Chapter 1
We're back to Prince Vasili, and it's been a while. Maybe I should start tagging each post with the characters that appear, to make them easier to look up. Prince Vasili is the father of Anatole, Hyppolite, and Helene. Prince Andrew ran into Hyppolite, also a prince, in the last book, where he was the nerdy one in the regiment. We last saw this Prince Vasili when Pierre's father (Count Bezukhov) died. Pierre was the one who was raised in France, probably by wolves. All of Russian society wanted to get their hands on him. That is presumably even more the case now he has inherited his father's fortune.
Anyway, back to Prince Vasili. The narrative is describing his character. Apparently, he has no word for 'manipulative', in the same way that presumably fish have no word for 'water'. He is not the sort of man to say to himself, "Pierre is a rich man, I must entice him to marry my daughter,", which is an oddly specific example from the narration. Instead, his instinct simply tells him that certain people might be useful, and, with no premeditation, Prince Vasili begins to flatter them and gain their confidence. Prince Vasili has done exactly that with poor Pierre, having gotten him a job and moved him into his, Vasili's, house in St Petersburg. Without actually articulating to himself what he's doing, he's trying to get Pierre to marry his daughter, Helene.
Having not thought it through makes him appear more natural, apparently. I assume it helps that Pierre is a big dumb kitten.
Since his father's death, Pierre has gone from lonely and free to preoccupied with people who are suddenly very interested in him. This includes the government and his inherited Chief Steward, as well as many people "who formerly did not even wish to know of his existence but would now have been offended and grieved had he chosen not to see them". All of them are very firmly confidence of Pierre's noble qualities, now that he is rich. Pierre is now starting to believe them. Even his oldest sister has apologised and been nicer to him, just as soon as she found out that the will left everything to him, the formerly bastard son. Because Pierre is a big dumb kitten, who can't understand why anyone would dislike him, he is thoroughly convinced by those who now like him, especially Vasili who is caring for him like a father (only not like his actual father, who ignored him for most of his life). He has managed to persuade Pierre that this is a huge favour, and vastly inconvenient to Vasili. Vasili has also kept the land tax claimed from the peasants living on Pierre's lands, presumably also at great inconvenience to himself.
Pierre is finding St Petersburg to be just as full of kind and loving people as Moscow was, even though most of his gentleman acquaintances are now at war. Now, his entire time is taken up with dinners and balls, and spending time at Prince Vasili's home (again, where is he staying) with Vasili's family. Even Anna Pavlovna is suddenly being nice, while previously she had given the impression she thought him a total fool. It is when she invites him to a party, and mentions that Helene will be there, that he finally begins to sense that a link has somehow grown up between him and Helene. This alarms him, even though everything up til this point has passed unnoticed. Oh, Pierre.
Anna Pavlovna is managing her 'at home' like a battlefield. This time, her honoured guest is a diplomat from Berlin with some new gossip about the war. She puts him with Prince Vasili and the generals.
Pierre wants to be in that group, but somehow finds himself being sent off with Helene, after being reminded, by Anna, that Helene is an exquisite and stately beauty, with many admirers, and any man would be lucky to have her. Pierre agrees; whenever he thinks of Helene, he thinks only about whatever flattering thing someone last said about her.
Helene and Pierre are sent off to see Helene's old aunt, who is not a fan of Anna. Helene tries smiling enchantingly at Pierre, but, because she always smiles enchantingly, he ignores it. The aunt shows him a snuffbox, and, in leaning over to see it, he manages to come face-first with Helene's boobs, which finally gets his attention (despite his short-sightedness). Well, actually it's her back and shoulders while she shows off her cleavage, but it's being close to her skin that has the same effect. He realises that she will be his wife, even if he's not totally sure that's a good thing. He tries to go back to seeing her the way he did before, but it doesn't work.
Pierre's having his Petersburg house done up, because the architect suggested it. Anna brings that up, and advises him not to leave Vasili's house, especially with Vasili being such a good friend to him. At least not until he marries, she suggests, with a glance at Helene.
At home, Pierre tries to figure out what is going on with him. He doesn't want to be in love with Helene; she's stupid, and it feels wrong, not least because of the rumours about her being in love with her brother Anatole. Then he gets distracted by thinking of her being loving, and how she would probably be totally different to the way he's thought of her for his entire life up until now. Big dumb kitten. He also thinks about how everyone he's spoken to, for months, has just seemed to assume that he and Helene are together, and talk about them as if they're together, and he feels trapped. Also, he keeps getting distracted by thoughts of her 'womanly body'.
No comments:
Post a Comment