Natasha and Andrey Bolkonsky quotes. Expressions from the book "War and Peace"

Everything in himself and around him seemed confusing, meaningless and disgusting to him. But in this very disgust for everything around him, Pierre found a kind of irritating pleasure.

I have not yet met such heavenly purity, devotion, which I seek in a woman. If I found such a woman, I would give my life for her. And these! .. And do you believe me, if I still value life, I value it only because I still hope to meet such a heavenly being who would revive, purify and elevate me.

I am considered an evil person, I know - and let it be! I don't want to know anyone, except those I love; but whom I love, I love so that I will give my life, and I will pass over everyone else if they stand on the road.

Youth does not interfere with being brave.

In the moments of departure and a change in life, people who are able to think over their actions usually find a serious mood of thoughts.

He thought that all these honest words are such conventional things that have no definite meaning, especially if one realizes that maybe tomorrow he will either die, or something so extraordinary will happen to him that there will be no more honest nor dishonorable.

There are only two sources of human vices: idleness and superstition, and there are only two virtues: activity and intelligence.

... in dealing with women, Anatole had the manner that most of all inspires curiosity, fear and even love in women - the manner of a contemptuous awareness of his superiority.

And there is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth.

We do not so much love people for the good that they have done to us, as for the good that we have done to them.

There is only one step from the majestic to the ridiculous.

The whole world is divided for me into two halves: one - she and there is all happiness, hope, light; the other half - everything, where it is not, there is all despondency and darkness ...

Any knowledge is only the submission of the essence of life to the laws of reason.

Let's leave the dead to bury the dead, but while he is alive, he must live and be happy.

For the great, there is no evil.

I know only two real misfortunes in life: remorse and illness. And happiness is only the absence of these two evils.

Oh, how funny you are! Not good for good, but good for good. It is only Malvina and others who are loved for being beautiful; Do I love my wife? I don’t like, but I don’t know how to tell you. Without you, and when a cat runs through like this, I seem to have disappeared and can do nothing. Well, do I love my finger? I do not like it, but try it, cut it off ...

I only want to say what I say.

Returning home, Natasha did not sleep all night; she was tormented by the insoluble question, whom did she love: Anatole or Prince Andrew? She loved Prince Andrew - she clearly remembered how much she loved him. But she loved Anatole too, that was beyond doubt. “Otherwise, how could all this be? she thought. - If after that, saying goodbye to him, I could answer his smile with a smile, if I could admit it, it means that I fell in love with him from the first minute. It means that he is kind, noble and beautiful, and it was impossible not to love him. What should I do when I love him and love another? " she said to herself, finding no answers to these terrible questions.

Did I die for the love of Prince Andrew, or not? " she asked herself, and with a soothing grin answered herself: “What kind of fool am I, why am I asking this? What happened to me? Nothing. I didn’t do anything, caused nothing. No one will know, and I will never see him again, she told herself. - So, it is clear that nothing happened, that there is nothing to repent of, that Prince Andrey can love me and so. But what kind? Oh my God, my God! Why is he not here! " Natasha calmed down for a moment, but then again some instinct told her that although all this was true and although there was nothing, instinct told her that all the former purity of her love for Prince Andrey had perished.

He managed not only to diversify the literary world with a new work, which is original from the point of view of genre composition, but also invented bright and colorful characters. Of course, not all of the bookstore regulars have read the cumbersome novel of the writer from cover to cover, but most of them know who they are, and Andrei Bolkonsky.

History of creation

In 1856, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy began work on his immortal work. Then the master of words thought about creating a story that would tell readers about the Decembrist hero, forced to return back to the Russian Empire. The writer unwittingly moved the scene of the novel to 1825, but by that time the protagonist was a family and mature man. When Lev Nikolayevich thought about the hero's youth, this time involuntarily coincided with 1812.

1812 was not an easy year for the country. The Patriotic War began because the Russian Empire refused to support the continental blockade, which Napoleon saw as the main weapon against Great Britain. Tolstoy was inspired by that troubled time, moreover, his relatives participated in these historical events.

Therefore, in 1863, the writer began to work on a novel that reflected the fate of the entire Russian people. In order not to be unfounded, Lev Nikolaevich relied on the scientific works of Alexander Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky, Modest Bogdanovich, Mikhail Shcherbinin and other memoirists and writers. They say, to find inspiration, the writer even visited the village of Borodino, where the army and the Russian commander-in-chief clashed.

Tolstoy worked tirelessly for seven years on his founding work, writing five thousand draft sheets, displaying 550 characters. And this is not surprising, because the work is endowed with a philosophical character, which is shown through the prism of the life of the Russian people in an era of failures and defeats.

"How happy I am ... that I will never write verbose nonsense like" War "again."

No matter how critical Tolstoy was, the epic novel War and Peace, published in 1865 (the first excerpt appeared in the journal Russkiy Vestnik), was a wide success with the public. The work of the Russian writer amazed both domestic and foreign critics, and the novel itself was recognized as the greatest epic work of new European literature.

Collage illustration for the novel "War and Peace"

The literary diaspora noted not only an exciting plot, which is intertwined in both "peace" and "war" times, but also the size of the fictional canvas. Despite the large number of characters, Tolstoy tried to give each character individual character traits.

Characteristic of Andrey Bolkonsky

Andrei Bolkonsky is the main character in Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace. It is known that many characters in this work have a real prototype, for example, the writer "created" Natasha Rostova from his wife Sofia Andreevna and her sister Tatyana Bers. And here is the collective image of Andrei Bolkonsky. Of the possible prototypes, researchers name Nikolai Alekseevich Tuchkov, Lieutenant General of the Russian Army, as well as Staff Captain of the Engineering Troops Fyodor Ivanovich Tizengauzen.

It is noteworthy that initially Andrei Bolkonsky was planned by the writer as a minor character, who later received individual traits and became the main character of the work. In the first sketches of Lev Nikolaevich Bolkonsky was a secular young man, while in subsequent editions of the novel the prince appears before the readers as an intellectual man with an analytical mindset, who sets an example of courage and courage to fans of literature.

Moreover, readers can trace from and to the formation of the personality and the change in the character of the hero. Researchers attribute Bolkonsky to the spiritual aristocracy: this young man is building a career, leading a secular life, but he cannot be indifferent to the problems of society.

Andrei Bolkonsky appears before readers as a handsome young man of small stature and dry features. He hates secular, hypocritical society, but comes to balls and other events for the sake of decency:

"Apparently, all those who were in the living room were not only familiar to him, but he was so tired that he was very bored to look at them and listen to them."

Bolkonsky is indifferent to his wife Lisa, but when she dies, the young man blames himself for being cold with his wife and did not pay due attention to her. It is worth noting that Lev Nikolaevich, who knows how to identify a person with nature, reveals the personality of Andrei Bolkonsky in an episode where the character sees a huge dilapidated oak on the edge of the road - this tree is a symbolic image of the internal state of Prince Andrei.

Among other things, Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy endowed this hero with opposite qualities, he combines courage and cowardice: Bolkonsky participates in a bloody battle on the battlefield, but in the literal sense of the word runs away from an unsuccessful marriage and a failed life. The protagonist sometimes loses the meaning of life, then again hopes for the best, building goals and means of achieving them.

Andrei Nikolaevich revered Napoleon, wanted to become famous and lead his army to victory, but fate made its own adjustments: the hero of the work was wounded in the head and taken to the hospital. Later, the prince realized that happiness is not in triumph and laurels of honor, but in children and family life. But, unfortunately, Bolkonsky is doomed to failure: not only the death of his wife awaits him, but also the betrayal of Natasha Rostova.

"War and Peace"

The action of the novel, which tells about friendship and betrayal, begins at a visit to Anna Pavlovna Scherer, where all the high society of St. Petersburg gathers to discuss the policy and role of Napoleon in the war. Lev Nikolaevich personified this immoral and deceitful salon with the "Famus society", which was brilliantly described by Alexander Griboyedov in his work "Woe from Wit" (1825). It is in Anna Pavlovna's salon that Andrei Nikolaevich appears before the readers.

After lunch and empty talk, Andrei goes to his father's village and leaves his pregnant wife Liza in the family estate Lysye Gory in the care of his sister Marya. In 1805, Andrei Nikolayevich went to war against Napoleon, where he acts as Kutuzov's adjutant. During the bloody battles, the hero was wounded in the head, after which he was taken to the hospital.

Upon returning home, Prince Andrei was awaited by unpleasant news: during childbirth, his wife Liza died. Bolkonsky plunged into depression. The young man was tormented by the fact that he treated his wife coldly and did not show her due respect. Then Prince Andrey fell in love again, which helped him get rid of his bad mood.

This time Natasha Rostova became the chosen one of the young man. Bolkonsky offered the girl his hand and heart, but since his father was against such a misalliance, the marriage had to be postponed for a year. Natasha, who could not live alone, made a mistake and began an affair with the lover of a riotous life, Anatol Kuragin.

The heroine sent a letter of refusal to Bolkonsky. This turn of events wounded Andrei Nikolaevich, who dreams of challenging his opponent to a duel. To distract himself from unrequited love and emotional experiences, the prince began to work hard and devoted himself to the service. In 1812 Bolkonsky took part in the war against Napoleon and was wounded in the stomach during the Battle of Borodino.

In the meantime, the Rostov family moved to their Moscow estate, where the war participants are located. Among the wounded soldiers Natasha Rostova saw Prince Andrew and realized that love had not faded in her heart. Unfortunately, Bolkonsky's undermined health was incompatible with life, so the prince died in the arms of the astonished Natasha and Princess Marya.

Screen adaptations and actors

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy's novel was filmed by eminent directors more than once: the work of the Russian writer was adapted for avid moviegoers even in Hollywood. Indeed, the films based on this book cannot be counted on one hand, so we will list only some of the films.

"War and Peace" (film, 1956)

In 1956, director King Vidor transferred Leo Tolstoy's work to television screens. The film is not much different from the original novel. No wonder the original script had 506 pages, which is five times the size of the average text. Filming took place in Italy, some episodes were filmed in Rome, Felonica and Pinerolo.

The brilliant cast includes recognized Hollywood stars. Natasha Rostova played, Henry Fonda was reincarnated as Pierre Bezukhov, and Mel Ferrer appeared in the role of Bolkonsky.

"War and Peace" (film, 1967)

Russian filmmakers did not lag behind their foreign colleagues in the workshop, who amaze viewers not only with their "picture", but also with the scope of the budget. The director worked for six years on the highest-budget film in the history of Soviet cinema.

In the film, moviegoers see not only the plot and the actors' play, but also the director's know-how: Sergei Bondarchuk used a new for that time shooting of panoramic battles. The role of Andrei Bolkonsky went to the actor. Also played in the picture, Kira Golovko, and others.

"War and Peace" (TV series, 2007)

German director Robert Dornhelm also took up the adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's work, spicing up the film with original storylines. Moreover, Robert moved away from the canons in terms of the appearance of the main characters, for example, Natasha Rostova () appears before the audience as a blonde with blue eyes.

The image of Andrei Bolkonsky went to the Italian actor Alessio Boni, who was remembered by film lovers for the films "Robbery" (1993), "After the Storm" (1995), "" (2002) and other films.

"War and Peace" (TV series, 2016)

According to The Guardian, residents of foggy Albion started buying up Leo Tolstoy's original manuscripts after this series, directed by Tom Harperm.

The six-episode adaptation of the novel shows the viewers a love relationship, spending little time on military events. He performed the role of Andrei Bolkonsky, dividing the set with and.

• Lev Nikolaevich did not consider his cumbersome work finished and believed that the novel "War and Peace" should end in a different scene. However, the author never realized his idea.
• In (1956), dressers used more than one hundred thousand sets of military uniforms, suits and wigs, which were made according to the original illustrations of the times of Napoleon Bonaparte.

• The novel "War and Peace" traces the philosophical views of the author and pieces from his biography. The writer did not like Moscow society and had mental vices. When his wife did not fulfill all his whims, according to rumors, Lev Nikolayevich went “to the left”. Therefore, it is not surprising that his characters, like any mortals, have negative traits.
• King Vidor's painting did not gain fame among the European public, but it gained unprecedented popularity in the Soviet Union.

Quotes

"The battle is won by the one who is determined to win it!"

“I remember,” Prince Andrey hastily answered, “I said that a fallen woman must be forgiven, but I did not say that I could forgive. I cant".

"Love? What is love? Love prevents death. Love is life. Everything, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists only because I love. Everything is connected by one thing. Love is God, and to die means to me, a particle of love, to return to a common and eternal source. "

"Let's leave the dead to bury the dead, but while he is alive, he must live and be happy."

"There are only two sources of human vices: idleness and superstition, and there are only two virtues: activity and intelligence."

“No, life is not over at the age of 31, all of a sudden, finally,” Prince Andrew decided without fail. - Not only do I know everything that is in me, I need everyone to know it: both Pierre and this girl who wanted to fly into the sky, it is necessary that everyone knows me, so that my life, so that they do not live so independently of my life, that it be reflected on everyone, and that they all live with me together! "

No matter how educated a person is, coming into contact with the work of Leo Tolstoy, he becomes aware of the moderation of his mind. The intellect of the classic is powerful, you can be amazed to disassemble each of his works into wise thoughts.

Quotes and aphorisms from the novel "War and Peace" for a century and a half have become the property of the nation, the wealth of the cultural stratum of society.

From the first volume

"... influence in the world is capital, which must be protected so that it does not disappear ..."

The author's words characterizing Prince Vasily Kuragin. The official refuses to help Princess Drubetskaya transfer her son to serve with Kutuzov. Soon you will have to ask in the personal interests of those in power. Often, after all, you will not bother the royal nobles, so as not to annoy with your importunity. Better to reserve the possibility of petition for yourself.

"If everyone fought only for their own convictions, there would be no war ..."

Andrei Bolkonsky discusses with twenty-year-old Pierre Bezukhov the need to fight with France. The young man is looking for ideological considerations in the causes of interstate conflicts. Professional officer Bolkonsky proves that in every military campaign the key factor is economic, someone's benefit.

"In the best, friendly and simplest relationships, flattery or praise is necessary, as lubrication is necessary for the wheels to drive."

"Money, how much grief there is in the world!"

Mother Natalya Rostova asks her husband Ilya Nikolaevich to give a lot of money to his friend Drubetskoy in order to collect Boris in the regiment. It hurts the countess that her friend has to humiliate herself, travel to rich courtyards, look for the necessary amount.

