. Cette fameuse neutralité prussienne, ce n'est qu'un pièe. I believe in one God and in the high destiny of our dear Emperor. He will save Europe!.. - She suddenly stopped with a smile of mockery at her ardor.

“I think,” said the prince, smiling, “that if you had been sent instead of our dear Winzengerode, you would have taken the consent of the Prussian king by storm.” You are so eloquent. Will you give me some tea?

- Now. A propos,” she added, calming down again, “today I have two very interesting people, le vicomte de Mortemart, il est allié aux Montmorency par les Rohans, one of the best families in France.” This is one of the good emigrants, the real ones. And then l'abbé Morio; do you know this deep mind? He was received by the sovereign. You know?

- A? “I will be very glad,” said the prince. “Tell me,” he added, as if he had just remembered something and especially casually, while what he was asking about was the main purpose of his visit, “it is true that I’m impératrice-merè wishes to appoint Baron Funke as first secretary.” to Vienna? C'est un pauvre sire, ce baron, et qu'il paraît. “Prince Vasily wanted to appoint his son to this place, which they tried to deliver to the baron through Empress Maria Feodorovna.

Anna Pavlovna almost closed her eyes as a sign that neither she nor anyone else could judge what the Empress wanted or liked.

“Monsieur le baron de Funke a été recommandé a l’impératrice-mèe par sa soeur,” she just said in a sad, dry tone. While Anna Pavlovna named the empress, her face suddenly presented a deep and sincere expression of devotion and respect, combined with sadness, which happened to her every time she mentioned her high patron in a conversation. She said that Her Majesty had deigned to show Baron Funke beaucoup d’estime, and again her gaze was filled with sadness.

The prince fell silent indifferently. Anna Pavlovna, with her characteristic courtly and feminine dexterity and quick tact, wanted to snap at the prince for daring to speak in such a way about the person recommended to the empress, and at the same time to console him.

“Mais a propos de votre famille,” she said, “do you know that your daughter, since she leaves, has been fait les délices de tout le monde.” On la trouve belle comme le jour.

The prince bent down as a sign of respect and gratitude.

“I often think,” Anna Pavlovna continued after a moment of silence, moving closer to the prince and smiling affectionately at him, as if showing by this that political and social conversations were over and now intimate conversations began, “I often think how unfairly the happiness of life is sometimes distributed.” Why did fate give you such two nice children (with the exception of Anatole, your youngest, I don’t love him,” she inserted peremptorily, raising her eyebrows), “such lovely children? And you, really, value them least of all and therefore are not worth them.

And she smiled her enthusiastic smile.

- Que voulez-vous? “Lafater aurait dit que je n’ai pas la bosse de la paternité,” said the prince.

- Stop joking. I wanted to talk to you seriously. You know, I'm not happy with your smaller son. Let it be said between us (her face took on a sad expression), Her Majesty spoke about him and they feel sorry for you...

The prince did not answer, but she silently, looking significantly at him, waited for an answer. Prince Vasily winced.

- What should I do? - he said finally. “You know, I did everything a father could to raise them, and both turned out des imbeciles.” Hippolyte, at least, is a calm fool, and Anatole is restless. “Here’s one difference,” he said, smiling more unnaturally and animatedly than usual, and at the same time especially sharply revealing something unexpectedly rough and unpleasant in the wrinkles that formed around his mouth.

– And why would people like you have children? If you weren’t my father, I couldn’t blame you for anything,” said Anna Pavlovna, raising her eyes thoughtfully.

– Je suis votre faithful slave, et a vous seule je puis l’avouer. My children – ce sont les entraves de mon existence. This is my cross. This is how I explain it to myself. Que voulez-vous?.. - He paused, expressing with a gesture his submission to cruel fate.

Anna Pavlovna thought about it.

