Nicholas, in agony over how much money he has lost in the card game, returns home. As he listens to Natásha sing, his suffering briefly abates.
Nicholas, in agony over how much money he has lost in the card game, returns home. As he listens to Natásha sing, his suffering briefly abates.
Book 4, Chapter 15
Nicholas, in agony over how much money he has lost in the card game, returns home. As he listens to Natásha sing, his suffering briefly abates.
Summary:
After losing the 43,000 roubles to Dólokhov, Nicholas returns home to find his family and Denísov happily relaxing and socializing. It is a happy domestic scene. Denísov, Sónya and Natásha gather around the clavichord to sing. Nicholas looks to them as if something bad has happened, but he does not tell them the bad news. Nicholas asks if his father is home, he is not. Nicholas is suffering inwardly greatly, and it seems weird to him that the others are able to enjoy life. It is as if Nicholas is experiencing a private hell of his own creation. But, hearing Natásha sing, he experiences a fleeting moment of transcendence, something that was finest in Rostóv’s soul! And this something was apart from everything else in the world and above everything in the world. What were losses, and Dólokhov, and words of honor?” he asks himself.
quote from the chapter:
Nicholas began pacing up and down the room. Why do they want to make her sing? How can she sing? There’s nothing to be happy about! thought he. Sónya struck the first chord of the prelude. My God, I’m a ruined and dishonored man! A bullet through my brain is the only thing left me-not singing! his thoughts ran on. Go away? But where to? It’s one-let them sing! He continued to pace the room, looking gloomily at Denísov and the girls and avoiding their eyes.
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