From the second volume

“What is fair and unjust is not given to people to judge. People have always been mistaken and will be mistaken, and in nothing more than what they consider to be just and unjust. "

Bezukhov and Bolkonsky discuss the philosophical issue of the subjective perception of justice. What one person considers to be fair, from the point of view of his opponent, looks completely opposite, sometimes inhuman.

“I know only two real misfortunes in life: remorse and illness. And happiness is only the absence of these two evils "

Bolkonsky explains his new life position to Bezukhov. Andrei tries to soften the behavior of his tough father, who was appointed commander of the militia, so that the old man does not have to suffer the consequences of his power decisions. For example, the execution of a thief.

"I myself know how we are not powerful in our likes and dislikes."

Bolkonsky wisely reflects on the difficult situation that has arisen - Emperor Alexander condemns the prince for abandoning a military career, therefore he does not want to consider the laws drawn up by him.

"An infinite variety of human minds, which makes it so that no truth is equally presented to two people."

Pierre Bezukhov tries to explain to the members of the Masonic brotherhood the plans for the development of a secret society. A discussion begins, the count becomes convinced that it is difficult to persuade a large number of opponents to agree.

From the third volume

"Fatalism in history is inevitable for explaining unreasonable phenomena"

Leo Tolstoy is trying to understand the reasons for the conflict between two three powerful states: Russia, Austria, France.

"There are two sides of life in every person: personal life, which is all the freer, the more abstract its interests, and spontaneous, swarm life, where a person inevitably fulfills the laws prescribed to him."

The author discusses why millions of people are capable of mass murdering their own kind. For what such reason, the people cannot refuse to fight the enemies of their state, even if they realize that participation can end in the personal death of everyone.

"A person consciously lives for himself, but serves as an unconscious instrument to achieve historical, universal human goals"

"The king is a slave to history"

A philosophical digression about whether one of the emperors is specifically to blame for the outbreak of the Patriotic War of 1812? Or did the monarchs of European states become hostages of their state mission, defending the honor of the state?

From the fourth volume

"Protection of the insulted woman is the duty of every person"

Pierre Bezukhov explains in a French military court the reason why he hit the soldier.

"Whichever finger you bite, all one hurts"

Platon Karataev's father compared children with fingers. Whichever of the sons did not have to go to the soldiers, the parents would equally suffer for the fate of their child.

"Do not grieve, friend: endure an hour, but live a century!"

Folk wisdom from the lips of Platon Karataev, a soldier with an unusually simple life position.

"Sincere companion in grief"

This is how Princess Marya Natasha mentally appraised her when she met in Yaroslavl after the burning of Moscow. Both girls bitterly experienced the injury of Andrei Bolkonsky.

"It's not good, what's good, but it's good that came to his mind"

Leo Tolstoy speaks of Napoleon's self-confidence when, in a rather casual tone, he sent Kutuzov the first request for peace.

"A won battle is not only not a reason for conquest, but not even a permanent sign of conquest."

The author talks about the defeat of the Russian army at the Borodino field, about the surrender of Moscow. Kutuzov's wise retreat led to the preservation of the remnants of the army and to the self-destruction of the enemy forces. As a result of a justified retreat, Russia won the war of 1812.

"The cudgel of the people's war rose with all its formidable and majestic strength and, without asking anyone's tastes and rules, with stupid simplicity, but expediently, without examining anything, it rose, fell and nailed the French until the entire invasion died."

The famous author's statement about the club of popular anger. Tolstoy describes a national movement against the French invaders. When all people rose to fight the enemy army with arms, regardless of their social status, age and gender.

The best quotes about Prince Andrei Bolkonsky will be useful when writing essays dedicated to one of the main characters of the epic novel L.N. Tolstoy's War and Peace. The quotes present the characteristics of Andrei Bolkonsky: his appearance, inner world, spiritual quest, a description of the main episodes of his life, the relationship of Bolkonsky and Natasha Rostova, Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov is given, Bolkonsky's thoughts about the meaning of life, about love and happiness, his opinion about war.

Quick jump to quotations from volumes of the book "War and Peace":

Volume 1 part 1

(Description of the appearance of Andrei Bolkonsky at the beginning of the novel. 1805)

At this time a new face entered the living room. The new face was the young prince Andrei Bolkonsky, the husband of the little princess. Prince Bolkonsky was short, a very handsome young man with definite and dry features. Everything in his figure, from a tired, bored gaze to a quiet, measured step, represented the starkest contrast to his lively little wife. Apparently, all those who were in the living room were not only familiar to him, but he was so tired of him that he was very bored to look at them and listen to them. Of all the faces that bored him, the face of his pretty wife seemed to bore him the most. With a grimace that ruined his handsome face, he turned away from her. He kissed Anna Pavlovna's hand and, squinting, looked around the whole company.

(Character traits of Andrei Bolkonsky)

Pierre considered Prince Andrei to be a model of all perfection precisely because Prince Andrei combined to the highest degree all those qualities that Pierre did not have and which can be best expressed by the concept of willpower. Pierre was always amazed at Prince Andrew's ability to calmly deal with all kinds of people, his extraordinary memory, erudition (he read everything, knew everything, had an idea about everything) and most of all his ability to work and study. If Pierre was often struck in Andrew by the lack of the ability to dreamily philosophize (to which Pierre was especially inclined), then in this he saw not a lack, but strength.

(Dialogue between Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov about the war)

“If everyone fought only for their own convictions, there would be no war,” he said.
“That would be wonderful,” said Pierre.
Prince Andrey chuckled.
- It may well be that it would be wonderful, but it will never be ...
- Well, why are you going to war? - asked Pierre.
- For what? I dont know. It should be so. Besides, I'm going ... ”He stopped. - I go because this life that I am leading here, this life is not for me!

(Andrei Bolkonsky, in a conversation with Pierre Bezukhov, expresses his disappointment with marriage, women and secular society)

Never, never marry, my friend; here's my advice to you, don't get married until you tell yourself that you've done everything you could and until you stop loving the woman you have chosen, until you see her clearly, and then you will be mistaken cruelly and irreparably. Marry an old man, worthless ... Otherwise everything that is good and high in you will be lost. Everything will be spent on little things.

My wife, Prince Andrew continued, is a wonderful woman. This is one of those rare women with whom you can be deceased for your honor; but, my God, what would I not give now, so as not to be married! I tell you this one and the first, because I love you.

Living rooms, gossip, balls, vanity, insignificance - this is a vicious circle from which I cannot escape. I am now going to war, to the greatest war that has ever been, and I know nothing and am no good.<…> Selfishness, vanity, stupidity, insignificance in everything - these are women when they are shown as they are. You look at them in the light, it seems that there is something, but nothing, nothing, nothing! Yes, do not marry, my soul, do not marry.

(Andrey Bolkonsky's conversation with Princess Marya)

I cannot reproach, I have not reproached and will never reproach my wife, and I myself cannot reproach myself in relation to her, and it will always be so, in whatever circumstances I may be. But if you want to know the truth ... you want to know if I'm happy? No. Is she happy? No. Why is this? I do not know...

(Bolkonsky is going to leave for the army)

In the moments of departure and a change in life, people who are able to think over their actions usually find a serious mood of thoughts. In these minutes, the past is usually verified and plans for the future are made. Prince Andrey's face was very thoughtful and tender. He, with his hands folded back, walked quickly around the room from corner to corner, looking ahead of himself, and thoughtfully shook his head. Was he afraid to go to war, was he sad to leave his wife - maybe both, only, apparently, not wanting to be seen in this position, hearing footsteps in the entryway, he hurriedly freed his hands, stopped at the table, as if he was tying the cover of the box, and assumed his usual calm and impenetrable expression.

Volume 1 Part 2

(Description of the appearance of Andrei Bolkonsky after he entered the army)

Despite the fact that not much time has passed since Prince Andrey left Russia, he has changed a lot during this time. In the expression on his face, in his movements, in his gait, there was almost no sign of the old pretense, weariness and laziness; he looked like a man who has no time to think about the impression he makes on others, and is busy with a pleasant and interesting business. His face expressed more satisfaction with himself and those around him; his smile and look were more cheerful and attractive.

(Bolkonsky - Kutuzov's adjutant. Attitude in the army to Prince Andrei)

Kutuzov, whom he caught up with back in Poland, received him very affectionately, promised him not to forget him, distinguished him from other adjutants, took him with him to Vienna and gave more serious assignments. From Vienna, Kutuzov wrote to his old friend, the father of Prince Andrei.
“Your son,” he wrote, “gives me hope to be an officer, one of the most advanced in his knowledge, firmness and diligence. I consider myself lucky to have such a subordinate at hand. "

At Kutuzov's headquarters, between his comrades-colleagues and in the army in general, Prince Andrei, as well as in Petersburg society, had two completely opposite reputations. Some, a smaller part, recognized Prince Andrew as something special from themselves and from all other people, expected great success from him, listened to him, admired him and imitated him; and with these people Prince Andrew was simple and pleasant. Others, the majority, did not like Prince Andrei, considered him a pouty, cold and unpleasant person. But with these people, Prince Andrew knew how to position himself in such a way that he was respected and even feared.

(Bolkonsky strives for fame)

This news was sad and at the same time pleasant to Prince Andrey. As soon as he found out that the Russian army was in such a hopeless situation, it occurred to him that it was precisely for him that it was intended to lead the Russian army out of this situation, that here he was, that Toulon, who would lead him out of the ranks of unknown officers and would open to him the first path to glory! Listening to Bilibin, he was already thinking how, having arrived at the army, he would give an opinion at the council of war, which alone would save the army, and how he alone would be entrusted with the execution of this plan.

“Stop joking, Bilibin,” said Bolkonsky.
“I tell you sincerely and in a friendly way. Judge. Where and why are you going now that you can stay here? One of two things awaits you (he gathered the skin over his left temple): either you will not reach the army and peace will be concluded, or defeat and disgrace with the entire Kutuzov army.
And Bilibin loosened his skin, feeling that his dilemma was irrefutable.
“I cannot judge that,” said Prince Andrey coldly, and thought: “I am going to save the army.”

(Battle of Shengraben, 1805 Bolkonsky hopes to prove himself in the battle and find "his Toulon")

Prince Andrew stopped on horseback on the battery, looking at the smoke of the gun, from which the cannonball flew out. His eyes ran over a vast space. He saw only that the formerly immobile masses of the French were swaying and that there really was a battery to the left. The smoke has not yet cleared on it. Two French horsemen, probably adjutants, galloped up the mountain. Downhill, probably to strengthen the chain, a clearly visible small column of the enemy was moving. The smoke of the first shot did not dissipate yet, as another smoke and a shot appeared. The battle has begun. Prince Andrew turned his horse and galloped back to Grunt to look for Prince Bagration. Behind him, he could hear the cannonade becoming more frequent and louder. Apparently ours were beginning to answer. Below, in the place where the envoys were passing, rifle shots were heard.

"Began! Here it is!" - thought Prince Andrey, feeling how the blood more often began to rush to his heart. “But where is it? How will my Toulon put it? " He thought.

Volume 1 Part 3

(Andrei Bolkonsky's dreams of military glory on the eve of the Battle of Austerlitz)

The council of war, at which Prince Andrei failed to express his opinion, as he hoped, left in him an unclear and disturbing impression. Who was right: Dolgorukov with Weyrother or Kutuzov with Langeron and others who did not approve of the plan of attack, he did not know. “But was it really impossible for Kutuzov to directly express his thoughts to the sovereign? Can't it be done otherwise? Is it possible for court and personal considerations to risk tens of thousands of my, my life? " He thought.

“Yes, very likely they will kill tomorrow,” he thought. And suddenly, at this thought of death, a whole series of memories, the most distant and most soulful, arose in his imagination; he recalled the last farewell to his father and wife; he remembered the first days of his love for her; remembered her pregnancy, and he felt sorry for both her and himself, and in a initially softened and agitated state he left the hut in which he stood with Nesvitsky and began to walk in front of the house.

The night was foggy, and moonlight mysteriously shone through the fog. “Yes, tomorrow, tomorrow! He thought. - Tomorrow, maybe everything will be over for me, all these memories will no longer be, all these memories will no longer make any sense to me. Tomorrow, maybe - even probably tomorrow, I anticipate it, for the first time I will have to finally show everything that I can do. " And he imagined a battle, its loss, the concentration of the battle on one point and the confusion of all the commanding persons. And now that happy moment, that Toulon, which he had been waiting for so long, finally appears to him. He firmly and clearly speaks his opinion to Kutuzov, and Weyrother, and the emperors. Everyone is amazed at the fidelity of his considerations, but no one undertakes to fulfill it, and so he takes a regiment, a division, articulates a condition that no one interferes in his orders, and leads his division to the decisive point and one wins. And death and suffering? Says another voice. But Prince Andrey does not answer this voice and continues his successes. He carries the title of duty officer in the army under Kutuzov, but he does everything alone. The next battle is won by him alone. Kutuzov is replaced, he is appointed ... Well, and then? - says another voice again, - and then, if ten times before that you will not be wounded, killed or deceived; well, and then what? “Well, and then ...” Prince Andrey answers himself, “I don’t know what will happen next, I don’t want and cannot know; but if I want this, I want fame, I want to be known to people, I want to be loved by them, then it’s not my fault that I want this, that I want this alone, for this alone I live. Yes, for this one! I will never tell anyone this, but my God! what can I do if I love nothing but glory, human love. Death, wounds, loss of family, nothing scares me. And no matter how dear or dear to me many people - father, sister, wife - are the people most dear to me - but, no matter how terrible and unnatural it seems, I will give them all now for a minute of glory, triumph over people, for love to myself people whom I do not know and will not know, for the love of these people, ”he thought, listening to the dialect in the courtyard of Kutuzov. In the courtyard of Kutuzov one could hear the voices of orderlies who were packing; one voice, probably a coachman, teasing the old Kutuzov cook, whom Prince Andrey knew and whose name was Titus, said: "Titus, and Titus?"

- Well, - answered the old man.

"Titus, go thresh," said the joker.

“And yet, I love and treasure only the triumph over all of them, I treasure this mysterious power and glory that is hovering above me in this fog!”

(1805 Battle of Austerlitz. Prince Andrew leads the battalion into the attack with a banner in his hands)

Kutuzov, accompanied by his adjutants, followed the carabinieri step by step.

