Andrew grows disillusioned with Speránski and his committee work.
Summary:
The next day Prince Andrew briefly recalled the previous night’s entertainment. He remembered how charming Natásha had been. But Andrew did not spend much time thinking about this, and after his morning tea he started working. Either from fatigue or want of sleep, Andrew could get nothing done that day. In the evening he went to dinner at Speránski’s. Seeing for the first time Speránski in his home setting, surrounded by a circle of lackeys, Prince Andrew had a major change of heart. He realized it had been ridiculous of him all along to have expected anything from Speránski and from any of his own activities connected with him, or ever to have attributed importance to what Speránski was doing. He began to see the last four months in a new light. All of his Petersburg committee work, he realized, was really accomplishing nothing. Then, he vividly pictured to himself Boguchárovo, his occupations in the country, and the things he had accomplished there. He felt astonished that he could have wasted so much time on useless work during his four months in Petersburg.
quote from the chapter:
Prince Andrew listened to the account of the opening of the Council of State, which he had so impatiently awaited and to which he had attached such importance, and was surprised that this event, now that it had taken place, did not affect him, and even seemed quite insignificant. He listened with quiet irony to Bítski’s enthusiastic account of it. A very simple thought occurred to him: What does it matter to me or to Bítski what the Emperor was pleased to say at the Council? Can all that make me any happier or better?
And this simple reflection suddenly destroyed all the interest Prince Andrew had felt in the impending reforms.
Book 6, Chapter 18
Andrew grows disillusioned with Speránski and his committee work.
Summary:
The next day Prince Andrew briefly recalled the previous night’s entertainment. He remembered how charming Natásha had been. But Andrew did not spend much time thinking about this, and after his morning tea he started working. Either from fatigue or want of sleep, Andrew could get nothing done that day. In the evening he went to dinner at Speránski’s. Seeing for the first time Speránski in his home setting, surrounded by a circle of lackeys, Prince Andrew had a major change of heart. He realized it had been ridiculous of him all along to have expected anything from Speránski and from any of his own activities connected with him, or ever to have attributed importance to what Speránski was doing. He began to see the last four months in a new light. All of his Petersburg committee work, he realized, was really accomplishing nothing. Then, he vividly pictured to himself Boguchárovo, his occupations in the country, and the things he had accomplished there. He felt astonished that he could have wasted so much time on useless work during his four months in Petersburg.
quote from the chapter:
Prince Andrew listened to the account of the opening of the Council of State, which he had so impatiently awaited and to which he had attached such importance, and was surprised that this event, now that it had taken place, did not affect him, and even seemed quite insignificant. He listened with quiet irony to Bítski’s enthusiastic account of it. A very simple thought occurred to him: What does it matter to me or to Bítski what the Emperor was pleased to say at the Council? Can all that make me any happier or better?
And this simple reflection suddenly destroyed all the interest Prince Andrew had felt in the impending reforms.
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