Also known as: Borenka, Borya
BOOK ONE
Book 1, Part 1
4 Jan: Chapter 4
His mother has gone to the soirée to get him transferred to the Guards. Prince Vasili promises to speak to the emperor on his behalf.
7 Jan: Chapter 7
Thanks to his mother’s diplomacy, he has been made a cornet in the Semyonov Guards. But she has failed to get him onto Kutuzov’s staff, where Andrei is an aide-de-camp. The Guards have already left for Austria, and Boris is staying behind in Moscow to sort his equipment. In this chapter, we learn that Boris is the godson of the dying Count Bezukhov.
8 Jan: Chapter 8
So here is the young officer we have heard so much about. “Tall and fair” with a “calm and handsome face”. With tranquil ease, he switches from their game to humouring Natasha with a mini-biography of her doll Mimi. Before offering the carriage to Anna Drubetskaya, like the good dutiful son that he is.
10 Jan: Chapter 10
In the conservatory, we learn much about Boris from the manner he looks around, brushes dust from his sleeve and admires his handsome face in the mirror. Natasha wants him to swear his love and promise to ask for her hand. “How funny you are!” he says.
11 Jan: Chapter 11
Boris is the “diplomat” amount the young people, much to Natasha’s frustration. He would hate to be considered misbehaving, as Vera suggests he and Natasha are. Natasha, I think, would prefer Boris to be a little more fun! We also learn that his mother is trying to raise money to equip him for the army.
12 Jan: Chapter 12
He goes reluctantly with his mother to see the dying Count Bezukhov, his godfather. He smiles knowingly at her perfect performance of “deep sorrow” but expects little more from the visit but “humiliation”.
13 Jan: Chapter 13
Boris appears rather amused by this clumsy Pierre, who does not recognise him. Still, Boris, the diplomat, tries to put him at his ease. And makes clear to Pierre that he would not take Count Bezukhov’s money. It’s hard to say how sincere he is, but it’s a convincing performance.
Book 1, Part 3
22 Feb: Chapter 7
Boris has had a good war so far, travelling with the Guarrds "as if on a pleasure trip." Boris has been getting to know those "who might be useful to him" and has a letter from Pierre, recommending him to Andrei Bolkonsky. When Nikolai rushes in, Boris stays calm and keeps his chessmen neat. He disapproves of Nikolai's manner, his shouting, his coarseness, his drinking. When Nikolai throws away a Letter of Recommendation, Boris calls him "the same dreamer", and Nikolai calls him "the same diplomat." Boris wants to be an adjutant. Boris is not drinking, presumably because he wants to be sober to meet Andrei.
23 Feb: Chapter 8
Boris: “It is all very well for Rostov, whose father sends him ten thousand rubles at a time, to talk about not wishing to cringe to anybody and not be anyone’s lackey, but I, who have nothing but my brains, have to make a career, and must not miss opportunities but must avail myself of them!”
3 Mar: Chapter 17
Rostov bumps into Boris on the battlefield. He has seen action for the first time and sounds a little as Rostov did. He is talkative and animated, unlike the calm and cool Boris we know.
BOOK TWO
Book 2, Part 2
28 Mar: Chapter 6
Boris has figured out how to get ahead in life: Know the right people, always look your best and never say anything too interesting. The new king of networking simply can’t understand why all of us wallflowers don’t do as he does. As he hollows out his soul on the way to the top, he catches the attention of the marble queen herself, Hélène. They exchange business cards and admire each other’s name badges. It must be love.
29 Mar: Chapter 7
When Ippolit tells one of his terrible jokes, Boris perfects a circumspect smile, reading the room to see how everyone will react. This lad will go far. And he now appears to have been poached for Hélène’s rival salon. Whether there is more to this “intimate” status is up to the reader’s interpretation.
10 April: Chapter 19
The war is over. At Tilsit, France and Russia make peace and become allies. Boris makes sure he is there for this historic meeting. He is having supper with a French officer when Nikolai arrives with Denisov’s petition. Rostov feels hostile and senses he is not wanted. Boris advises him not to give the petition to the Emperor, who “is very severe in such affairs.”
12 April: Chapter 21
Boris sees Rostov on his way back from the celebrations. He asks Rostov what’s the matter and he says “nothing.”
Book 2, Part 3
21 Apr: Chapter 9
Boris becomes an intimate friend of the Bezukhov household. Hélène calls him her pageboy and treats him like a child. Pierre believes his wife has given up “affairs of the heart” but feels a “strange antipathy” towards Boris.
22 Apr: Chapter 10
Pierre keeps a diary, documenting the strivings of a lonely and tormented soul. He admits Boris into the Brotherhood while harbouring murderous urges towards him. Pierre suspects Boris has joined for insincere reasons, and his diary documents a row he has with him.
24 Apr: Chapter 12
Natasha is tormented by a promise she prised out of Boris four years ago. Boris has been living his life in prose, in his colourless climb up the social ladder. But Natasha is “his most poetic recollection”, and when he goes to visit the Rostovs, he is “disturbed and confused” by a much-changed Natasha. Against his better judgement, he keeps returning, spending whole days with the Rostovs. A neglected Hélène sends him reproachful notes every day.
25 Apr: Chapter 13
The two Natashas (mother and daughter) talk in bed. The mother worries about her daughter’s honour and future marriage prospects if she continues to flirt with Boris. Natasha says it does not have to be for love and marriage, ‘but just so’. She describes the colours and shapes of Boris and Pierre's souls. Boris is a narrow clock, light-grey in colour. The next day, her mother tells Boris to stop visiting the Rostovs.
28 Apr: Chapter 16
When Natasha is looking for someone to dance with, Boris “passed them twice and each time turned away.”
29 Apr: Chapter 17
After Andrei danced with Natasha, Boris came up to ask her to dance.
2 May: Chapter 20
Boris attends Berg’s housewarming, with “a shade of condescension and patronage in his treatment” of the couple.
3 May: Chapter 21
We see him talking to Sonya and Boris. Vera makes pointed references to Andrei about Natasha’s former romantic interest.
Book 2, Part 5
26 May: Chapter 5
Boris devotes an arduous month of simulated melancholy in the courtship of the rich heiress Julie Karagina — a woman of twenty-seven years and two huge tracts of land. He writes her some soulfully bad poetry and Anna Mikhailovna turns up to check the accounts. The sudden arrival of Anatole Kuragin on the scene finally seals the deal: the no-longer melancholic couple make plans for a brilliant wedding.
29 May: Chapter 8
Boris is with his betrothed and his mother at the opera. Natasha thinks they are talking about her. ‘And he no doubt is calming her jealousy of me.’
30 May: Chapter 9
Boris comes over to the Rostovs’ box with his absent-minded smile and an invitation to their wedding.
BOOK THREE
Book 3, Part 2
Chapter 22
At Borodino, Pierre is recognised by Boris, who offers to lodge him. Boris belongs to Count Bennigsen’s party, where everyone is expected Kutuzov’s imminent failure.
How old is Boris?