Having driven about half a mile in the tail of the column, he stopped at a lonely abandoned house (probably a former inn) near a fork in two roads. Both roads went downhill, and troops walked on both.

The fog began to disperse, and indefinitely, two miles away, the enemy troops could be seen on opposite heights. To the left below, the shooting grew louder. Kutuzov stopped talking with the Austrian general. Prince Andrey, standing somewhat behind, peered at them and, wishing to ask the adjutant for a telescope, turned to him.

“Look, look,” said this adjutant, looking not at the distant troops, but down the mountain in front of him. - It's the French!

The two generals and adjutants began to grab the pipe, pulling it away from one another. All faces suddenly changed, and horror was expressed on all. The French were supposed to be two miles away from us, but they suddenly appeared in front of us.

- Is this the enemy? .. No! .. Yes, look, he ... probably ... What is it? - voices were heard.

Prince Andrey with his simple eye saw a thick column of Frenchmen rising to meet the Absheronians below to the right, no more than five hundred paces from the place where Kutuzov stood.

“Here it is, the decisive moment has come! Business has reached me, ”thought Prince Andrey, and hitting the horse drove up to Kutuzov.

- We must stop the Absherons, - he shouted, - Your Excellency!

But at the same moment everything was covered with smoke, close shooting was heard, and a naively frightened voice two steps away from Prince Andrey shouted: "Well, brothers, sabbath!" And as if this voice was a command. At this voice everyone started to run.

Mixed, ever-increasing crowds ran back to the place where five minutes ago the troops had passed by the emperors. Not only was it difficult to stop this crowd, but it was impossible not to move back with the crowd ourselves. Bolkonsky only tried to keep up with Kutuzov and looked around, bewildered and unable to understand what was being done in front of him. Nesvitsky, with an angry look, red and unlike himself, shouted to Kutuzov that if he did not leave now, he would probably be taken prisoner. Kutuzov stood in the same place and, without answering, took out his handkerchief. Blood flowed from his cheek. Prince Andrey pushed his way up to him.

- Are you injured? He asked, barely holding back the trembling of his lower jaw.

- The wound is not here, but where! - said Kutuzov, pressing a handkerchief to his wounded cheek and pointing at the fleeing.

- Stop them! - he shouted and at the same time, probably making sure that it was impossible to stop them, hit the horse and rode to the right.

The again surging crowd of fleeing took him with them and dragged him back.

The troops fled in such a dense crowd that, once caught in the middle of the crowd, it was difficult to get out of it. Who shouted: "Go, that hesitated?" Who immediately, turning around, shot into the air; who beat the horse that Kutuzov himself rode. With the greatest effort, getting out of the stream of the crowd to the left, Kutuzov, with his retinue, more than halved, rode off to the sounds of nearby gunshots. Having got out of the crowd of fleeing, Prince Andrey, trying to keep up with Kutuzov, saw on the slope of the mountain, in the smoke, the Russian battery still firing and the French running up to it. Higher up stood the Russian infantry, moving neither forward to help the battery, nor backward in the same direction with the fleeing. The general detached himself from this infantry on horseback and rode up to Kutuzov. Only four people remained from Kutuzov's retinue. They were all pale and exchanged glances in silence.

- Stop these scoundrels! - breathlessly, Kutuzov said to the regimental commander, pointing at the fleeing; but at the same instant, as if in punishment for these words, like a swarm of birds, bullets flew with a whistle through Kutuzov's regiment and retinue.

The French attacked the battery and, seeing Kutuzov, fired at him. With this salvo, the regimental commander grabbed his leg; several soldiers fell, and the ensign, who was standing with the banner, released it from his hands; the banner swayed and fell, lingering on the guns of the neighboring soldiers. The soldiers began to shoot without a command.

- O-ooh! - With an expression of despair Kutuzov mumbled and looked around. “Bolkonsky,” he whispered in a voice trembling from the consciousness of his senile impotence. - Bolkonsky, - he whispered, pointing to the upset battalion and the enemy, - what is it?

But before he finished this word, Prince Andrey, feeling the tears of shame and anger rising to his throat, was already jumping off his horse and running towards the banner.

- Guys, go ahead! He shouted, childishly piercing.

"Here it is!" - thought Prince Andrey, grabbing the flagpole and hearing with delight the whistle of bullets, obviously directed against him. Several soldiers fell.

- Hooray! - Prince Andrey shouted, barely holding the heavy banner in his hands, and ran forward with the undoubted confidence that the whole battalion would run after him.

Indeed, he only ran a few steps. One soldier, the other, and the whole battalion started shouting "Hurray!" ran ahead and overtook him. A non-commissioned officer of the battalion, running up, took the banner that was shaking from the weight in the hands of Prince Andrey, but was immediately killed. Prince Andrey again grabbed the banner and, dragging it by the pole, fled with the battalion. Ahead of him he saw our gunners, some of whom were fighting, others were throwing their guns and running towards him; he saw French infantry soldiers seizing the artillery horses and turning the cannons. Prince Andrey with the battalion was already twenty paces from the guns. He heard the incessant whistle of bullets above him, and the soldiers incessantly to his right and left groaned and fell. But he did not look at them; he peered only at what was happening ahead of him - on the battery. He clearly saw already one figure of a red-haired artilleryman with a shako knocked to one side, pulling a bannik from one side, while a French soldier was pulling a bannik to him on the other side. Prince Andrei already saw the clearly bewildered and at the same time embittered expression on the faces of these two people, apparently not understanding what they were doing.

"What are they doing? Thought Prince Andrey, looking at them. - Why doesn't the red-haired artilleryman run when he has no weapons? Why doesn't the Frenchman prick him? Before he has time to run, the Frenchman remembers the gun and stabs it. "

Indeed, another Frenchman, with a gun at the ready, ran up to the fighting, and the fate of the red-haired artilleryman, who still did not understand what awaited him, and triumphantly pulled out the bannik, had to be decided. But Prince Andrew did not see how it ended. As if from full swing with a strong stick, one of the nearest soldiers, as it seemed to him, hit him in the head. It hurt a little, and most importantly, it was unpleasant, because this pain entertained him and prevented him from seeing what he was looking at.

"What is it? I'm falling! my legs are giving way, ”he thought and fell on his back. He opened his eyes, hoping to see how the struggle between the French and the artillerymen had ended, and wishing to know whether the red-haired artilleryman had been killed or not, the guns had been taken or saved. But he saw nothing. Above him there was nothing but the sky - a high sky, not clear, but still immeasurably high, with gray clouds quietly creeping over it. “How quietly, calmly and solemnly, not at all the way I ran,” thought Prince Andrew, “not the way we ran, shouted and fought; not at all like the Frenchman and the artilleryman with embittered and frightened faces dragged from each other the bannik - not at all the way the clouds crawl across this high endless sky. How then have I not seen this high sky before? And how happy I am that I finally got to know him. Yes! everything is empty, everything is deception, except for this endless sky. Nothing, nothing but him. But even that is not even there, there is nothing but silence, reassurance. And thank God!.."

(The sky of Austerlitz as an important episode on the path of the spiritual formation of Prince Andrew. 1805)

On Pratsenskaya Hill, at the very place where he fell with the flagstaff in his hands, prince Andrei Bolkonsky lay, bleeding, and, without knowing it, moaned with a quiet, pitiful and childish groan.

By evening, he stopped moaning and completely calmed down. He did not know how long his oblivion lasted. Suddenly, he again felt alive and suffering from a burning and tearing pain in his head.

“Where is it, this high sky, which I did not know until now and saw today? - was his first thought. - And I did not know the suffering of this until now. But where am I? "

He began to listen and heard the sounds of the approaching trampling of horses and the sounds of voices speaking French. He opened his eyes. Above him was again the same high sky, with floating clouds rising even higher, through which the blue infinity could be seen. He did not turn his head and did not see those who, judging by the sound of hooves and voices, drove up to him and stopped.

The riders who had arrived were Napoleon, accompanied by two adjutants. Bonaparte, circling the battlefield, gave the last orders to strengthen the batteries firing at the Augesta dam, and examined the dead and wounded remaining on the battlefield.

- De beaux hommes! (Glorious people!) - said Napoleon, looking at the murdered Russian grenadier, who, with his face buried in the ground and the blackened back of his head, was lying on his stomach, throwing back one already numb hand far away.

- Les munitions des pièces de position sont épuisées, sire! (There are no more battery shells, Your Majesty!) - said at this time the adjutant, who had arrived from the batteries that fired at Augest.

- Faites avancer celles de la réserve (Tell them to bring them from the reserves), - said Napoleon, and, having driven off a few steps, he stopped over Prince Andrew, who was lying on his back with the flagstaff thrown beside him (the banner had already been taken as a trophy by the French).

“Voilà une belle mort (Here is a beautiful death),” Napoleon said, looking at Bolkonski.

Prince Andrew understood that this was said about him and that Napoleon was saying this. He heard the name sire (Your Majesty) of the one who said these words. But he heard these words, as if he heard the buzzing of a fly. He not only was not interested in them, but he did not notice, and immediately forgot them. His head burned; he felt that he was emanating blood, and he saw the distant, high and eternal sky above him. He knew that it was Napoleon - his hero, but at that moment Napoleon seemed to him such a small, insignificant person in comparison with what was happening now between his soul and this high, endless sky with clouds running over it. He was completely indifferent at that moment, whoever stood over him, whatever said about him; he was glad only that people stopped over him, and wished only that these people would help him and bring him back to life, which seemed so beautiful to him, because he understood it differently now. He gathered all his strength to move and make some sound. He feebly moved his leg and made a weak, painful groan that had pity him, too.

- AND! he is alive, said Napoleon. - Raise this young man, ce jeune homme, and carry him to the dressing station!

Prince Andrew did not remember anything further: he lost consciousness from the terrible pain that caused him to be put on a stretcher, tremors during movement and sounding of the wound at the dressing station. He woke up only at the end of the day, when he was connected with other Russian wounded and captured officers and carried to the hospital. On this movement, he felt somewhat refreshed and could look around and even speak.

The first words he heard when he woke up were those of a French escort officer, who hastily said:

- We must stop here: the emperor will now pass; he will be pleased to see these captive masters.

“Today there are so many prisoners, almost the entire Russian army, that he is probably bored with it,” said another officer.

- Well, however! This, they say, is the commander of the entire guard of Emperor Alexander, said the first, pointing to a wounded Russian officer in a white cavalry guard uniform.

Bolkonsky recognized Prince Repnin, whom he had met in the Petersburg world. Next to him stood another, nineteen-year-old boy, also a wounded cavalry officer.

Bonaparte, rode up at a gallop, stopped the horse.

- Who is the senior? - he said, seeing the prisoners.

Colonel, Prince Repnin was named.

- Are you the commander of the cavalry regiment of Emperor Alexander? Asked Napoleon.

- I commanded a squadron, - Repnin answered.

“Your regiment has done its duty honestly,” Napoleon said.

“The praise of a great commander is the best reward for a soldier,” said Repnin.

“I will give it to you with pleasure,” Napoleon said. - Who is this young man beside you?

Prince Repnin named Lieutenant Sukhtelen.

Looking at him, Napoleon said, smiling:

- Il est venu bien jeune se frotter à nous (he was young to fight with us).

“Youth doesn’t prevent you from being brave,” said Sukhtelen in a broken voice.

- An excellent answer, - said Napoleon, - young man, you will go far!

Prince Andrew, for the sake of completeness of the trophy of captives, also put forward, in front of the emperor, could not fail to attract his attention. Napoleon, apparently, remembered that he had seen him on the field, and, addressing him, he used the very name of the young man - jeune homme, under which Bolkonsky was first reflected in his memory.

- Et vous, jeune homme? Well, and you, young man? - he turned to him. - How do you feel, mon brave?

Despite the fact that five minutes before that Prince Andrey could say a few words to the soldiers who were carrying him, he now, directly fixing his eyes on Napoleon, was silent ... He seemed so insignificant at that moment all the interests that occupied Napoleon, so petty it seemed to him his hero himself, with this petty vanity and joy of victory, in comparison with that high, fair and kind sky that he saw and understood - that he could not answer him.

And everything seemed so useless and insignificant in comparison with that strict and majestic structure of thought, which caused in him the weakening of strength from the expired blood, suffering and the close expectation of death. Looking into Napoleon's eyes, Prince Andrey thought about the insignificance of greatness, about the insignificance of life, which no one could understand the meaning, and about the even greater insignificance of death, the meaning of which no one could understand and explain from the living.

The emperor, without waiting for an answer, turned away and, driving away, turned to one of the chiefs:

“Let these gentlemen take care of them and take them to my bivouac; have my Dr. Larrey examine their wounds. Goodbye, Prince Repnin. - And he, touching the horse, rode on at a gallop.

There was a radiance of self-satisfaction and happiness on his face.

The soldiers who brought Prince Andrew and removed from him a golden icon that had come across to them, hung on their brother by Princess Marya, seeing the kindness with which the emperor treated the prisoners, hastened to return the icon.

Prince Andrew did not see who and how put it on again, but on his chest over his uniform suddenly found himself an icon on a small gold chain.

“It would be nice,” thought Prince Andrew, glancing at this little icon, which his sister hung on it with such feeling and reverence, “it would be nice if everything was as clear and simple as it seems to Princess Marya. How nice it would be to know where to look for help in this life and what to expect after it there, behind the grave! How happy and calm I would be, if I could say now: Lord, have mercy on me! .. But to whom will I say this? Or a force - indefinite, incomprehensible, to which I not only cannot address, but which I cannot express in words, - great everything or nothing, - he said to himself, - or is it the God who is sewn up here, in this amulet, Princess Marya? Nothing, nothing is true, except for the insignificance of everything that I understand, and the greatness of something incomprehensible, but the most important! "

The stretcher started to move. With each push, he again felt unbearable pain; the feverish state intensified, and he began to delirium. Those dreams of a father, wife, sister and future son and the tenderness that he experienced on the night before the battle, the figure of the little, insignificant Napoleon and the high sky above all this - constituted the main basis of his feverish ideas.

A quiet life and calm family happiness in Bald Hills seemed to him. He was already enjoying this happiness, when suddenly little Napoleon appeared with his indifferent, limited and happy look from the misfortune of others, and doubts, torment began, and only heaven promised peace. By morning, all the dreams were mixed and merged into chaos and darkness of unconsciousness and oblivion, which, in the opinion of Larrey himself, Doctor Napoleonov, were much more likely to be resolved by death than recovery.