– Have you ever thought about marrying your prodigal son Anatole? They say,” she said, “that old maids are ont la manie des mariages.” I don’t yet feel this weakness in me, but I have one petite personne who is very unhappy with her father, une parente a nous, une princesse Bolkonskaya. “Prince Vasily did not answer, although with the quickness of thought and memory characteristic of secular people, a movement of his head showed that he had taken this information into account.

“No, you know that this Anatole costs me forty thousand a year,” he said, apparently unable to control the sad train of his thoughts. He paused.

– What will happen in five years if it goes like this? Voilà l'avantage d'être pèe. Is she rich, your princess?

- My father is very rich and stingy. He lives in the village. You know, this famous Prince Bolkonsky, who was dismissed under the late emperor and nicknamed the Prussian king. He is a very smart person, but strange and difficult. La pauvre petite est malheureuse comme les pierres. She has a brother who recently married Lise Meinen, Kutuzov's adjutant. He will be with me today.

II

Anna Pavlovna's living room began to gradually fill up. The highest nobility of St. Petersburg arrived, people of the most diverse ages and characters, but identical in the society in which they all lived; Prince Vasily's daughter, the beautiful Helen, arrived, picking up her father to go with him to the envoy's holiday. She was wearing a cipher and a ball gown. Also known as la femme la plus séduisante de Pétersbourg, the young, little Princess Bolkonskaya, who got married last winter and now did not travel to big light due to her pregnancy, but she still went to small evenings. Prince Hippolyte, the son of Prince Vasily, arrived with Mortemar, whom he introduced; Abbot Moriot and many others also arrived.

- You haven’t seen it yet, - or: - you’re not familiar with ma tante? - Anna Pavlovna said to the arriving guests and very seriously led them to a little old woman in high bows, who floated out from another room, as soon as the guests began to arrive, called them by name, slowly moving her eyes from the guest to ma tante, and then walked away.

All the guests performed the ritual of welcoming an aunt unknown to no one, interesting to anyone and unnecessary. Anna Pavlovna watched their greetings with sad, solemn sympathy, silently approving them. Ma tante spoke to everyone in the same terms about his health, about her health and about the health of Her Majesty, which was now, thank God, better. All those who approached, without showing haste out of decency, with a feeling of relief at the fulfillment of a difficult duty, moved away from the old woman, so as not to approach her once all evening.

The young Princess Bolkonskaya arrived with her work in an embroidered gold velvet bag. Her pretty upper lip, with a slightly blackened mustache, was short in the teeth, but the more sweetly it opened and the more sweetly it sometimes stretched out and fell onto the lower one. How does it happen in quite attractive women, her shortcomings - short lips and half-open mouth - seemed to be special, actually her beauty. Everyone had fun looking at this pretty expectant mother, full of health and vivacity, who endured her situation so easily. It seemed to the old people and bored, gloomy young people that they themselves became like her, having been and talked with her for a while. Whoever spoke to her and saw her bright smile and shiny white teeth, which were constantly visible, with every word, thought that he was especially kind today. And that's what everyone thought.

The little princess, waddled, walked around the table with small quick steps with her work bag on her arm and, cheerfully straightening her dress, sat down on the sofa, near the silver samovar, as if everything she did was partie de plaisir for her and for everyone around her.

And she spread her arms to show her lace-covered gray elegant dress, girded with a wide ribbon just below her breasts.

“Soyez tranquille, Lise, vous serez toujours la plus jolie,” answered Anna Pavlovna.

“Vous savez, mon mari m’abandonne,” she continued in the same tone, turning to the general, “il va se faire tuer.” “Dites-moi, pourquoi cette vilaine guerre,” she said to Prince Vasily and, without waiting for an answer, turned to Prince Vasily’s daughter, the beautiful Helen.

– Quelle délicieuse personne, que cette petite princesse! - Prince Vasily said quietly to Anna Pavlovna.

