Ilya Rostov
A spendthrift count
BOOK ONE
Book 1, Part 1
7 Jan: Chapter 7
The count is a man who eats well, drinks well, and calls everyone mon cher or ma chère, regardless of rank. He invites everyone to dinner and inspects the dining hall set out for eighty guests for the celebrations for his wife and his daughter’s name-day.
8 Jan: Chapter 8
And here is his “pet” Natasha, “whose name-day it is”. He hugs his daughter and is reproached ironically by his wife.
9 Jan: Chapter 9
Everything is “splendid” in the count’s world, especially anything too complex for him to understand. His son is going to fight for friendship, he insists. But there will be no war, he believes. As for his eldest daughter, his wife was “too clever” in raising her.
11 Jan: Chapter 11
His wife despairs at all the “theatricals, hunting, and heaven knows what” that count Rostov spends their money on. And at the end of the chapter, he makes sure to invite another guest, Pierre, to the party tonight. Taras, the cook, is on standby to impress!
12 Jan: Chapter 12
Always interesting to know what others think of you. Prince Vasili calls Count Rostov an “unlicked bear”, “a stupid fellow” and a gambler. Not to his face, of course.
14 Jan: Chapter 14
Waddling in to see his countess, with sauce on his waistcoat from the kitchen. She asks for 500 rubles, and he gives her 700, in “nice clean notes”. His cook, the serf Taras, cost 1,000 rubles, the price of ten ordinary serfs. It all adds, Count. It all adds up.
15 Jan: Chapter 15
Watch him preside over the name-day celebrations, egging on conversation and laughing good-naturedly. Marvel at his red bald head, unfortunately, positioned too close to the pineapples. Worry, always, about the expense!
17 Jan: Chapter 17
The host fights the urge to sleep off his food and wine, and plays cards with his guests, laughing at everything. And he is a man of hidden talents, as he shows by dancing his favourite Daniel Cooper. “The count danced well and knew it.”
Book 1, Part 3
21 Feb: Chapter 6
Anna Mikhailovna finds him reading Nikolai's letter, "sobbing and laughing.". He does not know how to break it to his wife, so Anna Mikhailovna does the tricky business. At the end of the chapter, we see that he has sent Nikolai "six thousand rubles" and "various other things."
BOOK TWO
Book 2, Part 1
7 Mar: Chapter 1
The father welcomes his son home and his son’s friend Denisov.
8 Mar: Chapter 2
Ilya is feeling flush. He’s re-mortgaged all his estates and so has money to shower on his homecoming son and prepare for a dinner in honour of Prince Bagration. The English Club and the cook are delighted about this:
The club cook and the steward listened to the count’s orders with pleased faces, for they knew that under no other management could they so easily extract a good profit for themselves from a dinner costing several thousand rubles.
The count does not have opinions of his own, so he has accepted the line from the English Club that the battle of Austerlitz was lost because of the Austrians and Germans, and that Bagration and all the Russians are heroes.
9 Mar: Chapter 3
On the day of the dinner, Count Rostov is busy. He is proud to present his son to Bagration, the general who almost killed Nikolai. The food is splendid. He is especially delighted by the fish. And then he is reduced to tears by all the toasts and smashing of glass.
18 Mar: Chapter 12
While playing cards with Dolokhov, Nikolai recalls that when his father gave him two thousand rubles last Sunday, he asked him to be more economical this time. Given how much the old count dislikes talking about money, this was an ominous warning.
22 Mar: Chapter 16
Nikolai tells his father about the forty-three thousand. “Nonsense,” says Ilya Rostov. Nikolai is ashamed of how he tries to make it seem like nothing, and his father’s flustered acquiescence makes it even worse.
Book 2, Part 3
14 Apr: Chapter 2
Andrei visits Ilya Rostov on business at his house at Otradnoe. Rostov is living in the country as he always does: extravagantly, entertaining everyone with hunts, theatricals, dinners, and music. Andrei mentally calls him “the stupid old man”.
23 Apr: Chapter 10
As the Rostov finances go from bad to worse, the old count heads to Petersburg with his daughters. Berg is boring everyone with his war stories. He uses his “good-natured egotism” to convince the Rostovs that he is an excellent match for Vera, whom they are ashamed of not loving quite so much. Berg presses the count for a dowry, and an embarrassed Ilya Rostov haggles the wrong way, landing the groom with an extra 20k the Rostovs don’t have and can’t afford.
26 Apr: Chapter 14
The Rostovs are getting ready for the ball: “He was wearing a blue swallow-tail coat, shoes and stockings, and was perfumed and his hair pomaded.” He exclaimed when his wife shlyly appears, “Oo-oo, my beauty! She looks better than any of you.”
29 Apr: Chapter 17
At the ball, the count asks Natasha whether she is enjoying herself. She looks at him with a smile that says: “How can you ask such a question?”
1 May: Chapter 19
Andrei in love sees the count very differently than before:
The old count’s hospitality and good nature, which struck one especially in Petersburg as a pleasant surprise, were such that Prince Andrei could not refuse to stay to dinner.