- C "est un sujet nerveux et bilieux," said Larrey, "il n" en réchappera pas (This is a nervous and bilious subject - he will not recover).

Prince Andrew, along with other hopeless wounded, was placed in the care of residents.

Volume 2 part 1

(The Bolkonsky family does not know if Prince Andrey is alive or died in the Battle of Austerlitz)

Two months have passed since the news in Bald Hills about the Battle of Austerlitz and the death of Prince Andrew. And despite all the letters through the embassy and despite all the searches, his body was not found, and he was not among the prisoners. The worst thing for his family was that there was still the hope that he was raised by the inhabitants on the battlefield and, perhaps, recovering or dying somewhere alone, among strangers, and unable to give ... In the newspapers, from which the old prince first learned about the defeat of Austerlitz, it was written, as always, very briefly and vaguely, that the Russians, after the brilliant battles, had to retreat and retreat in perfect order. The old prince understood from this official news that ours were defeated. A week after the newspaper, which brought news of the Battle of Austerlitz, a letter came from Kutuzov, who informed the prince of the fate that befell his son.

“Your son, in my eyes,” wrote Kutuzov, “with a banner in his hands, in front of the regiment fell a hero worthy of his father and his fatherland. To my general regret and the whole army, it is still unknown whether he is alive or not. I flatter myself and you with the hope that your son is alive, because otherwise, among the officers found on the battlefield, the list of whom was submitted to me through the envoys, and he would have been named. "

(March 1806 Prince Andrew returns home after being wounded. His wife Liza dies, giving birth to a son)

Princess Marya threw on a shawl and ran to meet those who were riding. When she passed the hallway, she saw through the window that some kind of carriage and lanterns were standing at the entrance. She went out onto the stairs. There was a tallow candle on the railing post and flowed in the wind. The waiter Philip, with a frightened face and with another candle in his hand, stood below, on the first landing of the stairs. Even lower, around the bend, up the stairs, one could hear the moving footsteps in warm boots. And some familiar voice, as it seemed to Princess Marya, was saying something.

Then the voice said something else, Demian answered something, and the steps in warm boots began to approach faster along the invisible turn of the stairs. "This is Andrey! - thought Princess Marya. “No, it can't be, it would be too extraordinary,” she thought, and at the same moment as she thought it, the face and figure of Prince Andrey in a fur coat with a collar appeared on the platform where the waiter was standing with a candle covered with snow. Yes, it was he, but pale and thin and with a changed, strangely softened, but anxious expression on his face. He entered the stairs and hugged his sister.

- Have you received my letter? - he asked, and, without waiting for an answer, which he would not have received, because the princess could not speak, he returned and with the obstetrician who entered after him (he gathered with him at the last station), with quick steps again entered the stairs and hugged his sister again.

- What a fate! He said. - Masha, dear! - And, throwing off his fur coat and boots, he went to half of the princess.

The little princess was lying on pillows in a white cap (suffering had just released her), her black hair curled in strands around her sore, sweaty cheeks; a ruddy, charming mouth, with a sponge covered with black hair, was open, and she smiled happily. Prince Andrew entered the room and stopped in front of her, at the foot of the sofa on which she was lying. Shining eyes, looking childishly frightened and worried, stopped on him, without changing their expression. “I love you all, I didn’t do any harm to anyone, why am I suffering? Help me, ”said her expression. She saw her husband, but did not understand the significance of his appearance now in front of her. Prince Andrew walked around the sofa and kissed her on the forehead.

- My darling! He said a word he had never spoken to her. - God is merciful ... She looked at him questioningly, childishly reproachful.

"I was expecting help from you, and nothing, nothing, and you too!" Her eyes said. She was not surprised that he came; she did not understand that he had arrived. His arrival had nothing to do with her suffering and relief. The agony began again, and Marya Bogdanovna advised Prince Andrey to leave the room.

The midwife entered the room. Prince Andrew went out and, meeting Princess Marya, again went up to her. They spoke in a whisper, but every minute the conversation fell silent. They waited and listened.

“Allez, mon ami (Go, my friend),” said Princess Mary. Prince Andrew went to his wife again and sat down in the next room, waiting. A woman left her room with a frightened face and was embarrassed when she saw Prince Andrew. He covered his face with his hands and sat there for several minutes. Pathetic, helpless animal moans were heard from outside the door. Prince Andrew got up, went to the door and wanted to open it. Someone was holding the door.

- You can't, you can't! - said a frightened voice from there. He began to pace the room. The screams stopped, and a few more seconds passed. Suddenly a terrible cry - not her cry - she could not scream like that - rang out in the next room. Prince Andrew ran to her door; the cry fell silent, but another cry was heard, the cry of a child.

“Why did they bring the child there? - thought for the first second Prince Andrew. - A child? What? .. Why is there a child? Or was it a baby born? "

When he suddenly realized all the joyful meaning of this cry, tears strangled him, and he, leaning with both hands on the windowsill, sobbing, wept like children cry. The door opened. The doctor, with his shirt sleeves rolled up, no frock coat, pale and with a trembling jaw, left the room. Prince Andrew turned to him, but the doctor looked at him in confusion and, without saying a word, walked by. The woman ran out and, seeing Prince Andrew, hesitated on the threshold. He entered his wife's room. She lay dead, in the same position in which he had seen her five minutes ago, and the same expression, in spite of the fixed eyes and the pallor of her cheeks, was on that lovely, childish, timid face with a sponge covered with black hair.

“I loved you all and did no harm to anyone, and what have you done to me? Oh, what have you done to me? " Said her lovely, pitiful dead face. In the corner of the room something small, red grunted and squeaked in Marya Bogdanovna's shaking white hands.

Two hours later, Prince Andrey walked quietly into his father's study. The old man already knew everything. He stood at the very door, and as soon as it opened, the old man silently, with his old, stiff hands, like a vice, clasped his son's neck and sobbed like a child.

Three days later, the funeral service for the little princess was being performed, and, saying goodbye to her, Prince Andrey ascended the steps of the coffin. And in the coffin was the same face, albeit with closed eyes. "Oh, what have you done to me?" - it all said, and Prince Andrey felt that something had come off in his soul, that he was to blame for his guilt, which he could not correct or forget. He couldn't cry. The old man also entered and kissed her wax pen, which was lying calmly and high on the other, and her face said to him: "Oh, what and why did you do this to me?" And the old man turned away angrily when he saw this face.

Five days later they baptized the young Prince Nikolai Andreich. Mammy held the diapers with her chin, while the priest smeared the wrinkled red palms and steps of the boy with a goose feather.

The godfather - grandfather, afraid to drop, shuddering, carried the baby around a crumpled tin font and handed it over to the godmother, Princess Marya. Prince Andrew, dying with fear that the child would not be drowned, sat in another room, waiting for the end of the sacrament. He glanced happily at the child when his nanny carried him out, and nodded his head approvingly when the nanny informed him that the wax with hairs thrown into the font had not drowned, but swam through the font.

Volume 2 part 2

(Meeting of Prince Andrey and Pierre Bezukhov in Bogucharovo, which was of great importance for both and largely determined their further path.1807 g.)

In the happiest state of mind, returning from his southern journey, Pierre fulfilled his long-standing intention - to visit his friend Bolkonsky, whom he had not seen for two years.

At the last station, having learned that Prince Andrey was not in Bald Hills, but in his new detached estate, Pierre went to him.

Pierre was struck by the modesty of the small, albeit clean, house after the brilliant conditions in which he had last seen his friend in Petersburg. He hastily entered the unplastered little room, still smelling of pine, and wanted to go on, but Anton ran forward on tiptoe and knocked on the door.

- Well, what is there? - I heard a sharp, unpleasant voice.

- Guest, - answered Anton.

- Ask to wait, - and the chair pulled back was heard. Pierre walked with quick steps to the door and came face to face with Prince Andrey, who was coming out to him, frowning and aging. Pierre embraced him and, raising his glasses, kissed him on the cheeks and looked closely at him.

“I didn’t expect it, I’m very glad,” said Prince Andrey. Pierre said nothing; he looked at his friend in surprise, not taking his eyes off. He was struck by the change that had taken place in Prince Andrei. The words were affectionate, a smile was on the lips and face of Prince Andrey, but the look was extinct, dead, to which, despite his apparent desire, Prince Andrey could not give a joyful and cheerful shine. Not that his friend lost weight, turned pale, matured; but this look and the wrinkle on his forehead, expressing a long concentration on one thing, amazed and alienated Pierre until he got used to them.

When meeting after a long separation, as always happens, the conversation could not be established for a long time; they asked and answered briefly about such things about which they themselves knew that it was necessary to talk for a long time. Finally, the conversation began to gradually dwell on what was previously fragmentary, on questions about a past life, about plans for the future, about Pierre's journey, about his studies, about the war, etc. That concentration and death that Pierre noticed in Prince Andrew's eyes now expressed itself even more strongly in the smile with which he listened to Pierre, especially when Pierre spoke with an animated joy about the past or future. As if Prince Andrey would have liked to, but could not take part in what he said. Pierre began to feel that before Prince Andrew, enthusiasm, dreams, hopes for happiness and goodness were indecent. He was ashamed to express all his new, Masonic thoughts, especially those renewed and excited in him by his last journey. He restrained himself, was afraid to be naive; at the same time he irresistibly wanted to show his friend as soon as possible that he was now a completely different, better Pierre than the one who had been in Petersburg.

- I cannot tell you how much I have experienced during this time. I myself would not have recognized myself.

“Yes, we have changed a lot, a lot since then,” said Prince Andrey.

- Well, and you? - Pierre asked. - What are your plans?

- Plans? - Prince Andrew repeated ironically. - My plans? - he repeated, as if surprised at the meaning of such a word. - Yes, you see, I am building, I want to move completely by next year ...

Pierre silently gazed intently at Andrey's aged face.

“No, I'm asking,” said Pierre, but Prince Andrey interrupted him:

- But what to say about me ... tell me, tell about your trip, about everything that you have done there in your names?

Pierre began to talk about what he had done on his estates, trying to hide as much as possible his participation in the improvements made by him. Prince Andrew several times suggested to Pierre in advance what he was telling, as if everything that Pierre had done was a well-known story, and he listened not only not with interest, but even as if ashamed of what Pierre was telling.

Pierre felt awkward and even hard in the company of his friend. He fell silent.

- Well, that's what, my soul, - said Prince Andrey, who, obviously, was also hard and embarrassed with the guest, - I am here in bivouacs, I came just to see. And now I'm going to my sister again. I'll introduce you to them. Yes, you seem to know, "he said, obviously engaging a guest with whom he now felt nothing in common." We will go after dinner. Do you want to see my estate now? - They went out and walked until lunchtime, talking about political news and mutual acquaintances, like people who are not very close to each other. With some animation and interest, Prince Andrei spoke only of the new estate and construction he was planning, but even here, in the middle of the conversation, on the stage, when Prince Andrei was describing the future location of the house to Pierre, he suddenly stopped. “However, there is nothing interesting here; and let's go. - At dinner we started talking about Pierre's marriage.

“I was very surprised when I heard about this,” said Prince Andrey.

Pierre blushed as he always blushed at the same time, and hastily said:

- I'll tell you someday how it all happened. But you know that it's all over, and forever.

- Forever and ever? - said Prince Andrew. - Forever nothing happens.

- But do you know how it all ended? Have you heard about the duel?

- Yes, you went through that.

“One thing for which I thank God is that I did not kill this man,” said Pierre.

- From what? - said Prince Andrew. - To kill an angry dog \u200b\u200bis even very good.

- No, killing a person is not good, unfair ...

- Why is it unfair? - repeated Prince Andrey. - That which is fair and unjust is not given to people to judge. People have always been wrong and will be wrong, and in nothing more than what they consider to be just and unjust.

“It is unfair that there is evil for another person,” said Pierre, feeling with pleasure that for the first time since his arrival, Prince Andrew was reviving and beginning to speak and wanted to express everything that made him what he was now.

- And who told you what evil is for another person? - he asked.

- Evil? Evil? - said Pierre. - We all know what evil is for ourselves.

“Yes, we know, but the evil that I know for myself, I cannot do to another person,” Prince Andrey said, becoming more and more animated, apparently wanting to express to Pierre his new view of things. He spoke French. - Je ne connais dans la vie que maux bien réels: c "est le remord et la maladie. Il n" est de bien que l "absence de ces maux (I know only two real misfortunes in life: remorse and illness. And happiness is only the absence of these two evils.) To live for oneself, avoiding only these two evils, this is all my wisdom now.

- And love for one's neighbor, and self-sacrifice? - began Pierre. - No, I cannot agree with you! To live only so as not to do evil, so as not to repent, this is not enough. I lived this way, I lived for myself and ruined my life. And only now, when I live, at least I try (Pierre corrected himself out of modesty) to live for others, only now I understood all the happiness of life. No, I do not agree with you, and you do not think what you are saying either. Prince Andrew silently looked at Pierre and smiled mockingly.

“You’ll see your sister, Princess Marya. You will get along with her, ”he said. “Maybe you’re right for yourself,” he continued, after a pause, “but everyone lives in their own way: you lived for yourself and say that this almost ruined your life, and only learned happiness when you began to live for others. And I have experienced the opposite. I lived for glory. (After all, what is fame? The same love for others, the desire to do something for them, the desire for their praise.) So I lived for others and not almost, but completely ruined my life. And since then I have become calm, as I live for myself.

- But how to live for oneself? - getting excited, asked Pierre. - And the son, sister, father?

- Yes, this is still the same me, these are not others, - said Prince Andrey, - and others, neighbors, le prochain, as you and Princess Marya call, is the main source of delusion and evil. Le prochain - these are your Kiev men who you want to do good to.

And he looked at Pierre with a mockingly defiant look. He apparently summoned Pierre.

“You’re joking,” Pierre said, more and more animated. - What error and evil can there be in the fact that I desired (very little and did badly), but wanted to do good, and even did at least something? What evil can it be that unfortunate people, our men, people, just like us, growing up and dying without any other concept of God and truth, like an image and meaningless prayer, will learn from the comforting beliefs of a future life, retribution, reward, consolation ? What evil and delusion is that people die of illness without help, when it is so easy to help them financially, and I will give them a doctor, and a hospital, and a shelter for an old man? And isn't it a tangible, not undoubted benefit that a man, a woman with a child do not have days and nights of rest, and I will give them rest and leisure? .. - Pierre said, hurrying and lisping. - And I did it, albeit badly, at least a little, but I did something for this, and you not only will not disbelieve me that what I have done is good, but you will not disbelieve, so that you yourself do not think it ... And most importantly, Pierre continued, I know this, and I know for sure, that the pleasure of doing this good is the only true happiness in life.