Soon after the little princess, a massive, fat young man with a cropped head, glasses, light trousers in the fashion of that time, a high frill and a brown tailcoat entered. This fat young man was the illegitimate son of the famous Catherine's nobleman, Count Bezukhov, who was now dying in Moscow. He had not served anywhere yet, he had just arrived from abroad, where he was raised, and was for the first time in society. Anna Pavlovna greeted him with a bow that belonged to people of the lowest hierarchy in her salon. But, despite this inferior greeting, at the sight of Pierre entering, Anna Pavlovna’s face showed concern and fear, similar to that expressed at the sight of something too huge and out of character for the place. Although it is true that Pierre was somewhat larger than the other men in the room, this fear could only relate to that intelligent and at the same time timid, observant and natural look that distinguished him from everyone in this living room.

“C’est bien aimable a vous, monsieur Pierre, d’être venu voir une pauvre malade,” Anna Pavlovna told him, exchanging fearful glances with the aunt to whom she was leading him. Pierre muttered something incomprehensible and continued to look for something with his eyes. He smiled joyfully, cheerfully, bowing to the little princess as if he were a close friend, and approached his aunt. Anna Pavlovna’s fear was not in vain, because Pierre, without listening to his aunt’s speech about Her Majesty’s health, left her. Anna Pavlovna stopped him in fear with the words:

“You don’t know Abbot Morioh?” He is a very interesting person...” she said.

- Yes, I heard about his plan. eternal peace, and this is very interesting, but hardly possible...

“Do you think?...” Anna Pavlovna said, wanting to say something and return to her duties as a housewife, but Pierre did the opposite of impoliteness. First, he left without listening to the words of his interlocutor; now he stopped his interlocutor with his conversation, who needed to get away from him. He, bending his head and spreading his large legs, began to prove to Anna Pavlovna why he believed that the abbot’s plan was a chimera.

“We’ll talk later,” Anna Pavlovna said, smiling.

And, having gotten rid of the young man who did not know how to live, she returned to her duties as a housewife and continued to listen and look closely, ready to give help to the point where the conversation was weakening. Just as the owner of a spinning workshop, having seated the workers in their places, walks around the establishment, noticing the immobility or the unusual, creaking, too loud sound of the spindle, hurriedly walks, restrains it or puts it into proper motion - so Anna Pavlovna, walking around her living room, approached to a mug that had fallen silent or was talking too much, and with one word or movement she again started up a uniform, decent conversational machine. But amid these worries, a special fear for Pierre was still visible in her. She looked at him caringly while he came up to listen to what was being said around Mortemart and went to another circle where the abbot was speaking. For Pierre, who was brought up abroad, this evening of Anna Pavlovna was the first he saw in Russia. He knew that the entire intelligentsia of St. Petersburg was gathered here, and his eyes widened, like a child in a toy store. He was still afraid of missing intelligent conversations that he might overhear. Looking at the confident and graceful expressions of the faces gathered here, he kept expecting something especially smart. Finally he approached Morioh. The conversation seemed interesting to him, and he stopped, waiting for an opportunity to express his thoughts, as young people like to do.

III

Anna Pavlovna's evening was over. The spindles made noise evenly and incessantly from different sides. Apart from ma tante, near whom sat only one elderly lady with a tear-stained, thin face, somewhat alien in this brilliant society, the society was divided into three circles. In one, more masculine, the center was the abbot; in the other, young one, there is the beautiful Princess Helen, the daughter of Prince Vasily, and the pretty, rosy-cheeked, too plump for her youth, little Princess Bolkonskaya. In the third - Mortemar and Anna Pavlovna.

The Viscount was a handsome young man, with soft features and manners, who obviously considered himself a celebrity, but, due to his good manners, modestly allowed himself to be used by the society in which he found himself. Anna Pavlovna obviously treated her guests to it. Just as a good head waiter serves as something supernaturally beautiful that piece of beef that you won’t want to eat if you see it in a dirty kitchen, so this evening Anna Pavlovna served her guests first the Viscount, then the Abbot, as something supernaturally refined. In Mortemar's circle they immediately started talking about the murder of the Duke of Enghien. The Viscount said that the Duke of Enghien died from his generosity and that there were special reasons for Bonaparte’s bitterness.

