Anna Pavlovna Scherer
A society hostess
Also known as: Annette
BOOK ONE
Part One
1 Jan: Chapter 1
Our gracious hostess is one Anna Pavlovna, a favourite of the Tsar’s mother, the Dowager Empress Marya Fyodorovna. She has made being “an enthusiast” her vocation, but for her friend Prince Vasili, she has now begun an apprenticeship as an “old maid”, that is to say, a matchmaker.
2 Jan: Chapter 2
Anna is like the “foreman of a spinning-mill” as she maintains the smooth running of the “conversational machine” at her soirée. Lise Bolkonskaya is a delightful addition to her drawing room. Pierre is an unwanted spanner in the works.
3 Jan: Chapter 3
Not satisfied with being merely the foreman of her spinning-mill, she is also the maître d'hôtel of Petersburg’s finest establishment. She serves up her special guests as “peculiarly choice morsels”, and the Vicomte Mortemart as a “well-garnished joint of roast beef”.
4 Jan: Chapter 4
Anna promises to take Pierre in hand and keeps him “under observation” as her party progresses. As an indecorous exchange between him and the Vicomte draws attention and raises eyebrows, she attempts and fails to get Pierre to join another table.
5 Jan: Chapter 5
Anna must be relieved to see the back of Pierre, “a capital, good-natured fellow” though he is. We learn here that she has done Vasili’s bidding and arranged with Lise Bolkonskaya to suggest the match between Anatole and Marya.
Book 1 Part 3
16 Feb: Chapter 1
The great hostess of Saint Petersburg is still doing her thing: balls and dinners and parties. She is “a commander on a battlefield to whom thousands of new and brilliant ideas occur which there is hardly time to put in action.” She seems to have warmed to her new role as an old maid, matchmaking the rich and beautiful. And where once she made Pierre feel he was out-of-place, she now invites him into the heart of things and towards the marble beauty of Helene.
17 Feb: Chapter 2
It’s not the grippe this time, but a headache. She attends Helene’s name-day, and plays her part in the charade, congratulating the Vasilis wordlessly.
BOOK TWO
Book 2, Part 2
28 Mar: Chapter 6
Anna Pavlovna’s soirees are really going downhill. The headline acts now include the ‘charming’ Prince Ippolit, a ‘man of high merit’ called Mr Shitoff, and Boris.
29 Mar: Chapter 7
Anna Pavlovna is very correct at her party: horrified by Napoleon's behaviour in Prussia. Prince Ippolit is funny but “wicked” in poking fun of Russia’s support for its Prussian ally.
BOOK THREE
Book 3, Part 2
In Petersburg, the battle of the salons continues. Bilibin joins the pro-French gaggle at Hélène’s salon. Prince Vasili flits between his daughter’s circle and Anna Pavlovna’s, where Napoleon is still the Antichrist.
BOOK FOUR
Book Four, Part One
Chapter 1
On the very day of the battle of Borodino, Anna Pavlovna holds a patriotic party aimed at making ‘several important personages’ feel ashamed ‘of their visits to the French theatre.’