“Yes, if you put the question like that, it’s another matter,” said Prince Andrew. - I am building a house, a garden, and you are hospitals. Both can serve as a passage of time. But what is fair, what is good - leave it to the one who knows everything, and not us. Well, you want to argue, ”he added,“ come on. They left the table and sat on the porch that replaced the balcony.

“Well, let's argue,” said Prince Andrey. “You say school,” he continued, bending his finger, “teachings and so on, that is, you want to take him out,” he said, pointing to a peasant who took off his hat and passed them, “from his animal state and give him moral needs. ... And it seems to me that the only possible happiness is animal happiness, and you want to deprive it of it. I envy him, and you want to make him me, but without giving him my mind, or my feelings, or my means. Another - you say: to facilitate his work. But in my opinion, physical labor for him is the same necessity, the same condition for his existence, as mental labor for you and for me. You can't help but think. I go to bed at three o'clock, thoughts come to me, and I cannot fall asleep, toss and turn, I do not sleep until the morning because I think and cannot help but think how he cannot help plowing, not mowing, otherwise he will go to the tavern or will become ill. Just as I cannot bear his terrible physical labor, but I will die in a week, so he cannot bear my physical idleness, he will grow fat and die. Third, what else did you say?

Prince Andrew bent his third finger.

- Oh yes. Hospitals, medicines. He has a stroke, he dies, and you bleed him, cure him, he will go crippled for ten years, a burden for everyone. It is much calmer and easier for him to die. Others will be born and there are so many of them. If you regretted that your extra worker was gone - the way I look at him, otherwise you want to treat him out of love for him. And he doesn't need that. And besides, what an imagination that medicine cured someone ... Kill! - So! He said, frowning angrily and turning away from Pierre.

Prince Andrew expressed his thoughts so clearly and distinctly that it was evident that he had thought about it more than once, and he spoke willingly and quickly, like a man who has not spoken for a long time. His gaze brightened the more, the more hopeless his judgments were.

- Oh, it's awful, awful! - said Pierre. - I just don't understand how one can live with such thoughts. They found the same minutes for me, it was recently, in Moscow and on the road, but then I sink to such an extent that I do not live, everything is disgusting to me, the main thing is myself. Then I don’t eat, I don’t wash ... well, how can you ...

“Why not wash, it’s not clean,” said Prince Andrey. - On the contrary, you should try to make your life as pleasant as possible. I live and it is not my fault, therefore, I must somehow better, without disturbing anyone, to live to death.

- But what prompts you to live? With such thoughts, you will sit without moving, doing nothing.

- Life and so does not leave alone. I would be glad to do nothing, but, on the one hand, the local nobility honored me with the honor of being elected leader; I got off violently. They could not understand that I did not have what was needed, that there was no well-known good-natured and preoccupied vulgarity that was needed for this. Then this house, which had to be built in order to have its own corner, where you can be calm. Now the militia.

- Why don't you serve in the army?

- After Austerlitz! - said Prince Andrey gloomily. - No, I humbly thank you, I gave myself my word that I will not serve in the active Russian army. And I will not. If Bonaparte had stood here, near Smolensk, threatening the Bald Hills, then I would not have served in the Russian army. Well, so I told you, - prince Andrey continued, calming down, - now the militia, the father is the commander-in-chief of the third district, and the only way for me to get rid of the service is to be with him.

- So you serve?

- I serve. - He was silent for a little.

- So why do you serve?

- But why. My father is one of the most wonderful people of his age. But he is getting old, and he is not only cruel, but he is too active in nature. He is terrible for his habit of unlimited power and now with this power given by the sovereign to the commander-in-chief over the militia. If I had been two hours late two weeks ago, he had hanged the protocol officer in Yukhnovo, ”said Prince Andrei with a smile. - So I serve because, besides me, no one has any influence on my father and I will save him here and there from an act from which he would suffer later.

- Ah, well, you see!

- Yes, mais ce n "est pas comme vous l" entendez (but not in the way you think), - Prince Andrey continued. “I didn’t want the slightest good, and I don’t wish this scoundrel-recorder who stole some boots from the militia; I would even be very pleased to see him hanged, but I feel sorry for my father, that is, myself again.

Prince Andrew became more and more animated. His eyes glittered feverishly while he tried to prove to Pierre that there was never a desire in his deed for good to his neighbor.

“Well, you want to free the peasants,” he continued. - It is very good; but not for you (you, I think, did not spot anyone and did not send to Siberia) and even less for the peasants. If they are beaten, flogged and sent to Siberia, then I think that this does not make them any worse. In Siberia, he leads the same animal life, and the scars on his body will heal, and he is as happy as he was before. And this is necessary for those people who die morally, gain repentance for themselves, suppress this repentance and become rude because they have the opportunity to execute right and wrong. This is who I feel sorry for and for whom I would like to free the peasants. You may not have seen, but I have seen, how good people, brought up in these traditions of unlimited power, over the years, when they become more irritable, become cruel, rude, they know this, they cannot resist and everyone becomes unhappy and unhappy.

Prince Andrew said this with such enthusiasm that Pierre involuntarily thought that these thoughts were directed to Andrew by his father. He did not answer him.

- So that's who and what you feel sorry for - human dignity, peace of conscience, purity, and not their backs and foreheads, which, no matter how much they cut, no matter how much they shave, all will remain the same backs and foreheads.

- No, no, and a thousand times no! I will never agree with you, ”Pierre said.

In the evening, Prince Andrew and Pierre got into a carriage and drove to Bald Mountains. Prince Andrew, glancing at Pierre, occasionally broke the silence with speeches proving that he was in a good mood.

He spoke to him, pointing to the fields, about his economic improvements.

Pierre was gloomily silent, answering in monosyllables, and seemed lost in his own thoughts.

Pierre thought that Prince Andrew was unhappy, that he was mistaken, that he did not know the true light and that Pierre should come to his aid, enlighten and raise him. But as soon as Pierre came up with how and what he would say, he had a presentiment that Prince Andrei in one word, one argument would drop all his teachings, and he was afraid to start, he was afraid to expose his beloved shrine to the possibility of ridicule.

“No, why do you think,” Pierre suddenly began, lowering his head and assuming the appearance of a butting bull, “why do you think so? You shouldn't think so.

- What do I think about? - asked Prince Andrey with surprise.

- About life, about the purpose of a person. It can't be. I thought the same, and it saved me, you know what? freemasonry. No, you don't smile. Freemasonry is not a religious, not a ritual sect, as I thought, but Freemasonry is the best, the only expression of the best, eternal sides of humanity. - And he began to explain to Prince Andrey Freemasonry, as he understood it.

He said that Freemasonry is the teaching of Christianity, freed from state and religious fetters; the teaching of equality, brotherhood and love.

- Only our holy brotherhood has real meaning in life; everything else is a dream, ”said Pierre. - You must understand, my friend, that outside this union everything is full of lies and untruths, and I agree with you that a smart and kind person has no choice but to live out his life, like you, trying not to interfere with others. But assimilate our basic beliefs, join our brotherhood, give yourself to us, allow yourself to be guided, and now you will feel, as I felt, a part of this huge, invisible chain, which began hiding in heaven, ”said Pierre.

Prince Andrew silently, looking in front of him, listened to Pierre's speech. Several times, not hearing from the noise of the carriage, he asked Pierre the unheard words. By the special brilliance that lit up in the eyes of Prince Andrew, and by his silence, Pierre saw that his words were not in vain, that Prince Andrew would not interrupt him and would not laugh at his words.

They drove up to a flooded river, which they had to cross by ferry. While the carriage and horses were being installed, they went to the ferry.

Prince Andrew, leaning his elbows on the railing, silently looked along the flood sparkling from the setting sun.

- Well, what do you think about it? - Pierre asked. - Why are you silent?

- What I think? I listened to you. All this is so, - said Prince Andrey. - But you say: join our brotherhood, and we will show you the purpose of life and the purpose of man and the laws that govern the world. Who are we? - people. Why do you all know? Why am I alone not seeing what you see? You see on earth the kingdom of goodness and truth, but I do not see it.

Pierre interrupted him.

- Do you believe in a future life? - he asked.

- In the future life? - repeated Prince Andrew, but Pierre did not give him time to answer and took this repetition for denial, especially since he knew the former atheistic convictions of Prince Andrew.

- You say that you cannot see the kingdom of good and truth on earth. And I did not see him; and you cannot see him if you look at our life as the end of everything. On the ground, on this very ground (Pierre pointed out in the field), there is no truth - all lies and evil; but in the world, in the whole world, there is a kingdom of righteousness and we are now children of the earth, and forever - children of the whole world. Do I not feel in my soul that I am part of this huge, harmonious whole? Do I not feel that I am in this innumerable number of beings in which the deity is manifested - a higher power - as you wish - that I am one link, one step from lower beings to higher ones? If I see, clearly see this ladder that leads from plant to man, then why should I suppose that this ladder, to which I do not see the end below, is lost in the plants. Why then should I suppose that this ladder breaks with me, and does not lead further and further to higher beings? I feel that not only can I not disappear, as nothing disappears in the world, but that I always will and always have been. I feel that, besides me, spirits live above me and that there is truth in this world.

“Yes, this is Herder’s teaching,” said Prince Andrew, “but not that, my soul, will convince me, but life and death, that’s what convinces. It is convincing that you see a creature dear to you, which is connected with you, before which you were guilty and hoped to justify yourself (Prince Andrey trembled and turned away), and suddenly this creature suffers, suffers and ceases to be ... Why? It cannot be that there was no answer! And I believe that he is ... That's what convinces, that's what convinced me, 'said Prince Andrey.

- Well, yes, well, yes, - said Pierre, - isn't it the same thing I say!

- No. I only say that it is not arguments that convince of the need for a future life, but when you walk hand in hand with a person in life, and suddenly this person disappears there in nowhere, and you yourself stop before this abyss and look there. And I looked in ...

- Well, so what! Do you know what is there and what someone is? There is a future life. Someone is - God.

Prince Andrew did not answer. The carriage and the horses had long since been taken to the other side and laid down, and the sun had already disappeared by half and the evening frost covered the puddles at the ferry with stars, while Pierre and Andrey, to the surprise of the footmen, coachmen and carriers, were still standing on the ferry and talking.

- If there is God and there is a future life, that is, truth, there is virtue; and man's highest happiness is to strive to attain them. We must live, we must love, we must believe, - said Pierre, - that we do not live now only on this piece of land, but we have lived and will live forever there, in everything (he pointed to the sky). - Prince Andrey stood with his elbows on the rail of the ferry, and listening to Pierre, without taking his eyes off, looked at the red reflection of the sun over the blue flood. Pierre fell silent. It was completely quiet. The ferry had stopped long ago, and only the waves of the current hit the bottom of the ferry with a faint sound. It seemed to Prince Andrew that this rinsing of waves was saying to Pierre's words: "True, believe this."

Prince Andrew sighed and looked with a radiant, childish, gentle gaze into the flushed, enthusiastic, but still timid face of Pierre's preeminent friend.

- Yes, if only it were! - he said. `` But let's go sit down, '' added Prince Andrew, and as he got off the ferry he looked at the sky that Pierre had pointed out to him, and for the first time after Austerlitz he saw that high, eternal sky that he had seen lying on the Austerlitz field. and something that had long since fallen asleep, something better that was in him, suddenly woke up joyfully and youthfully in his soul. This feeling disappeared as soon as Prince Andrey entered his usual conditions of life, but he knew that this feeling, which he could not develop, lived in him. The meeting with Pierre was an era for Prince Andrew, from which, although in appearance and the same, but in the inner world, his new life began.

Volume 2 Part 3

(The life of Prince Andrey in the village, transformations in his estates. 1807-1809)

Prince Andrew spent two years without a break in the village. All those enterprises on the names that Pierre started at himself and did not bring to any result, constantly moving from one case to another, all these enterprises, without saying them to anyone and without noticeable difficulty, were carried out by Prince Andrew.

He had in the highest degree that practical tenacity that Pierre lacked, which, without scope and effort on his part, set things in motion.

One estate of his three hundred souls of peasants was listed as free farmers (this was one of the first examples in Russia), in others corvee was replaced by rent. In Bogucharovo, a learned grandmother was discharged at his expense to help the women in childbirth, and the priest taught peasant and household children to read and write for a salary.

One half of his time, Prince Andrew spent in Bald Hills with his father and son, who was still with the nannies; the other half of the time in the Bogucharov monastery, as his father called his village. Despite his indifference to all the external events of the world he showed to Pierre, he diligently followed them, received many books and, to his surprise, noticed when people fresh from Petersburg, from the very vortex of life, came to him or to his father, that these people in knowledge of everything that is happening in foreign and domestic policy, they lagged far behind him, sitting without a break in the countryside.

In addition to studying the names, besides the general studies of reading a wide variety of books, Prince Andrey was at this time engaged in a critical analysis of our last two unfortunate campaigns and in drawing up a project to change our military regulations and decrees.

(Description of the old oak tree)

There was an oak tree at the edge of the road. Probably ten times older than the birches that made up the forest, it was ten times thicker and twice as tall as each birch. It was a huge oak in two girths with broken off, long visible, branches and with broken off bark, overgrown with old sores. With his huge clumsy, asymmetrically spread, gnarled hands and fingers, he stood between the smiling birch trees as an old, angry and contemptuous freak. Only he alone did not want to submit to the charm of spring and did not want to see either spring or the sun.
"Spring, and love, and happiness!" - as if this oak spoke, - “and how you don’t get tired of the same stupid and senseless deception. Everything is the same and everything is cheating! There is no spring, no sun, no happiness. Look, there are crushed dead spruces sitting, always the same, and there I spread my broken, tattered fingers, wherever they grew - from the back, from the sides; as I grew up, I still stand, and I do not believe your hopes and deceptions. "
Prince Andrey glanced back at this oak several times, driving through the forest, as if he was expecting something from it. There were flowers and grass under the oak, but he still stood in the middle of them, frowning, motionless, ugly and stubbornly.
"Yes, he is right, this oak is right a thousand times, thought Prince Andrew, let others, young people, again succumb to this deception, but we know life - our life is over!" A whole new series of hopeless, but sadly pleasant thoughts in connection with this oak, arose in the soul of Prince Andrey. During this journey, he seemed to think over his whole life, and came to the same old reassuring and hopeless conclusion that he didn’t need to start anything, that he should live out his life without doing evil, without worrying and without wanting anything.