- Ah! voyons. “Contez-nous cela, vicomte,” said Anna Pavlovna, joyfully feeling how this phrase resonated with something a la Louis XV, “contez-nous cela, vicomte.”

The Viscount bowed in submission and smiled courteously. Anna Pavlovna made a circle around the Viscount and invited everyone to listen to his story.

“Le vicomte a étélément personnellement connu de monseigneur,” Anna Pavlovna whispered to one. “Le vicomte est un parfait conteur,” she said to the other. “Comme on voit l’homme de la bonne compagnie,” she said to the third; and the Viscount was presented to society in the most elegant and favorable light, like roast beef on a hot platter, sprinkled with herbs.

The Viscount was about to begin his story and smiled subtly.

“Come here, chèe Hélène,” Anna Pavlovna said to the beautiful princess, who was sitting at a distance, forming the center of another circle.

Princess Helen smiled; she stood up with the same unchanging smile, completely beautiful woman, with which she entered the living room. Slightly rustling with her white ball gown, decorated with ivy and moss, and shining with the whiteness of her shoulders, the gloss of her hair and diamonds, she walked between the parted men and straight, not looking at anyone, but smiling at everyone and, as if kindly granting everyone the right to admire the beauty of her figure , full shoulders, very open, according to the fashion of that time, chest and back, and as if bringing with her the glitter of the ball, she approached Anna Pavlovna. Helen was so beautiful that not only was there not a shadow of coquetry visible in her, but, on the contrary, she seemed ashamed of her undoubted and too powerfully and victoriously effective beauty. It was as if she wanted and could not diminish the effect of her beauty.

The princess, smiling and talking to everyone, suddenly made a rearrangement and, sitting down, cheerfully recovered.

“Now I feel good,” she said and, asking me to start, got to work.

Prince Hippolyte brought her a reticule, walked behind her and, moving a chair close to her, sat down next to her.

- She will go to the village.

- How is it not a sin for you to deprive us of your lovely wife?

“André,” said his wife, addressing her husband in the same flirtatious tone in which she addressed strangers, “what a story the Viscount told us about Mlle Georges and Bonaparte!”

Prince Andrei closed his eyes and turned away. Pierre, who had not taken his joyful, friendly eyes off him since Prince Andrey entered the living room, approached him and took him by the hand. Prince Andrei, without looking back, wrinkled his face into a grimace, expressing annoyance at the one who was touching his hand, but, seeing Pierre’s smiling face, he smiled with an unexpectedly kind and pleasant smile.

- That's how it is!.. And you are in the big world! - he said to Pierre.

“I knew you would,” answered Pierre. “I’ll come to you for dinner,” he added quietly, so as not to disturb the Viscount, who continued his story. - Can?

“No, you can’t,” said Prince Andrei, laughing, shaking his hand to let Pierre know that there was no need to ask this. He wanted to say something else, but at that time Prince Vasily stood up with his daughter, and the men stood up to give them way.

“Excuse me, my dear Viscount,” said Prince Vasily to the Frenchman, affectionately pulling him down by the sleeve to the chair so that he would not get up. “This unfortunate holiday at the envoy’s place deprives me of pleasure and interrupts you.” “I am very sad to leave your delightful evening,” he said to Anna Pavlovna.

His daughter, Princess Helen, lightly holding the folds of her dress, walked between the chairs, and the smile shone even brighter on her beautiful face. Pierre looked with almost frightened, delighted eyes at this beauty as she passed by him.

“Very good,” said Prince Andrei.

“Very,” said Pierre.

Passing by, Prince Vasily grabbed Pierre's hand and turned to Anna Pavlovna.

“Give me this bear,” he said. “He’s been living with me for a month, and this is the first time I’ve seen him in the world.” A young man needs nothing more than the company of smart women.

