Ippolit Kuragin

A stupid young man with a lorgnette

BOOK ONE

Part One

1 Jan: Chapter 1

His father damns the boy with faint praise: “At least he is a quiet fool”, unlike his younger brother Anatole. Vasili wants to get him a diplomatic posting to Vienna, but Ippolit has been looked over for a certain Baron Funke – “a poor creature” in Prince Vasili’s eyes.

3 Jan: Chapter 3

The “charming Ippolit” is not especially charming. He is as ugly as his sister is beautiful, with a constant expression of self-confidence: “he only understood the meaning of his words after he had uttered them”.

4 Jan: Chapter 4

He continues to make an ass of himself. First, by incorrectly drawing the coat-of-arms of the Duc d'Enghien with a needle belonging to the little princess. Is it me, or is he being overly familiar with Liza Bolkonskaya? He then tells an atrociously delivered anecdote about a lady’s maid mistaken for a footman. It’s a laugh a minute with Ippolit.

5 Jan: Chapter 5

Prince Ippolit has had a “delightful” evening, although it doesn’t appear he has contributed to anyone else’s delight. The “little princess” probably wishes Ippolit had gone to the “dull” ambassador’s ball instead, where he may have accosted other “pretty women in society”. In his carriage with the Vicomte, they laugh about Andrei and drool over his wife. It isn’t pretty.

Book One, Part Two

5 Feb: Chapter 11

His father must have got him a good post as secretary to the embassy because here he is, lolling about in a lounge chair, this wannabe Don Juan. Everyone thinks he’s funny, but readers will be forgiven for finding him insufferable. At one point, he laughs so hard at his own “joke” that he almost does himself an injury.

BOOK TWO

Book 2, Part 2

29 Mar: Chapter 7

Fate decrees that we must endure one of Prince Ippolit’s jokes. He starts with the punchline. And you’ll need the endnotes to make sense of the rest. Everyone laughs, so either they think it is funny or they want to be seen to find it funny. Anna Pavlova’s party is that kind of gathering. Ippolit is back from his diplomatic mission in Vienna and is inexplicably a “charming young man.” Be charmed, reader, be charmed!

BOOK FOUR

Book Four, Part One

Chapter 1

As Moscow falls, Ippolit is making bad jokes at one of Anna Pavlovna’s parties. Some things, and some people, never change.

Everybody looked at him, not understanding what he meant. Prince Ippolit himself glanced around with amused surprise. He knew no more than the others what his words meant.