BOOK 1, Chptr. 2, P&V pg. 8

The soirée continues. We meet Hélène, Prince Andrew, Lise and Pierre.

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  1. Book 1, Chapter 2

      The soirée continues. We meet Hélène, Prince Andrew, Lise and Pierre.

      Summary:

      As more guests arrive, Anna Pávlovna’s drawing room fills with distinguished people from the upper echelon of Petersburg society. Tolstoy points out several of the guests. Hélène is Prince Vasíli’s beautiful daughter. Hélène has come to escort her father Vasíli to another party he must attend. Also present is Princess Lise Bolkónskaya, Vasíli’s pregnant daughter-in-law. She is beautiful and charming. Lise is married to Prince Andrew Bolkonsky, who will soon be leaving her to go to the Napoleonic war. Vasíli’s son Hippolyte is also there. A young man named Pierre, the illegitimate son of Count Bezukov, arrives. Pierre is energetic but very lacking in social graces. Count Bezukov, Pierre’s father, is one of the richest men in Russia and is very ill. Two other guests are Abbe Morio, who has a scheme for perpetual peace, and the Vicomte de Mortemart, a well-known French émigré. Anna Pávlovna flitters about making sure her party is going smoothly. Anna makes sure that each newly arriving guest is introduced to a tiresome aunt of hers who sits off by herself.

      quote from the chapter:
      Russia alone must save Europe. Our gracious sovereign recognizes his high vocation and will be true to it. That is the one thing I have faith in! Our good and wonderful sovereign has to perform the noblest role on earth, and he is so virtuous and noble that God will not forsake him. He will fulfill his vocation and crush the hydra of revolution, which has become more terrible than ever in the person of this murderer and villain! We alone must avenge the blood of the just one…. Whom, I ask you, can we rely on?… England with her commercial spirit will not and cannot understand the Emperor Alexander’s loftiness of soul.

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