145 years ago, a major literary event took place in Russia - the first edition of Leo Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” was published. Separate chapters of the novel had been published earlier - Tolstoy began publishing the first two parts in Katkov’s Russky Vestnik several years earlier, but the “canonical”, complete and revised version of the novel was published only a few years later. Over the century and a half of its existence, this world masterpiece and bestseller has acquired both a mass of scientific research and reader legends. Here are a few interesting facts about the novel that you may not have known.

How did Tolstoy himself evaluate War and Peace?

Leo Tolstoy was very skeptical about his “main works” - the novels “War and Peace” and Anna Karenina.” So, in January 1871, he sent Fet a letter in which he wrote: “How happy I am... that I will never write verbose rubbish like “War” again.” Almost 40 years later, he has not changed his mind. On December 6, 1908, an entry appeared in the writer’s diary: “People love me for those trifles - “War and Peace”, etc., which seem very important to them.” There is even more recent evidence. In the summer of 1909, one of the visitors to Yasnaya Polyana expressed his delight and gratitude to the then generally recognized classic for the creation of “War and Peace” and “Anna Karenina”. Tolstoy’s answer was: “It’s the same as if someone came to Edison and said: “I respect you very much because you dance the mazurka well.” I attribute meaning to completely different books.”

Was Tolstoy sincere? Perhaps there was some authorial coquetry here, although the whole image of Tolstoy the Thinker strongly contradicts this guess - he was too serious and unfeigned a person.

"War and Peace" or "War and Peace"?

The name “War Peace” is so familiar that it has already become ingrained into the subcortex. If you ask anyone in the slightest educated person, what is the main work of Russian literature of all times, a good half will say without hesitation: “War and Peace.” Meanwhile, the novel had different options titles: “1805” (an excerpt from the novel was even published under this title), “All’s well that ends well” and “Three Times”.

Associated with the name of Tolstoy's masterpiece famous legend. Often they try to play on the title of the novel. Claiming that the author himself put some ambiguity into it: either Tolstoy meant the opposition of war and peace as the antonym of war, that is, peace, or he used the word “peace” in the meaning of community, society, land...

But the fact is that at the time when the novel was published, such ambiguity could not exist: two words, although pronounced the same, were written differently. Before the spelling reform of 1918, in the first case it was written “mir” (peace), and in the second - “mir” (Universe, society).

There is a legend that Tolstoy allegedly used the word “world” in the title, but all this is the result of a simple misunderstanding. All editions of Tolstoy’s novel during his lifetime were published under the title “War and Peace,” and he himself wrote the title of the novel in French as “La guerre et la paix.” How could the word “peace” sneak into the name? Here the story bifurcates. According to one version, this very name was handwritten on a document submitted by Leo Tolstoy to M. N. Lavrov, an employee of Katkov’s printing house at the first full publication novel. It is very possible that there really was a typo by the author. This is how the legend arose.

According to another version, the legend could have appeared later due to a typo made during the publication of the novel under the editorship of P. I. Biryukov. In the edition published in 1913, the title of the novel is reproduced eight times: on the title page and on the first page of each volume. “World” was printed seven times and “mir” only once, but on the first page of the first volume.
About the sources of "War and Peace"

When working on the novel, Leo Tolstoy took his sources very seriously. He read a lot of historical and memoir literature. In Tolstoy’s “list of used literature” there were, for example, such academic publications as: the multi-volume “Description of Patriotic War in 1812,” the history of M. I. Bogdanovich, “The Life of Count Speransky” by M. Korf, “Biography of Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov” by M. P. Shcherbinin. The writer used materials from French historians Thiers, A. Dumas Sr., Georges Chambray, Maximelien Foix, Pierre Lanfré. There are also studies about Freemasonry and, of course, memoirs of direct participants in the events - Sergei Glinka, Denis Davydov, Alexei Ermolov and many others; there was also a solid list of French memoirists, starting with Napoleon himself.