(Spring 1809 Bolkonsky's business trip to Otradnoye to Count Rostov. First meeting with Natasha)

For the care of the Ryazan estate, Prince Andrey had to see the district leader. The leader was Count Ilya Andreyevich Rostov, and Prince Andrey went to him in mid-May.

It was already a hot period of spring. The forest was already all dressed up, there was dust and it was so hot that, driving past the water, I wanted to swim.

Prince Andrey, gloomy and preoccupied with considerations of what and what he needed to ask the leader about business, drove up the garden alley to the Rostovs' house in Otradno. To the right, from behind the trees, he heard a woman's cheerful cry and saw a crowd of girls running across his carriage. Ahead of the others, closer, a black-haired, very thin, oddly thin, black-eyed girl in a yellow chintz dress, tied with a white handkerchief, from under which strands of combed hair stood out, ran up to the carriage. The girl was shouting something, but, recognizing the stranger, without looking at him, ran back with a laugh.

Prince Andrew suddenly felt pain for some reason. The day was so good, the sun was so bright, everything was so cheerful; and this slender and pretty girl did not know and did not want to know about his existence and was content and happy with some of her own separate - indeed, stupid - but cheerful and happy life. “Why is she so happy? What is she thinking about? Not about the military charter, not about the structure of the Ryazan quitrent. What is she thinking about? And how is she happy? " - Prince Andrey involuntarily asked himself with curiosity.

Count Ilya Andreevich lived in Otradnoye in 1809 in the same way as before, that is, he received almost the entire province, with hunting, theaters, dinners and musicians. He, like every new guest, was once Prince Andrew and almost forcibly left him to spend the night.

During the boring day, during which Prince Andrey was occupied by the senior hosts and the most honorable of the guests, with whom the house of the old count was full on the occasion of the approaching name day, Bolkonsky, several times glancing at Natasha, laughing at something, having fun between the other, young half of the society, kept asking himself: “What is she thinking? Why is she so happy? "

In the evening, left alone in a new place, he could not sleep for a long time. He read, then put out the candle and lit it again. It was hot in the room with the shutters closed. He was annoyed with this stupid old man (as he called Rostov), \u200b\u200bwho detained him, assuring him that the necessary papers in the city had not yet been delivered, he was annoyed with himself for remaining.

Prince Andrew got up and went to the window to open it. As soon as he opened the shutters, the moonlight, as if he had been on the alert at the window for a long time, burst into the room. He opened the window. The night was crisp and still light. In front of the window was a row of trimmed trees, black on one side and silvery-lit on the other. Under the trees there was some kind of lush, wet, curly vegetation with silvery leaves and stems in some places. Further behind the ebony trees was some kind of shiny dew roof, to the right a large curly tree with a bright white trunk and twigs, and above it was an almost full moon in a bright, almost starless spring sky. Prince Andrey leaned against the window, and his eyes rested on this sky.

Prince Andrew's room was on the middle floor; they also lived in the rooms above him and did not sleep. He heard a woman's voice from above.

“Just one more time,” said a woman's voice from above, which Prince Andrew now recognized.

- But when will you sleep? Answered another voice.

- I won't, I can't sleep, what can I do! Well, the last time ...

- Oh, how lovely! Well, now sleep, and end.

“You sleep, but I can't,” answered the first voice, approaching the window. She, apparently, completely leaned out the window, because you could hear the rustle of her dress and even breathing. Everything was quiet and petrified, like the moon and its light and shadows. Prince Andrew was also afraid to move, so as not to betray his involuntary presence.

Sonia answered something reluctantly.

- No, look what a moon is! .. Ah, how lovely! You come here. Darling, darling, come here. Well, see? So I would have squatted, like this, I would have grabbed myself under my knees - tighter, tighter, it’s necessary to strain — and fly. Like this!

- Completely, you will fall.

- It's the second hour.

- Oh, you just spoil everything for me. Well, go, go.

Again everything fell silent, but Prince Andrey knew that she was still sitting here, he sometimes heard a quiet stirring, sometimes sighs.

- Oh my god! Oh my God! What is it! She cried suddenly. - Sleep like that! - and slammed the window.

"And I don't care about my existence!" - thought Prince Andrei while he listened to her talk, for some reason expecting and fearing that she would say something about him. “And again she! And how on purpose! " He thought. Such an unexpected confusion of young thoughts and hopes, which contradicted his whole life, suddenly arose in his soul that, feeling himself unable to comprehend his condition, he immediately fell asleep.

(Renewed old oak tree. Bolkonsky's thoughts that life is not over at 31)

The next day, having said goodbye to only one count, without waiting for the ladies to come out, Prince Andrew went home.

It was already the beginning of June when Prince Andrei, returning home, drove again into that birch grove in which this old, gnarled oak so strangely and memorably struck him. The little bells were ringing even more muffled in the forest than a month ago; everything was full, shady and thick; and the young spruces, scattered in the forest, did not violate the overall beauty and, imitating the general character, gently green with fluffy young shoots.

The whole day was hot, a thunderstorm was gathering somewhere, but only a small cloud splashed on the dust of the road and on the juicy leaves. The left side of the forest was dark, in shadow; the right one, wet, glossy, shone in the sun, slightly swaying in the wind. Everything was in bloom; nightingales crackled and rolled now near, now far.

“Yes, here, in this forest, there was this oak tree with which we agreed,” thought Prince Andrew. - Where is he? "- thought again Prince Andrew, looking at the left side of the road and, without knowing it, not recognizing him, admired the oak for which he was looking. The old oak tree, all transformed, stretched out like a tent of luscious, dark greenery, melted, swaying slightly in the rays of the evening sun. No gnarled fingers, no sores, no old grief and mistrust - nothing was visible. Juicy, young leaves made their way through the hundred-year-old tough bark without knots, so it was impossible to believe that it was the old man who produced them. “Yes, this is the same oak tree,” thought Prince Andrey, and suddenly an unreasonable spring feeling of joy and renewal came over him. All the best moments of his life were suddenly recalled to him at the same time. And Austerlitz with the high sky, and the dead reproachful face of his wife, and Pierre on the ferry, and the girl, agitated by the beauty of the night, and this night, and the moon - and all this suddenly came to him.

“No, life is not over for thirty-one years,” Prince Andrei suddenly decided without fail. - Not only do I know everything that is in me, I need everyone to know this: both Pierre and this girl who wanted to fly into the sky, it is necessary that everyone knows me, so that my life, so that they do not live like this girl, regardless of my life, so that it reflects on everyone and that they all live with me! "

Returning from his trip, Prince Andrew decided to go to Petersburg in the fall and came up with various reasons for this decision. A whole series of reasonable, logical reasons why he needed to go to St. Petersburg and even serve, was every minute ready for his services. Even now he did not understand how he could ever doubt the need to take an active part in life, just as a month ago he did not understand how the thought of leaving the country might come to him. It seemed clear to him that all his experiences in life were bound to be wasted and nonsense, if he had not applied them to the matter and again took an active part in life. He did not even understand how, on the basis of the same poor rational arguments, it was previously obvious that he would humiliate himself if now, after his life lessons, he would again believe in the possibility of being useful and in the possibility of happiness and love. Now my mind was telling something completely different. After this trip, Prince Andrei began to get bored in the village, his previous occupations did not interest him, and often, sitting alone in his study, he got up, went to the mirror and looked at his face for a long time. Then he turned away and looked at the portrait of the deceased Liza, who with whipped a la grecque curls tenderly and cheerfully looked at him from the golden frame. She no longer spoke the former terrible words to her husband; she simply and cheerfully looked at him with curiosity. And Prince Andrew, with his hands folded back, walked around the room for a long time, now frowning, now smiling, changing his mind about those unreasonable, inexpressible thoughts, secret as a crime, thoughts connected with Pierre, with fame, with a girl at the window, with an oak tree, with female beauty and love that changed his whole life. And at these moments, when someone came to him, he was especially dry, sternly decisive and especially unpleasantly logical.

(Prince Andrew arrives in St. Petersburg. Bolkonsky's reputation in society)

Prince Andrey was in one of the most favorable positions in order to be well received in all the most diverse and highest circles of the then Petersburg society. The party of reformers warmly welcomed and lured him, firstly, because he had a reputation for intelligence and great erudition, and secondly, because by letting the peasants free, he had already made himself a reputation as a liberal. The party of dissatisfied old people, just like the son of their father, turned to him for sympathy, condemning the transformation. The society of women, the world welcomed him, because he was a groom, rich and noble, and almost a new face with a halo of romantic stories about his imaginary death and the tragic death of his wife. In addition, the common voice about him of all who knew him before was that he had changed a lot for the better during these five years, softened and matured, that there was no previous pretense, pride and mockery in him, and there was that calmness that is acquired for years. They started talking about him, they were interested in him, and everyone wanted to see him.

(The attitude of Bolkonsky to Speransky)

Speransky, both on the first meeting with him at Kochubei's, and then in the middle of the house, where Speransky, having received Bolkonsky, talked to him for a long time and trustingly, made a strong impression on Prince Andrey.

Prince Andrey considered such a huge number of people to be despicable and insignificant creatures, so he wanted to find in another a living ideal of the perfection to which he strove, that he easily believed that in Speranskoye he had found this ideal of a completely rational and virtuous person. If Speransky was from the same society that Prince Andrey was from, the same upbringing and moral habits, then Bolkonsky would soon have found his weak, human, non-heroic sides, but now this logical mindset, strange to him, inspired him all the more respect that he did not quite understand him. In addition, Speransky, whether because he appreciated the abilities of Prince Andrei, or because he found it necessary to acquire him for himself, Speransky flirted before Prince Andrei with his impartial, calm mind and flattered Prince Andrei with that subtle flattery, combined with arrogance, which consists in tacit recognition of his interlocutor with himself together as the only person capable of understanding all the stupidity of everyone else, the rationality and depth of his thoughts.

During their long conversation in the middle of the evening, Speransky said more than once: “They look at everything that goes beyond the general level of an ingrained habit ...” - or with a smile: “But we want the wolves to be well fed and the sheep to be safe. .. "- or:" They cannot understand it ... "- and all with such an expression that said:" We, you and me, we understand what they are and who we are. "

This first long conversation with Speransky only intensified in Prince Andrei the feeling with which he first saw Speransky. He saw in him a rational, strictly thinking, enormous mind of a person who, with energy and persistence, had attained power and used it only for the good of Russia. Speransky, in the eyes of Prince Andrei, was precisely that person who rationally explains all the phenomena of life, recognizes as valid only that which is reasonable, and who knows how to apply the standard of rationality to everything, which he himself so wanted to be. Everything seemed so simple and clear in Speransky's presentation that Prince Andrey involuntarily agreed with him in everything. If he objected and argued, it was only because he wanted to be independent on purpose and not completely obey Speransky's opinions. Everything was so, everything was fine, but one thing embarrassed Prince Andrei: it was Speransky's cold, mirrored gaze that did not let into his soul, and his white, gentle hand, which Prince Andrei involuntarily looked at, as people usually look at. with power. For some reason, the mirrored look and gentle hand irritated Prince Andrey. Prince Andrew was unpleasantly struck by the still too great contempt for people, which he noticed in Speransky, and the variety of methods in the evidence that he cited in support of his opinion. He used all possible instruments of thought, excluding comparisons, and too boldly, as it seemed to Prince Andrew, passed from one to another. Either he stood on the soil of a practical figure and condemned dreamers, then on the soil of a satirist and ironically laughed at his opponents, then he became strictly logical, then suddenly he rose into the field of metaphysics. (He especially often used this last instrument of evidence.) He transferred the question to metaphysical heights, passed on to the definitions of space, time, thought, and, bringing forth refutations from there, again descended to the ground of dispute.

In general, the main feature of Speransky's mind that struck Prince Andrei was an undoubted, unshakable faith in the strength and legitimacy of the mind. It was evident that Speransky could never have thought of that usual idea for Prince Andrei that it was impossible to express everything that you think, and there never came a doubt that all that I think was nonsense, and all that i believe in? And this particular mentality of Speransky most of all attracted Prince Andrei.

At the first time of his acquaintance with Speransky, Prince Andrey had a passionate sense of admiration for him, similar to that which he once felt for Bonaparte. The fact that Speransky was the son of a priest, who could have been stupid people, as many did, went to despise as a couturier and priest, forced Prince Andrei to treat his feelings for Speransky with particular care and unconsciously strengthen it in himself.

On that first evening that Bolkonsky spent with him, talking about the commission for drafting laws, Speransky ironically told Prince Andrey that the commission of laws had existed for one hundred and fifty years, cost millions and did nothing, that Rosenkampf glued labels to all articles of comparative legislation ...

“And that's all the state paid millions for! - he said. “We want to give a new judiciary to the Senate, and we have no laws. Therefore, it is a sin not to serve people like you, prince, now.

Prince Andrey said that this requires a legal education, which he does not have.

- Nobody has it, so what do you want? This is the circulus viciosus (vicious circle), from which one must get out by effort.

A week later, Prince Andrey was a member of the commission for drawing up military regulations and, which he had never expected, head of the department of the commission for drawing up laws. At Speransky's request, he took the first part of the civil code being drawn up and, with the help of the Code Napoléon and Justiniani (Napoleonic Code and the Code of Justinian), worked on the compilation of the department: Rights of Persons.

(December 31, 1809 Ball at Catherine's grandee. New meeting of Bolkonsky and Natasha Rostova)

Natasha looked with joy at the familiar face of Pierre, this pea jester, as Peronskaya called him, and knew that Pierre was looking for them, and especially her, in the crowd. Pierre promised her to be at the ball and introduce her gentlemen.

But, not reaching them, Bezukhov stopped beside a short, very handsome brunette in a white uniform, who, standing at the window, was talking to some tall man wearing stars and a ribbon. Natasha immediately recognized a short young man in a white uniform: it was Bolkonsky, who seemed to her very much younger, more cheerful and prettier.

- Here's another friend, Bolkonsky, see, mom? Said Natasha, pointing to Prince Andrew. - Remember, he spent the night with us in Otradnoye.

