Andrew is deeply effected by spending a day with the Rostóvs.
Summary:
Next day Prince Andrew makes a social call at the Rostóvs’. He wanted to see Natásha again. The family welcomes him simply and cordially, and they invite him to dinner. Unexpectedly, spending this day with the Rostóv family deeply moves Andrew. Unable to sleep that evening, he felt his soul was as fresh and joyful as if he had stepped out of a stuffy room into God’s own fresh air. It did not enter his head that he was in love with Natásha; but thinking of her made his whole life appear in a new light. Why do I strive, why do I toil in this narrow, confined frame, when life, all life with all its joys, is open to me? said he to himself. And for the first time for a very long while he began making happy plans for the future, thinking to retire and to travel. I must use my freedom while I feel so much strength and youth in me, he said to himself.
quote from the chapter:
After dinner Natásha, at Prince Andrew’s request, went to the clavichord and began singing. Prince Andrew stood by a window talking to the ladies and listened to her. In the midst of a phrase he ceased speaking and suddenly felt tears choking him, a thing he had thought impossible for him. He looked at Natásha as she sang, and something new and joyful stirred in his soul. He felt happy and at the same time sad. He had absolutely nothing to weep about yet he was ready to weep. What about? His former love? The little princess? His disillusionments?… His hopes for the future?… Yes and no. The chief reason was a sudden, vivid sense of the terrible contrast between something infinitely great and illimitable within him and that limited and material something that he, and even she, was. This contrast weighed on and yet cheered him while she sang.
Book 6, Chapter 19
Andrew is deeply effected by spending a day with the Rostóvs.
Summary:
Next day Prince Andrew makes a social call at the Rostóvs’. He wanted to see Natásha again. The family welcomes him simply and cordially, and they invite him to dinner. Unexpectedly, spending this day with the Rostóv family deeply moves Andrew. Unable to sleep that evening, he felt his soul was as fresh and joyful as if he had stepped out of a stuffy room into God’s own fresh air. It did not enter his head that he was in love with Natásha; but thinking of her made his whole life appear in a new light. Why do I strive, why do I toil in this narrow, confined frame, when life, all life with all its joys, is open to me? said he to himself. And for the first time for a very long while he began making happy plans for the future, thinking to retire and to travel. I must use my freedom while I feel so much strength and youth in me, he said to himself.
quote from the chapter:
After dinner Natásha, at Prince Andrew’s request, went to the clavichord and began singing. Prince Andrew stood by a window talking to the ladies and listened to her. In the midst of a phrase he ceased speaking and suddenly felt tears choking him, a thing he had thought impossible for him. He looked at Natásha as she sang, and something new and joyful stirred in his soul. He felt happy and at the same time sad. He had absolutely nothing to weep about yet he was ready to weep. What about? His former love? The little princess? His disillusionments?… His hopes for the future?… Yes and no. The chief reason was a sudden, vivid sense of the terrible contrast between something infinitely great and illimitable within him and that limited and material something that he, and even she, was. This contrast weighed on and yet cheered him while she sang.
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