559 characters

Researchers have calculated the exact number of heroes of War and Peace - there are exactly 559 of them in the book, and 200 of them are completely historical figures. Many of the remaining ones have real prototypes.

In general, working on surnames fictional characters(to come up with first and last names for half a thousand people is already a lot of work), Tolstoy used the following three main ways: he used real names; modified real names; created completely new surnames, but based on real models.

Many episodic characters in the novel they have completely historical surnames - the book mentions the Razumovskys, Meshcherskys, Gruzinskys, Lopukhins, Arkharovs, etc. But the main characters, as a rule, have quite recognizable, but still fake, encrypted surnames. The reason for this is usually cited as the writer’s reluctance to show the character’s connection with any specific prototype, from which Tolstoy took only some features. These are, for example, Bolkonsky (Volkonsky), Drubetskoy (Trubetskoy), Kuragin (Kurakin), Dolokhov (Dorokhov) and others. But, of course, Tolstoy could not completely abandon fiction - so, on the pages of the novel appear quite noble-sounding, but still not associated with a specific family surnames - Peronskaya, Chatrov, Telyanin, Desalles, etc.

The real prototypes of many of the novel's heroes are also known. So, Vasily Dmitrievich Denisov is a friend of Nikolai Rostov, his prototype was the famous hussar and partisan Denis Davydov.
An acquaintance of the Rostov family, Maria Dmitrievna Akhrosimova, was copied from the widow of Major General Nastasya Dmitrievna Ofrosimova. By the way, she was so colorful that she appeared in another famous work— Alexander Griboyedov portrayed her almost portraitally in his comedy “Woe from Wit.”

Her son, raider and reveler Fyodor Ivanovich Dolokhov, and later one of the leaders of the partisan movement, embodied the features of several prototypes at once - the war heroes of the partisans Alexander Figner and Ivan Dorokhov, as well as the famous duelist Fyodor Tolstoy the American.

Old Prince Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky, an elderly nobleman of Catherine, was inspired by the image of the writer’s maternal grandfather, a representative of the Volkonsky family.
But Tolstoy saw Princess Maria Nikolaevna, the daughter of the old man Bolkonsky and the sister of Prince Andrei, in Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya (in Tolstoy’s marriage), his mother.

Film adaptations

We all know and appreciate the famous Soviet film adaptation of “War and Peace” by Sergei Bondarchuk, released in 1965. The 1956 production of War and Peace by King Vidor is also known, for which the music was written by Nino Rota, and the main roles were played by Hollywood stars first magnitude Audrey Hepburn (Natasha Rostova) and Henry Fonda (Pierre Bezukhov).

And the first film adaptation of the novel appeared just a few years after the death of Leo Tolstoy. The silent film by Pyotr Chardynin was published in 1913; one of the main roles (Andrei Bolkonsky) played in the film famous actor Ivan Mozzhukhin.

Some numbers

Tolstoy wrote and rewrote the novel over the course of 6 years, from 1863 to 1869. As researchers of his work have calculated, the author manually rewrote the text of the novel 8 times, and rewrote individual episodes more than 26 times.

First edition of the novel: twice as long and five times more interesting?

Not everyone knows that in addition to the generally accepted one, there is another version of the novel. This is the very first edition that Leo Tolstoy brought to Moscow in 1866 to the publisher Mikhail Katkov for publication. But Tolstoy was unable to publish the novel this time.

Katkov was interested in continuing to publish it in pieces in his “Russian Bulletin”. Other publishers did not see any commercial potential in the book at all - the novel seemed too long and “irrelevant” to them, so they offered the author to publish it at his own expense. There were other reasons: Sofya Andreevna demanded that her husband return to Yasnaya Polyana, as she could not cope alone with running a large household and looking after the children. In addition, in the Chertkovo Library, which had just opened for public use, Tolstoy found a lot of materials that he certainly wanted to use in his book. Therefore, having postponed the publication of the novel, he worked on it for another two years. However, the first version of the book did not disappear - it was preserved in the writer’s archive, was reconstructed and published in 1983 in the 94th volume of “Literary Heritage” by the Nauka publishing house.

