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War and Peace - Book One: 1805
by Leo Tolstoy
Chapter 1 - Anna Scherer’s soiree
“Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Buonapartes. But I warn you, if you don’t tell me that this means war, if you still try to defend the infamies1 and horrors perpetrated by that Antichrist — I really believe he is Antichrist — I will have nothing more to do with you and you are no longer my friend, no longer my ‘faithful slave,’ as you call yourself! But how do you do? I see I have frightened you — sit down and tell me all the news.”
It was in July, 1805, and the speaker was the well-known Anna Pavlovna Scherer, maid of honor and favorite of the Empress Marya Fedorovna. With these words she greeted Prince Vasili Kuragin, a man of high rank and importance, who was the first to arrive at her reception. Anna Pavlovna had had a cough for some days. She was, as she said, suffering from la grippe; grippe being then a new word in St. Petersburg, used only by the elite2.
All her invitations without exception, written in French, and delivered by a scarlet-liveried footman that morning, ran as follows:
“If you have nothing better to do, Count [or Prince], and if the prospect3 of spending an evening with a poor invalid4 is not too terrible, I shall be very charmed to see you tonight between 7 and 10 — Annette Scherer.”
“Heavens! what a virulent5 attack!” replied the prince, not in the least disconcerted by this reception. He had just entered, wearing an embroidered6 court uniform, knee breeches, and shoes, and had stars on his breast and a serene7 expression on his flat face. He spoke8 in that refined French in which our grandfathers not only spoke but thought, and with the gentle, patronizing intonation9 natural to a man of importance who had grown old in society and at court. He went up to Anna Pavlovna, kissed her hand, presenting to her his bald, scented10, and shining head, and complacently11 seated himself on the sofa.
“First of all, dear friend, tell me how you are. Set your friend’s mind at rest,” said he without altering his tone, beneath the politeness and affected12 sympathy of which indifference13 and even irony14 could be discerned.
“Can one be well while suffering morally? Can one be calm in times like these if one has any feeling?” said Anna Pavlovna. “You are staying the whole evening, I hope?”
“And the fete at the English ambassador’s? Today is Wednesday. I must put in an appearance there,” said the prince. “My daughter is coming for me to take me there.”
“I thought today’s fete had been canceled. I confess all these festivities and fireworks are becoming wearisome.”
“If they had known that you wished it, the entertainment would have been put off,” said the prince, who, like a wound-up clock, by force of habit said things he did not even wish to be believed.
“What can one say about it?” replied the prince in a cold, listless tone. “What has been decided? They have decided that Buonaparte has burnt his boats, and I believe that we are ready to burn ours.”
Prince Vasili always spoke languidly, like an actor repeating a stale part. Anna Pavlovna Scherer on the contrary, despite her forty years, overflowed16 with animation17 and impulsiveness18. To be an enthusiast19 had become her social vocation20 and, sometimes even when she did not feel like it, she became enthusiastic in order not to disappoint the expectations of those who knew her. The subdued21 smile which, though it did not suit her faded features, always played round her lips expressed, as in a spoiled child, a continual consciousness of her charming defect, which she neither wished, nor could, nor considered it necessary, to correct.
In the midst of a conversation on political matters Anna Pavlovna burst out:
“Oh, don’t speak to me of Austria. Perhaps I don’t understand things, but Austria never has wished, and does not wish, for war. She is betraying us! 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 virtuous22 and noble that God will not forsake23 him. He will fulfill24 his vocation and crush the hydra25 of revolution, which has become more terrible than ever in the person of this murderer and villain26! We alone must avenge27 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. She has refused to evacuate28 Malta. She wanted to find, and still seeks, some secret motive29 in our actions. What answer did Novosiltsev get? None. The English have not understood and cannot understand the self-abnegation of our Emperor who wants nothing for himself, but only desires the good of mankind. And what have they promised? Nothing! And what little they have promised they will not perform! Prussia has always declared that Buonaparte is invincible30, and that all Europe is powerless before him. . . . And I don’t believe a word that Hardenburg says, or Haugwitz either. This famous Prussian neutrality is just a trap. I have faith only in God and the lofty destiny of our adored monarch31. He will save Europe!”
She suddenly paused, smiling at her own impetuosity.
“I think,” said the prince with a smile, “that if you had been sent instead of our dear Wintzingerode you would have captured the King of Prussia’s consent by assault. You are so eloquent32. Will you give me a cup of tea?”
“In a moment. A propos,” she added, becoming calm again, “I am expecting two very interesting men tonight, le Vicomte de Mortemart, who is connected with the Montmorencys through the Rohans, one of the best French families. He is one of the genuine emigres, the good ones. And also the Abbe Morio. Do you know that profound thinker? He has been received by the Emperor. Had you heard?”
“I shall be delighted to meet them,” said the prince. “But tell me,” he added with studied carelessness as if it had only just occurred to him, though the question he was about to ask was the chief motive of his visit, “is it true that the Dowager Empress wants Baron33 Funke to be appointed first secretary at Vienna? The baron by all accounts is a poor creature.”
Prince Vasili wished to obtain this post for his son, but others were trying through the Dowager Empress Marya Fedorovna to secure it for the baron.
Anna Pavlovna almost closed her eyes to indicate that neither she nor anyone else had a right to criticize what the Empress desired or was pleased with.
“Baron Funke has been recommended to the Dowager Empress by her sister,” was all she said, in a dry and mournful tone.
As she named the Empress, Anna Pavlovna’s face suddenly assumed an expression of profound and sincere devotion and respect mingled34 with sadness, and this occurred every time she mentioned her illustrious patroness. She added that Her Majesty35 had deigned36 to show Baron Funke beaucoup d’estime, and again her face clouded over with sadness.