- Do you know him? - said Peronskaya. - Hate. Il fait à présent la pluie et le beau temps (Everyone's crazy about him now.) And the pride is such that there are no boundaries! I went to papa. And I contacted Speransky, they are writing some projects. See how he treats the ladies! She is talking to him, and he turned away, ”she said, pointing at him. - I would have finished him, if he had done to me as he did to these ladies.

Prince Andrey, in his colonel's white uniform (for cavalry), in stockings and boots, lively and cheerful, stood in the first rows of the circle, not far from the Rostovs. Baron Firgoff spoke to him about tomorrow's supposed first meeting of the Council of State. Prince Andrey, as a person close to Speransky and participating in the work of the legislative commission, could give correct information about the meeting of tomorrow, about which there were various rumors. But he did not listen to what Firgof was telling him, and looked first at the sovereign, then at the gentlemen who were getting ready to dance, who did not dare to enter the circle.

Prince Andrew watched these gentlemen and ladies who were shy in the presence of the sovereign, and died from the desire to be invited.

Pierre went up to Prince Andrew and grabbed his hand.

- You always dance. There is my protégée, young Rostova, invite her, - he said.

- Where? Bolkonsky asked. “I’m sorry,” he said, addressing the baron, “we’ll bring this conversation to the end in another place, but we have to dance at the ball. - He stepped forward, in the direction that Pierre showed him. Natasha's desperate, dying face caught the eye of Prince Andrey. He recognized her, guessed her feelings, realized that she was a beginner, remembered her conversation at the window and with a cheerful expression went up to Countess Rostova.

“Let me introduce you to my daughter,” said the Countess, blushing.

`` I have the pleasure of being familiar, if the Countess remembers me, '' said Prince Andrey with a courteous and low bow, completely contrary to Peronskaya's remarks about his rudeness, going up to Natasha and raising his hand to hug her waist even before he finished the invitation to dance ... He offered her a waltz tour. That dying expression on Natasha's face, ready for despair and delight, suddenly lit up with a happy, grateful, childish smile.

“I have been waiting for you for a long time,” this frightened and happy girl seemed to say with her smile that shone from ready tears, raising her hand on the shoulder of Prince Andrey. They were the second pair to enter the circle. Prince Andrey was one of the best dancers of his time. Natasha danced beautifully. Her legs in ballroom satin shoes quickly, easily and independently of her did their job, and her face shone with delight of happiness. Her bare neck and arms were thin and ugly compared to Helen's shoulders. Her shoulders were thin, her chest was vague, her arms were thin; but Helen was already as if varnish from all the thousands of glances gliding over her body, and Natasha seemed like a girl who had been naked for the first time and who would have been very ashamed if she had not been assured that it was so necessary.

Prince Andrew loved to dance and, wanting to quickly get rid of the political and intelligent conversations with which everyone turned to him, and wanting to quickly break this annoying circle of embarrassment resulting from the presence of the sovereign, he went to dance and chose Natasha, because Pierre had pointed out her to him. and because she was the first of the pretty women to catch his eye; but as soon as he embraced this thin, mobile, quivering camp and she stirred so close to him and smiled so close to him, the wine of her delight hit him in the head: he felt revived and rejuvenated when, taking a breath and leaving her, he stopped and began to look at the dancers.

After Prince Andrey, Boris approached Natasha, inviting her to dance, the dancer-adjutant who had started the ball, and other young people approached Natasha, and Natasha, passing her unnecessary gentlemen to Sonya, happy and flushed, did not stop dancing the whole evening. She did not notice or see anything that occupied everyone at this ball. She not only did not notice how the sovereign spoke for a long time with the French envoy, how he spoke especially graciously with such and such a lady, how the prince such and such did and said such and such, how Helene was a great success and received special attention such and such; she did not even see the sovereign and noticed that he had left, only because after his departure the ball became more lively. One of the merry cotillion, before supper, Prince Andrey danced again with Natasha. He reminded her of their first date in the Otradnenskaya alley and how she could not sleep on a moonlit night and how he could not help hearing her. Natasha blushed at this reminder and tried to justify herself, as if there was something embarrassing in the feeling in which Prince Andrew involuntarily overheard her.

Prince Andrew, like all people who grew up in the world, loved to meet in the world that which had no general secular imprint. And such was Natasha, with her surprise, joy, and shyness, and even mistakes in French. He treated and spoke with her especially tenderly and carefully. Sitting beside her, talking with her about the simplest and most insignificant subjects, Prince Andrey admired the joyful sparkle of her eyes and her smile, which was not related to the speeches being spoken, but to her inner happiness. While Natasha was being chosen and she got up with a smile and danced around the hall, Prince Andrey admired especially her timid grace. In the middle of the cotillion Natasha, having finished her figure, still breathing heavily, approached her place. The new gentleman invited her again. She was tired and out of breath, and apparently thought to refuse, but immediately again gaily raised her hand on the gentleman's shoulder and smiled at Prince Andrew.

“I would be glad to have a rest and sit with you, I am tired; but you see how they choose me, and I am happy about it, and I am happy, and I love everyone, and you and I understand all this, ”and this smile said a lot. When the gentleman left her, Natasha ran across the hall to take two ladies for the figures.

“If she comes up first to her cousin, and then to another lady, then she will be my wife,” Prince Andrew said quite unexpectedly to himself, looking at her. She went first to her cousin.

“What nonsense sometimes comes to mind! - thought Prince Andrew. “But it is only true that this girl is so sweet, so special that she will not dance here for a month and will get married… This is a rarity here,” he thought when Natasha, straightening the rose that had been reclined by the bodice, sat down beside him.

At the end of the cotillion, the old count, in his blue dress coat, walked up to the dancers. He invited Prince Andrew to his place and asked his daughter if she was having fun? Natasha did not answer and only smiled with such a smile, which reproachfully said: "How could you ask about this?"

- As fun as ever! She said, and Prince Andrey noticed how quickly her thin arms were raised to hug her father, and immediately dropped down. Natasha was as happy as never before in her life. She was at that highest stage of happiness, when a person becomes completely kind and good and does not believe in the possibility of evil, unhappiness and grief.

(Bolkonsky visiting the Rostovs. New feelings and new plans for the future)

Prince Andrey felt in Natasha the presence of a completely alien to him, a special world, filled with some joys unknown to him, that alien world, which even then, in the Otradnenskaya alley and on the window on a moonlit night, teased him so. Now this world no longer teased him, there was no alien world; but he himself, having entered it, found in it a new pleasure for himself.

After dinner Natasha, at the request of Prince Andrey, went to the clavichord and began to sing. Prince Andrew stood at the window talking to the ladies and listened to her. In the middle of the phrase, Prince Andrey fell silent and suddenly felt that tears were rising to his throat, the possibility of which he did not know for himself. He looked at the singing Natasha, and something new and happy happened in his soul. He was happy and at the same time sad. He had absolutely nothing to cry about, but was he ready to cry? About what? About the old love? About the little princess? About your disappointments? .. About your hopes for the future? Yes and no. The main thing that he wanted to cry about was the terrible opposition he suddenly realized vividly between something infinitely great and indefinable that was in him, and something narrow and corporeal, which he himself was and even she was. This opposition tormented and delighted him during her singing.

Prince Andrey left the Rostovs late in the evening. He went to bed out of the habit of going to bed, but soon saw that he could not sleep. He first lit a candle, sat in bed, then got up, then went to bed again, not at all burdened by insomnia: he felt so joyful and new in his soul, as if he had stepped out of a stuffy room into the free light of God. It never entered his head that he was in love with Rostov; he did not think about her; he only imagined her to himself, and as a result of this his whole life appeared to him in a new light. "What am I struggling with, what am I struggling with in this narrow, closed frame, when life, all life with all its joys is open to me?" He said to himself. And for the first time after a long time, he began to make happy plans for the future. He decided by himself that he needed to take up the education of his son, finding him a teacher and entrusting him; then you have to retire and go abroad, see England, Switzerland, Italy. “I need to use my freedom while I feel so much strength and youth in myself,” he said to himself. - Pierre was right when he said that you have to believe in the possibility of happiness in order to be happy, and now I believe in it. Let's leave the dead to bury the dead, but while he is alive, he must live and be happy, ”he thought.

(Bolkonsky tells Pierre about his love for Natasha Rostova)

Prince Andrew, with a radiant, enthusiastic and renewed face, stopped in front of Pierre and, not noticing his sad face, smiled at him with egoism of happiness.
“Well, my dear,” he said, “I wanted to tell you yesterday, and today I came to you for this. Never experienced anything like it. I'm in love, my friend.
Pierre suddenly sighed heavily and collapsed with his heavy body on the sofa beside Prince Andrey.
- To Natasha Rostov, right? - he said.
- Yes, yes, to whom? I would never have believed it, but this feeling is stronger than me. Yesterday I suffered, suffered, but I will not give up this torment for anything in the world. I have not lived before. Now only I live, but I cannot live without her. But can she love me? .. I'm old for her ... What are you not saying? ..
- I? I? What did I tell you? ”Pierre said suddenly, getting up and starting to walk around the room. - I always thought this ... This girl is such a treasure, such ... This is a rare girl ... Dear friend, I ask you, you don’t be smart, don’t hesitate, marry, marry and marry ... And I am sure that there will be no happier person than you.
- But she?
- She loves you.
"Don't talk nonsense ..." said Prince Andrew, smiling and looking into Pierre's eyes.
“He loves, I know,” Pierre cried angrily.
“No, listen,” said Prince Andrey, stopping him by the hand.
- Do you know what position I am in? I need to tell everything to someone.
- Well, well, say, I am very glad, - Pierre said, and indeed his face changed, the wrinkle smoothed out, and he happily listened to Prince Andrew. Prince Andrew seemed and was a completely different, new person. Where was his longing, his contempt for life, his disappointment? Pierre was the only person to whom he dared to speak; but for that he had already told him everything that was in his soul. Either he easily and boldly made plans for a long future, talked about how he could not sacrifice his happiness for the whim of his father, how he would force his father to agree to this marriage and love her or do without his consent, then he wondered how something strange, alien, not dependent on him, on the feeling that possessed him.
- I would not believe someone who would tell me that I can love so much, - said Prince Andrey. - This is not at all the feeling that I had before. The whole world is divided for me into two halves: one is her, and there is all happiness, hope, light; the other half is everything, where it is not, there is all despondency and darkness ...
- Darkness and gloom, - repeated Pierre, - yes, yes, I understand that.
- I cannot but love the light, I am not to blame for this. And I am very happy. You understand me? I know that you are happy for me.
- Yes, yes, - Pierre confirmed, looking at his friend with tender and sad eyes. The brighter the fate of Prince Andrei seemed to him, the darker his own seemed.

(The relationship between Andrei Bolkonsky and Natasha Rostova after the marriage proposal)

There was no betrothal and no one was announced about Bolkonsky's engagement to Natasha; Prince Andrew insisted on this. He said that since he is the cause of the delay, he must bear the full weight of it. He said that he had bound himself forever with his word, but that he did not want to bind Natasha and gave her complete freedom. If in six months she feels that she does not love him, she will be in her right, if she refuses him. It goes without saying that neither the parents nor Natasha wanted to hear about this; but Prince Andrew insisted on his own. Prince Andrei visited the Rostovs every day, but not as the groom treated Natasha: he told her you and kissed only her hand. After the day of the proposal, between Prince Andrey and Natasha, a completely different, close, simple relationship was established than before. They didn't seem to know each other until now. Both he and she loved to remember how they looked at each other when they were still nothing, now they both felt like completely different creatures: then feigned, now simple and sincere.

The old count sometimes approached Prince Andrew, kissed him, asked him for advice on the education of Petya or the service of Nicholas. The old countess sighed as she looked at them. Sonya was afraid to be superfluous at any moment and tried to find excuses to leave them alone when they didn't need it. When Prince Andrew spoke (he spoke very well), Natasha listened to him with pride; when she spoke, she noticed with fear and joy that he was looking at her attentively and probingly. She asked herself in bewilderment: "What is he looking for in me? He achieves something with his gaze! What if there is nothing in me that he is looking for with this gaze?" Sometimes she entered into her usual insanely cheerful mood, and then she especially loved to listen and watch how Prince Andrey laughed. He rarely laughed, but when he laughed, he gave himself up to his laughter, and every time after this laugh she felt closer to him. Natasha would have been perfectly happy if the thought of the impending and impending separation had not frightened her, since he too grew pale and cold at the very thought of that.

(From a letter from Princess Marya to Julie Karagina)

“Our family life is going on as before, except for the presence of our brother Andrey. He, as I already wrote to you, has changed a lot lately. After his grief, he now only, this year, has completely revived morally. He became what I knew him as a child: kind, gentle, with that golden heart, to which I know no equal. He realized, as it seems to me, that life is not over for him. But along with this moral change, he was physically very weak. He's thinner than before, more nervous. I am afraid for him and glad that he undertook this trip abroad, which doctors have long prescribed for him. I hope this will fix it. You write to me that in St. Petersburg they talk about him as one of the most active, educated and intelligent young people. Sorry for the pride of kinship - I never doubted it. It is impossible to count the good that he did here to everyone, from his peasants to the nobles. Arriving in St. Petersburg, he took only what he should have. "

Volume 3 Part 2

(A conversation between Bolkonsky and Bezukhov about Natasha Rostova after the incident with Prince Kuragin.Andrei cannot forgive Natasha)

“Forgive me if I'm bothering you ...” Pierre understood that Prince Andrey wanted to talk about Natasha, and his broad face expressed regret and sympathy. This expression on Pierre's face angered Prince Andrew; he resolutely, loudly and unpleasantly continued: - I received a refusal from Countess Rostova, and I heard rumors about your brother-in-law seeking her hand or the like. Is it true?
“It's true and not true,” Pierre began; but Prince Andrew interrupted him.
“Here are her letters,” he said, “and a portrait. He took the bundle from the table and handed it to Pierre.
- Give it to the Countess ... if you see her.
“She is very ill,” said Pierre.
- So she's still here? - said Prince Andrew. - And Prince Kuragin? He asked quickly.
- He left a long time ago. She was dying ...
“I am very sorry about her illness,” said Prince Andrew. He was cold, evil, unpleasant, like his father, grinned.
- But Mr. Kuragin, therefore, did not deserve his hand to Countess Rostov? - said Andrey. He snorted several times.
“He couldn't marry because he was married,” said Pierre.
Prince Andrew laughed unpleasantly, again reminding his father.
- And where is he now, your brother-in-law, may I find out? - he said.
- He went to Peter ... however, I don't know, - said Pierre.
“Well, it's all the same,” said Prince Andrey. - Tell Countess Rostova that she was and is completely free and that I wish her all the best.
Pierre picked up a bundle of papers. Prince Andrew, as if remembering whether he needed to say something else, or expecting Pierre to say something, looked at him with a fixed gaze.
- Listen, you remember our dispute in Petersburg, - said Pierre, - remember about ...
- I remember, - Prince Andrey hastily answered, - I said that the fallen woman must be forgiven, but I did not say that I can forgive. I cant.
- How can you compare it? .. - said Pierre. Prince Andrew interrupted him. He shouted sharply:
- Yes, again to ask for her hand in, to be generous and the like? .. Yes, it is very noble, but I am not able to go sur les brisées de monsieur (in the footsteps of this gentleman). If you want to be my friend, don't ever talk to me about this ... about all this. Well, goodbye.