Here is what the head of the famous publishing house Igor Zakharov, who published it in 2007, wrote about this version of the novel:

"1. Twice shorter and five times more interesting.
2. There are almost no philosophical digressions.
3. It’s a hundred times easier to read: the entire French text has been replaced by Russian in Tolstoy’s own translation.
4. Much more peace and less war.
5. Happy ending...”

Well, it's our right to choose...

Elena Veshkina

L. N. Tolstoy “War and Peace”. Volume 1, part 1, chapter 1

“If they knew that you wanted this, the holiday would be cancelled,” the prince said out of habit, like a wound-up clock, saying things that he did not want to be believed.

- Ne me tourmentez pas. Eh bien, qu"a-t-on décidé par rapport à la dépêche de Novosilzoff? Vous savez tout.

- How can I tell you? - said the prince in a cold, bored tone. – Qu "a-t-on décidé? On a décidé que Buonaparte a brûlé ses vaisseaux, et je crois que nous sommes en train de brûler les nôtres.

Prince Vasily always spoke lazily, like an actor speaking the role of an old play. Anna Pavlovna Sherer, on the contrary, despite her forty years, was full of animation and impulses.

Being an enthusiast became her social position, and sometimes, when she didn’t even want to, she, in order not to deceive the expectations of people who knew her, became an enthusiast. The restrained smile that constantly played on Anna Pavlovna’s face, although it did not match her outdated features, expressed, like spoiled children, the constant consciousness of her dear shortcoming, from which she does not want, cannot and does not find it necessary to correct herself.

In the middle of a conversation about political actions, Anna Pavlovna became heated.

– Oh, don’t tell me about Austria! I don’t understand anything, maybe, but Austria has never wanted and does not want war. She's betraying us. Russia alone must be the savior of Europe. Our benefactor knows his high calling and will be faithful to it. That's one thing I believe in. Our good and wonderful sovereign has the greatest role in the world, and he is so virtuous and good that God will not leave him, and he will fulfill his calling to crush the hydra of the revolution, which is now even more terrible in the person of this murderer and villain. We alone must atone for the blood of the righteous. Who should we rely on, I ask you?.. England, with its commercial spirit, will not and cannot understand the full height of the soul of Emperor Alexander. She refused to clean up Malta. She wants to see, looking for the underlying thought of our actions. What did they say to Novosiltsev? Nothing. They did not understand, they could not understand the selflessness of our emperor, who wants nothing for himself and wants everything for the good of the world. And what did they promise? Nothing. And what they promised will not happen! Prussia has already declared that Bonaparte is invincible and that all of Europe can do nothing against him... And I don’t believe a word of either Hardenberg or Gaugwitz. Cette fameuse neutralité prussienne, ce n"est qu"un piège. I believe in one God and in the high destiny of our dear Emperor. He will save Europe!.. - She suddenly stopped with a smile of mockery at her ardor.

“I think,” said the prince, smiling, “that if you had been sent instead of our dear Winzengerode, you would have taken the consent of the Prussian king by storm.” You are so eloquent. Will you give me some tea?

- Now. A propos,” she added, calming down again, “today I have two very interesting people, le vicomte de Mortemart, il est allié aux Montmorency par les Rohans, one of the best families in France.” This is one of the good emigrants, the real ones. And then l "abbé Morio; do you know this deep mind? He was accepted by the sovereign. Do you know?

- A! “I will be very glad,” said the prince. “Tell me,” he added, as if he had just remembered something and especially casually, while what he was asking about was the main purpose of his visit, “it’s true that l’impératrice-mère wishes to appoint Baron Funke as first secretary.” to Vienna? C"est un pauvre sire, ce baron, à ce qu"il paraît. - Prince Vasily wanted to assign his son to this place, which they tried to deliver to the baron through Empress Maria Feodorovna.