The prince was silent and looked indifferent. But, with the womanly and courtierlike quickness and tact37 habitual38 to her, Anna Pavlovna wished both to rebuke39 him (for daring to speak he had done of a man recommended to the Empress) and at the same time to console him, so she said:
“Now about your family. Do you know that since your daughter came out everyone has been enraptured40 by her? They say she is amazingly beautiful.”
“I often think,” she continued after a short pause, drawing nearer to the prince and smiling amiably42 at him as if to show that political and social topics were ended and the time had come for intimate conversation — “I often think how unfairly sometimes the joys of life are distributed. Why has fate given you two such splendid children? I don’t speak of Anatole, your youngest. I don’t like him,” she added in a tone admitting of no rejoinder and raising her eyebrows43. “Two such charming children. And really you appreciate them less than anyone, and so you don’t deserve to have them.”
And she smiled her ecstatic smile.
“I can’t help it,” said the prince. “Lavater would have said I lack the bump of paternity.”
“Don’t joke; I mean to have a serious talk with you. Do you know I am dissatisfied with your younger son? Between ourselves” (and her face assumed its melancholy44 expression), “he was mentioned at Her Majesty’s and you were pitied. . . . ”
The prince answered nothing, but she looked at him significantly, awaiting a reply. He frowned.
“What would you have me do?” he said at last. “You know I did all a father could for their education, and they have both turned out fools. Hippolyte is at least a quiet fool, but Anatole is an active one. That is the only difference between them.” He said this smiling in a way more natural and animated45 than usual, so that the wrinkles round his mouth very clearly revealed something unexpectedly coarse and unpleasant.
“And why are children born to such men as you? If you were not a father there would be nothing I could reproach you with,” said Anna Pavlovna, looking up pensively46.
“I am your faithful slave and to you alone I can confess that my children are the bane of my life. It is the cross I have to bear. That is how I explain it to myself. It can’t be helped!”
He said no more, but expressed his resignation to cruel fate by a gesture. Anna Pavlovna meditated47.
“Have you never thought of marrying your prodigal48 son Anatole?” she asked. “They say old maids have a mania49 for matchmaking, and though I don’t feel that weakness in myself as yet,I know a little person who is very unhappy with her father. She is a relation of yours, Princess Marya Bolkonskaya.”
Prince Vasili did not reply, though, with the quickness of memory and perception befitting a man of the world, he indicated by a movement of the head that he was considering this information.
“Do you know,” he said at last, evidently unable to check the sad current of his thoughts, “that Anatole is costing me forty thousand rubles a year? And,” he went on after a pause, “what will it be in five years, if he goes on like this?” Presently he added: “That’s what we fathers have to put up with. . . . Is this princess of yours rich?”
“Her father is very rich and stingy. He lives in the country. He is the well-known Prince Bolkonsky who had to retire from the army under the late Emperor, and was nicknamed ‘the King of Prussia.’ He is very clever but eccentric, and a bore. The poor girl is very unhappy. She has a brother; I think you know him, he married Lisa Meinen lately. He is an aide-de-camp of Kutuzov’s and will be here tonight.”
“Listen, dear Annette,” said the prince, suddenly taking Anna Pavlovna’s hand and for some reason drawing it downwards50. “Arrange that affair for me and I shall always be your most devoted51 slave — slafe wigh an f, as a village elder of mine writes in his reports. She is rich and of good family and that’s all I want.”
And with the familiarity and easy grace peculiar52 to him, he raised the maid of honor’s hand to his lips, kissed it, and swung it to and fro as he lay back in his armchair, looking in another direction.
“Attendez,” said Anna Pavlovna, reflecting, “I’ll speak to Lisa, young Bolkonsky’s wife, this very evening, and perhaps the thing can be arranged. It shall be on your family’s behalf that I’ll start my apprenticeship53 as old maid.”
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1
infamies
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| n.声名狼藉( infamy的名词复数 )；臭名；丑恶；恶行 | |
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elite
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| n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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virulent
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| adj.有毒的，有恶意的，充满敌意的 | |
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embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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intonation
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| n.语调，声调；发声 | |
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scented
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| adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词) | |
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complacently
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| adv. 满足地, 自满地, 沾沾自喜地 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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overflowed
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| 溢出的 | |
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animation
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| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
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impulsiveness
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| n.冲动 | |
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19
enthusiast
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| n.热心人，热衷者 | |
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vocation
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| n.职业，行业 | |
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subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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22
virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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forsake
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| vt.遗弃，抛弃；舍弃，放弃 | |
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fulfill
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| vt.履行，实现，完成；满足，使满意 | |
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25
hydra
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| n.水螅；难于根除的祸患 | |
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26
villain
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| n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因 | |
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27
avenge
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| v.为...复仇，为...报仇 | |
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28
evacuate
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| v.遣送；搬空；抽出；排泄；大(小)便 | |
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29
motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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30
invincible
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| adj.不可征服的，难以制服的 | |
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31
monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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32
eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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baron
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| n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王 | |
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34
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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36
deigned
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| v.屈尊，俯就( deign的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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39
rebuke
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| v.指责，非难，斥责 [反]praise | |
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40
enraptured
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| v.使狂喜( enrapture的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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41
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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42
amiably
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| adv.和蔼可亲地，亲切地 | |
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43
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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44
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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45
animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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pensively
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| adv.沉思地，焦虑地 | |
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47
meditated
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| 深思，沉思，冥想( meditate的过去式和过去分词 )； 内心策划，考虑 | |
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48
prodigal
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| adj.浪费的，挥霍的，放荡的 | |
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49
mania
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| n.疯狂；躁狂症，狂热，癖好 | |
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50
downwards
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| adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地） | |
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51
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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52
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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53
apprenticeship
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| n.学徒身份；学徒期 | |
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