Book One, Chapters 1–3
“I warn you . . . if you still try to
defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by that Antichrist—I
really believe he is Antichrist—I will have nothing more to do with you.
. . .”
(See Important Quotations Explained)
At a society party in St. Petersburg in 1805,
Anna Pavlovna Scherer speaks to her old friend Prince Vasili Kuragin
about the threat Napoleon presents to Russia. Anna, calling Napoleon
the Antichrist, declares that Russia alone must save Europe. The
prospect of war dominates the conversations at the party. But Anna
also raises more personal issues, expressing esteem for Vasili’s
children—especially the beautiful Helene—with the exception of Anatole,
a rogue. Vasili asks Anna to arrange a meeting between his son Anatole
and Mary Bolkonskaya, the lonely daughter of Prince Bolkonski, a
rich, reclusive, retired military commander.
Meanwhile, Helene Kuragina arrives at the party, as does
Lise, Bolkonski’s daughter-in-law, who is married to his military
officer son, Andrew. Next to arrive is Pierre, the unpolished and
ungainly son of Count Bezukhov, educated abroad and only recently returned
to Russia. The ugly Hippolyte Kuragin, Helene’s brother, is also
present.
Pierre . . . watched [Andrew] with glad,
affectionate eyes. . . . Andrew frowned again, expressing his annoyance
with whoever was touching his arm.
(See Important Quotations Explained)
Andrew Bolkonski arrives at the party. Vasili Kuragin
promises a promotion to Boris, the only son of a well-connected
but impoverished old acquaintance, Princess Anna Mikhaylovna Drubetskaya. Pierre
voices approval of the French Revolution. After the soiree, Pierre
visits Andrew at his house, where they discuss the idea of perpetual
peace advanced by one of Anna’s guests. Pierre believes in this
possibility of peace, but he thinks that such peace must be spiritual
rather than political. Andrew advises Pierre not to marry, saying
that marriage wastes a man’s sense of purpose and resolve—the same
resolve demonstrated by Napoleon.
Later, Pierre visits his friend Anatole at his house near
the barracks, where the drunken officers are carousing with a trained
bear, and Anatole’s friend Dolokhov is proving that he can drink
a bottle of rum while precariously perched on the window ledge.
Book One, Chapters 4–13
This black-eyed, wide-mouthed girl, not
pretty but full of life . . . ran to hide her flushed face in the
lace of her mother’s mantilla—not paying the least attention to
her severe remark—and began to laugh.
(See Important Quotations Explained)
Anna Mikhaylovna has gone to Moscow, to the home of her wealthy
relatives, the Rostovs. Both the Rostov mother and youngest daughter
are celebrating their name day (the feast day of the Christian saint
after whom the women are named). The guests discuss Pierre’s uncouth
lifestyle.
The thirteen-year-old Rostov daughter, Natasha, appears,
carrying her doll. She is accompanied by other children, including
her brother Nicholas; his friend Boris, Anna Mikhaylovna’s son;
and Sonya, Count Rostov’s niece—all of whom live in the Rostov household.
Nicholas states that he is joining the army out of a sense of vocation
rather than a wish to accompany Boris, who has been made an officer.
Natasha mischievously hides in order to watch a tearful exchange
between Nicholas and Sonya, in which Nicholas begs forgiveness for
flirting with Julie Karagina, one of the guests. When Boris appears,
Natasha seeks a kiss from him and extracts a half-joking promise
of marriage in four years. Countess Rostova makes her daughter Vera
leave the room, so that she and Anna Mikhaylovna may discuss financial
worries. Anna Mikhaylovna hopes that Boris’s godfather, the ailing
Count Cyril Bezukhov, will help Boris.