(A conversation between Bolkonsky and Bezukhov about war, victory and loss in a battle)

Pierre looked at him in surprise.
“However,” he said, “they say that war is like a chess game.
- Yes, - said Prince Andrey, - only with that small difference that in chess you can think as much as you like over every step, that you are out of the conditions of time, and with the difference that a knight is always stronger than a pawn and two pawns are always stronger one, and in war one battalion is sometimes stronger than a division, and sometimes weaker than a company. Nobody knows the relative strength of the troops. Believe me, ”he said,“ that if what depended on the orders of the headquarters, I would have been there and make orders, and instead I have the honor to serve here in the regiment, with these gentlemen, and I think that it is from us tomorrow will really depend, not on them ... Success has never depended and will not depend on position, weapons, or even numbers; and least of all from the position.
- And from what?
- From the feeling that is in me, in him, - he pointed to Timokhin, - in every soldier.

- The battle will be won by the one who is determined to win it. Why did we lose the battle at Austerlitz? Our loss was almost equal to that of the French, but we told ourselves very early that we had lost the battle - and we lost. And we said this because we had no need to fight there: we wanted to leave the battlefield as soon as possible. "If you lose - so run!" - we ran. If we hadn't said this until evening, God knows what would have happened.

(Andrey Bolkonsky's opinion about the war in a conversation with Pierre Bezukhov on the eve of the Borodino battle)

War is not a courtesy, but the most disgusting thing in life, and one must understand this and not play war. This dire necessity must be taken strictly and seriously. This is all: throw away the lie, and war is so war, not a toy. And then war is the favorite pastime of idle and frivolous people ... The military class is the most honorable. And what is war, what is needed for success in military affairs, what are the customs of a military society? The purpose of the war is murder, the weapons of war are espionage, treason and its encouragement, ruining the inhabitants, robbing them or stealing for the food of the army; deception and lies called military tricks; the morals of the military class - the absence of freedom, that is, discipline, idleness, ignorance, cruelty, debauchery, drunkenness. And despite the fact - this is the upper class, revered by all. All kings, except for the Chinese, wear a military uniform, and the one who killed more people is given a great reward ... They will converge, like tomorrow, to kill each other, they will kill, injure tens of thousands of people, and then they will serve thanksgiving prayers for that they have beaten many people (of whom the number is still being added), and they proclaim victory, believing that the more people are beaten, the greater the merit.

(About love and compassion)

In the unfortunate, sobbing, exhausted man, whose leg had just been taken away, he recognized Anatol Kuragin. Anatole was held in his arms and offered him water in a glass, the edges of which he could not catch with trembling, swollen lips. Anatole was sobbing heavily. “Yes, this is it; yes, this man is somehow close and difficult to me, thought Prince Andrey, not yet clearly understanding what was in front of him. "What is the connection of this person with my childhood, with my life?" He asked himself, finding no answer. And suddenly a new, unexpected recollection from the childish world, pure and loving, presented itself to Prince Andrey. He remembered Natasha as he had seen her for the first time at the ball in 1810, with a thin neck and thin hands, with a face ready for delight, a frightened, happy face, and love and tenderness for her, even more lively and stronger than ever , woke up in his soul. He now remembered this connection that existed between him and this man, through the tears filling his swollen eyes, looking dimly at him. Prince Andrew remembered everything, and ecstatic pity and love for this man filled his happy heart.
Prince Andrew could no longer restrain himself and wept tender, loving tears over people, over himself and over their and his own delusions.
“Compassion, love for brothers, for those who love, love for those who hate us, love for enemies - yes, that love that God preached on earth, which Princess Marya taught me and which I did not understand; this is why I felt sorry for life, this is what still remained for me if I were alive. But it's too late now. I know it!"

Volume 3 Part 3

(About happiness)

“Yes, a new happiness was revealed to me, inalienable from man.<…> Happiness that is outside of material forces, outside of material external influences on a person, the happiness of one soul, the happiness of love! Any person can understand it, but only one God could recognize and prescribe it. "

(About love and hate)

“Yes, love (he thought again with perfect clarity), but not that love that loves for something, for something, or for some reason, but that love that I experienced the first time when, dying, I saw his enemy and still fell in love with him. I experienced that feeling of love, which is the very essence of the soul and for which an object is not needed. I still feel this blissful feeling. Love your neighbors, love your enemies. To love everything is to love God in all manifestations. You can love a dear person with human love; but only the enemy can be loved with the love of God. And from this I experienced such joy when I felt that I love that person. What about him? Is he alive ... Loving with human love, you can go from love to hate; but Divine love cannot change. Nothing, not death, nothing can destroy it. She is the essence of the soul. And how many people have I hated in my life. And of all people I loved and hated no one else like her. " And he vividly imagined Natasha not in the way he had imagined her before, with her only charm, joyful to himself; but for the first time I imagined her soul. And he understood her feeling, her suffering, shame, remorse. He now, for the first time, understood the cruelty of his refusal, saw the cruelty of his break with her. “If only I could see her one more time. Once, looking into those eyes, say ... "

Volume 4 Part 1

(Bolkonsky's thoughts about love, life and death)

Prince Andrew not only knew that he was going to die, but he felt that he was dying, that he had already half died. He experienced a consciousness of alienation from everything earthly and a joyful and strange lightness of being. He, without haste and without anxiety, expected what lay ahead of him. That formidable, eternal, unknown and distant, whose presence he never ceased to feel throughout his entire life, was now close to him and - by the strange lightness of being that he experienced - almost understandable and felt.

Before he was afraid of the end. He twice experienced this terrible painful feeling of fear of death, of the end, and now he no longer understood it.
The first time he experienced this feeling was when a grenade spun like a spinning top in front of him and he looked at the stubble, at the bushes, at the sky and knew that there was death in front of him. When he woke up after a wound and in his soul, instantly, as if freed from the oppression of life that held him back, this flower of love, eternal, free, independent of this life, blossomed, he was no longer afraid of death and did not think about it. The more he, in those hours of suffering solitude and half-delirium that he spent after his wound, pondered the new beginning of eternal love that was open to him, the more he, without feeling it, renounced earthly life. To love everyone, to always sacrifice oneself for love, meant not to love anyone, meant not living this earthly life. And the more he became imbued with this beginning of love, the more he renounced life and the more completely he destroyed that terrible barrier that stands between life and death without love. When, this first time, he remembered that he had to die, he said to himself: well, so much the better.
But after that night in Mytishchi, when, in half-deliriousness, the one he desired appeared in front of him, and when he pressed her hand to his lips and cried quiet, joyful tears, love for one woman imperceptibly crept into his heart and again tied him to life. And joyful and disturbing thoughts began to come to him. Recalling that minute at the dressing station when he saw Kuragin, he now could not return to that feeling: he was tormented by the question of whether he was alive? And he dared not ask it.

Falling asleep, he thought about the same thing that he had been thinking about all this time - about life and death. And more about death. He felt closer to her.
"Love? What is love? He thought. - Love prevents death. Love is life. Everything, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists only because I love. Everything is connected by one thing. Love is God, and to die means to me, a particle of love, to return to a common and eternal source. "

But the instant he died, Prince Andrew remembered that he was asleep, and the instant he died, he, making an effort over himself, woke up.
“Yes, it was death. I died - I woke up. Yes, death is awakening! " - suddenly brightened in his soul, and the veil, hiding the unknown until now, was raised before his soul's gaze. He felt, as it were, the release of the strength previously bound in him and that strange lightness that had not left him since then.

To cry on illness - God will not give death.
War and Peace Leo Tolstoy Volume 4 Chapter 13

Despite the fact that doctors treated him, bled and gave medicine to drink, he still recovered.
War and Peace Leo Tolstoy Volume 4 Chapter 12

A person cannot own anything while he is afraid of death. And whoever is not afraid of her owns everything.
Pierre Bezukhov

Love? What is love? Love prevents death. Love is life. Everything, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists only because I love. Everything is connected by one thing. Love is God, and to die means to me, a particle of love, to return to a common and eternal source.
Andrey Bolkonsky

Andrey Bolkonsky

... Sometimes Pierre recalled a story he had heard about how soldiers in a war, being under shots in cover, when they had nothing to do, diligently looked for something to do in order to more easily endure danger. And to Pierre, all people seemed to be such soldiers escaping life: some by ambition, some by cards, some by writing laws, some by women, some by toys, some by horses, some by politics, some by hunting, some by wine, some by state affairs ...

I live and it is not my fault, therefore, I must somehow better, without disturbing anyone, to live to death.
Andrey Bolkonsky

-… Are you satisfied with yourself and your life?
“No, I hate my life,” Pierre said with a frown.
- You hate, so change her ...

People are always mistaken and will be mistaken, and in nothing more than what they consider to be just and unjust.
Andrey Bolkonsky

Whoever understands everything will forgive everything.
Marya Bolkonskaya

To be so defiantly happy.
Anna Pavlovna Sherer

And I say: take hand and hand, those who love good, and let there be one banner - active virtue ...
I just want to say that all thoughts that have enormous consequences are always simple. My whole idea is that if vicious people are connected with each other and constitute strength, then honest people need to do only the same. How simple it is.
Pierre Bezukhov

The military class is the most honorable. And what is war, what is needed for success in military affairs, what are the customs of a military society? The purpose of the war is murder, the weapons of war are espionage, treason and its encouragement, ruining the inhabitants, robbing them or stealing for the food of the army; deception and lies called military tricks; the morals of the military class - the absence of freedom, that is, discipline, idleness, ignorance, cruelty, debauchery, drunkenness. And despite that - this is the upper class, revered by all. All kings, except for the Chinese, wear a military uniform, and the one who killed the most people is given a great reward ...
Andrey Bolkonsky

Life has become hard for me lately. I see I have begun to understand too much.
Andrey Bolkonsky

No, life is not over at the age of 31, suddenly, finally, invariably, Prince Andrey decided. Not only do I know everything that is in me, it is necessary for everyone to know it: both Pierre and this girl who wanted to fly into the sky, it is necessary that everyone knows me, so that my life will not go on for me alone. so that they do not live so independently of my life that it is reflected on everyone and that they all live with me together!
Andrey Bolkonsky

War is not a courtesy, but the most disgusting thing in life, and one must understand this and not play war.
Bolkonsky tells Pierre his thoughts before the battle at Borodino

I have not yet met such heavenly purity, devotion, which I seek in a woman. If I found such a woman, I would give my life for her. And these! .. And do you believe me, if I still value life, I value it only because I still hope to meet such a heavenly being who would revive, purify and elevate me.
Fedor Dolokhov

I cannot reproach, I have not reproached and will never reproach my wife, and I myself cannot reproach myself in relation to her, and it will always be so, in whatever circumstances I may be. But if you want to know the truth ... you want to know if I am happy? No. Is she happy? No. Why is this? I do not know…
Andrey Bolkonsky

The battle is won by the one who is determined to win it!
Andrey Bolkonsky

Above him there was nothing but the sky - a high sky, not clear, but still immeasurably high, with gray clouds quietly creeping over it. “How quietly, calmly and solemnly, not at all the way I ran,” thought Prince Andrew, “not the way we ran, shouted and fought; not at all like the Frenchman and the artilleryman with embittered and frightened faces dragged from each other the bannik - not at all the way the clouds crawl across this high endless sky. How then have I not seen this high sky before? And how happy I am that I finally got to know him. Yes! everything is empty, everything is deception, except for this endless sky. Nothing, nothing but him. But even that is not even there, there is nothing but silence, reassurance. And thank God!..

Despite the fact that five minutes before that Prince Andrey could have said a few words to the soldiers who were carrying him, he now, directly fixing his eyes on Napoleon, was silent ... his hero himself, with this petty vanity and joy of victory, in comparison with the high, fair and kind sky that he saw and understood - that he could not answer him.
And everything seemed so useless and insignificant in comparison with that strict and majestic structure of thought, which caused in him the weakening of strength from the expired blood, suffering and the close expectation of death. Looking into Napoleon's eyes, Prince Andrew thought about the insignificance of greatness, about the insignificance of life, which no one could understand the meaning, and about the even greater insignificance of death, the meaning of which no one could understand and explain from the living.

I only want to say what I say.
Kutuzov

One must live, one must love, one must believe.
Pierre Bezukhov

And there is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth.

We do not so much love people for the good that they have done to us, as for the good that we have done to them.

The whole world is divided for me into two halves: one - she and there is all happiness, hope, light; the other half - everything, where it is not, there is all despondency and darkness ...
Andrey Bolkonsky

I know only two real misfortunes in life: remorse and illness. And happiness is only the absence of these two evils.

He was so busy for days that he didn't have time to think that he was not doing anything.

Everything comes on time for the one who knows how to wait.
Kutuzov

Natasha was just as in love with her fiancé, just as reassured by this love, and just as receptive to all the joys of life; but at the end of the fourth month of separation from him, they began to find moments of sadness on her, against which she could not fight. She felt sorry for herself, it was a pity that she was so free, for no one, wasted all this time, during which she felt so able to love and be loved.
Natasha is 16 years old

Until now, thank God, I have been a friend of my children and I enjoy their full confidence, ”said the countess, repeating the delusion of many parents who believe that their children have no secrets from them.
Countess of Rostov

How can you be healthy ... when you suffer morally?
Anna Pavlovna Sherer

Selfishness, vanity, stupidity, insignificance in everything - these are women when they are shown as they are.
Andrey Bolkonsky