Anna Pavlovna almost closed her eyes as a sign that neither she nor anyone else could judge what the Empress wanted or liked.

“Monsieur le baron de Funke a été recommandé à l"impératrice-mère par sa sœur,” she just said in a sad, dry tone. While Anna Pavlovna named the empress, her face suddenly presented a deep and sincere expression of devotion and respect, united with sadness, which happened to her every time she mentioned her high patron in a conversation. She said that Her Majesty deigned to show Baron Funke beaucoup d'estime, and again her gaze became sad.

The prince fell silent indifferently, Anna Pavlovna, with her characteristic courtly and feminine dexterity and quick tact, wanted to snap the prince for daring to speak so much about the person recommended to the empress, and at the same time to console him.

“Mais à propos de votre famille,” she said, “do you know that your daughter, since she leaves, has been fait les délices de tout le monde.” On la trouve belle comme le jour.

The prince bent down as a sign of respect and gratitude.

“I often think,” Anna Pavlovna continued after a moment of silence, moving closer to the prince and smiling affectionately at him, as if showing by this that political and social conversations were over and now intimate conversations began, “I often think how unfairly the happiness of life is sometimes distributed.” Why did fate give you such two nice children (with the exception of Anatole, your youngest, I don’t love him,” she inserted peremptorily, raising her eyebrows), “such lovely children? And you, really, value them least of all and therefore are not worth them.

And she smiled her enthusiastic smile.

- Que voulez-vous? Lafater aurait dit que je n"ai pas la bosse de la paternité," said the prince.

- Stop joking. I wanted to talk to you seriously. You know, I'm not happy with your smaller son. Let it be said between us (her face took on a sad expression), Her Majesty spoke about him and they feel sorry for you...

The prince did not answer, but she silently, looking significantly at him, waited for an answer. Prince Vasily winced.

- What should I do? - he said finally. – You know, I did everything a father could to raise them, and both came out des imbeciles. Hippolyte, at least, is a calm fool, and Anatole is restless. “Here’s one difference,” he said, smiling more unnaturally and animatedly than usual, and at the same time especially sharply revealing something unexpectedly rough and unpleasant in the wrinkles that formed around his mouth.

– And why would people like you have children? If you weren’t my father, I couldn’t blame you for anything,” said Anna Pavlovna, raising her eyes thoughtfully.

- Je suis votre faithful slave, et à vous seule je puis l "avouer. My children - ce sont les entraves de mon existence. This is my cross. This is how I explain it to myself. Que voulez-vous? .. - He paused, expressing with a gesture his submission to cruel fate.

Anna Pavlovna thought about it.

– Have you ever thought about marrying your prodigal son Anatole? They say,” she said, “that old maids are ont la manie des mariages.” I don’t yet feel this weakness in me, but I have one petite personne who is very unhappy with her father, une parente à nous, une princesse Bolkonskaya. “Prince Vasily did not answer, although with the quickness of thought and memory characteristic of secular people, a movement of his head showed that he had taken this information into account.

“No, you know that this Anatole costs me forty thousand a year,” he said, apparently unable to control the sad train of his thoughts. He paused.

– What will happen in five years if it goes like this? Voilà l"avantage d"être père. Is she rich, your princess?

- My father is very rich and stingy. He lives in the village. You know, this famous Prince Bolkonsky, who was dismissed under the late emperor and nicknamed the Prussian king. He is a very smart person, but strange and difficult. La pauvre petite est malheureuse comme les pierres. She has a brother who recently married Lise Meinen, Kutuzov's adjutant. He will be with me today.

To go to the next chapter of War and Peace, use the Forward button below the article text.

Well, Prince, Genoa and Lucca are estates of the Bonaparte family. No, I’m telling you in advance, if you don’t tell me that we are at war, if you still allow yourself to defend all the nasty things, all the horrors of this Antichrist (really, I believe that he is the Antichrist) - I don’t know you anymore, you no longer my friend, you are no longer my faithful slave, as you say (French).