3 May: Chapter 21
Pierre and Count Rostov play Boston at Vera’s housewarming.
5 May: Chapter 23
The Rostovs bless the betrothal of Andrei and Natasha.
Book 2, Part 4
10 May: Chapter 2
Nikolai decides to get business matters out of the way first and demands an account of everything from a frightened Mitenka. Nikolai loses his temper, and Mitenka ends up in a shrubbery. He calls the steward a thief, and his father is embarrassed by the whole situation.
12 May: Chapter 4
The count joins the hunt, and they run into Uncle, a distant relative and neighbour of the Rostovs. Like Nikolai, Uncle clearly disapproves of the presence of Natasha and Petya. The count holds back with his old attendant, Semyon, as the hunt goes on ahead. They are joined by Natasha Ivanovna, the buffoon. Suddenly, the hunt turns towards them, and a wolf appears and escapes. Danilo curses and raises his whip to the shamefaced count.
13 May: Chapter 5
After the wolf is captured, the Count and Danilo remember their previous encounter. The count calls the wolf “formidable,” and Danilo doffs his cap. “You are a crusty fellow, friend,” says the count.
16 May: Chapter 8
Back at Otradnoe, the Rostovs have very unsuccessfully tried to downsize. Ilya Rostov has resigned as Marshal of the Nobility but feels unable or unwilling to give up the old habits of life without which he cannot conceive of existence. There appears to be only one solution to their financial woes: Nikolai must marry the rich heiress Julie Karagina.
21 May: Chapter 13
The count feels himself responsible for Nikolai being unable to marry the woman he loves. Rostov finances have reached breaking point and, in January, he goes to Moscow to sell his town house. He takes the girls.
Book 2, Part 5
27 May: Chapter 6
In Moscow, Count Rostov, Natasha and Sonya come to stay with le dragon terrible, Marya Dmitrievna.
28 May: Chapter 7
The count and Natasha visit the Bolkonskys. Ilya Rostov is afraid and makes his excuses to avoid an encounter with the terrifying prince.
29 May: Chapter 8
That same evening, Mary Dmitrievna takes the Rostovs to the opera.
30 May: Chapter 9
Hélène offers to ‘amuse’ the count’s ‘daughters’ in Moscow and invites Natasha into her box.
31 May: Chapter 10
When Natasha looks for guidance from her father, his eyes simply say: ‘Having a good time? Well, I’m glad of it.’
3 June: Chapter 13
Count Rostov chaperones his daughter at Helene's party, planning to leave as soon as Mademoiselle George's performance is over. But Natasha insists on staying. She dances with Anatole and left alone in a small sitting room, he kisses her. She leaves with her father, not staying for supper, returning home to a sleepless night filled with terrible questions.
8 June: Chapter 18
When the count returns from selling his Moscow estates, he sees something has happened but decides to accept Marya Dmitrievna’s explanation that Natasha has been ill.
9 June: Chapter 19
Marya Dmitrievna requests to see Pierre and tells him the situation in confidence. Pierre struggles to understand but agrees to get Anatole to leave Moscow to prevent a duel with Andrei, Nikolai or the count. The count still knows nothing.
BOOK THREE
Book 3, Part 1
Chapter 16
Count Rostov pays for expensive doctors to treat Natasha, who has fallen gravely ill.
Chapter 20
Sonya reads the emperor’s appeal to the people, and Count Rostov shows off his patriotism. ‘We’ll sacrifice everything,’ he says before his youngest son announces his plan to join the army. His wife is dismayed and angry with him.
Chapter 21
Faced with his son’s zeal, Ilya Rostov enquires whether Petya can serve where there would be the least danger.
Chapter 22
At the assembly of the nobility, Rostov agrees with everyone.
Chapter 23
Moved to tears by the emperor’s show of thanks to the nobility, Count Rostov consents to Petya’s request and goes in person to sign him up to fight.
Book 3, Part 3
Chapter 12
The careless count has left it until the last minute to leave Moscow.
Chapter 13
He gives permission for the wounded to be housed at the Rostovs’, but tells Natasha not to indulge in trifles, ‘but to help to pack, and tomorrow we must go, go go!’
Chapter 15
The count agrees to let some of the wounded travel on their carts. His wife objects and when Natasha intervenes, her father shouts at her.
Chapter 16
Berg asks his father-in-law for a cart to move some furniture. The children convince him to carry as many wounded men as possible.
Chapter 31
Count Rostov goes out to see the fire in Moscow burning on the horizon.
BOOK 4
Book 4, Part 1
Chapter 14
The count ‘had changed very much since Princess Marya had last seen him. Then he had been a brisk, cheerful, self-assured old man, now he seemed a pitiful bewildered person. After the destruction of Moscow and of his property, thrown out of his accustomed groove, he seemed to have lost the sense of his own significance and to feel that there was no longer a place for him in life.
Book 4, Part 4
Chapter 2
The count is distraught at the news of the death of his son.
Chapter 3
In January, Marya, Natasha and the count travel to Moscow.