Marya Bolkonskaya

Andrei's sister

BOOK ONE

Part One

1 Jan: Chapter 1

Our hostess, Anna Pavlovna, tells Prince Vasili that this “little person” is very unhappy, living with her clever but eccentric father, Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky. Anna Pavlovna suggests her as a potential match for the foolish and profligate Anatole Kuragin.

22 Jan: Chapter 22

Andrei’s sister lives under her father’s thumb at Bald Hills. She has a plain face but “large, deep, and luminous” eyes, radiating at times with shafts of warm light. She is devoted to “Christian simplicity” and desires to be a poor beggar. In her letter to Julie Karagin, she says Pierre has “an excellent heart”, and his inheritance is a great burden. She writes that she considers marriage a duty and a “divine institution”.

23 Jan: Chapter 23

She is practising her music when her brother arrives at Bald Hills. You can never be idle here. She greets Lise warmly and looks at Andrei with a “loving warm gentle look”. She speaks joyfully of her father’s “hours”, the routines and the lessons, although they may not, in fact, bring her much joy.

24 Jan: Chapter 24

Andrei respects and gently mocks their father. His sister finds this ambivalence difficult, almost provocative, since for her, “everything her father did inspired her with reverence and was beyond question.” Marya is mostly silent at dinner, but afterwards, she defends her father to a frightened Lise, telling her sister-in-law that the old prince “is so kind.”

25 Jan: Chapter 25

“We should enter into everyone’s situation”, she tells Andrei, “To understand everything is to forgive everything”. She expresses the heart and soul of War and Peace in these words. She also recognises Andrei’s “intellectual pride” that is standing in the way of his happiness. She gives him their grandfather’s icon and asks him to promise to never take it off.

Book 1 Part 3

18 Feb: Chapter 3

Marya is sad and frightened. The other women doll her up when she just wants to be left alone. She considers “her strongest most deeply-hidden longing” for “earthly love” with a man. She sees this as the devil’s temptations, and the thought of being a mother is impossible for her. “I am too ugly.” She consoles herself with thoughts of the mysterious will of God while holding out hope for “the fulfilment of her forbidden earthly longing.”

19 Feb: Chapter 4

Princess Marya goes to the drawing room to meet the Kuragins. She is struck by Anatole's beauty and self-possession. She wished to show him she didn't expect anything from him. But now she has seen him, “thousand of dreams of a future life continually rose in her imagination.” When she plays the clavichord, Anatole and Mademoiselle Bourienne are playing footsie and looking happy about it. Marya starts to think they are both looking happy about her.

20 Feb: Chapter 5

Marya cannot sleep for fear. She thinks she sees Anatole, or the devil, in a dark corner of the room. Still, he is “so kind”, and that is the “chief thing”. The next day, she goes to her father’s study. She wants to know what he thinks and can see he disapproves of the matter. “I wish only to do your will,” she says. He mentions that Mademoiselle Bourienne will be the wife. She leaves the study and goes to the conservatory, where she sees Anatole “embracing the Frenchwoman.”

When Vasili offers his son as her husband, Marya tells her father: “My desire is never to leave you, father, never to separate my life from yours.” Alone, she thinks: “My vocation is a different one.” The happiness of love and self-sacrifice. She thinks of helping Mademoiselle Bourienne become Anatole’s wife.

BOOK TWO

Book Two, Part One

13 Mar: Chapter 7

The news of Andrei’s death has a conflicting set of effects on Marya. She is initially joyful to be able to share in the grief with her father. But he turns away from her. She cannot bring herself to tell Liza, but she also will not give up hope.

14 Mar: Chapter 8

Her sister-in-law goes into labour. She calls the midwife and the doctor, and sits up reading into the night. When the doctor arrives, he brings with him Andrei, whom he has met on the road.

Book Two, Part Two

30 Mar: Chapter 8

At Bald Hills, Marya has stopped studying mathematics and spends more time caring for her nephew. When the child falls ill, Marya and Andrei watch over him. Neither gets much sleep, and they argue over his care and whether to give him medicine.

31 Mar: Chapter 9

On discovering that baby Nikolai is through the worst of his illness:

Prince Andrei looked at his sister. In the dim shadow of the curtain her luminous eyes shone more brightly than usual from the tears of joy that were in them. She leaned over to her brother and kissed him, slightly catching the curtain of the cot. Each made the other a warning gesture, and stood still in the dim light beneath the curtain as if not wishing to leave that seclusion where they three were shut off from all the world.

4 Apr: Chapter 13

When Andrei and Pierre arrive at Bald Halls, Marya is receiving two pilgrims whom Andrei disparagingly calls “God’s folk.” In contrast to his sensitivity towards Pierre’s beliefs, Andrei treats Marya and these pilgrims cruelly. And Pierre behaves no better: one man’s religion is another’s superstition. But in the end, both men are penitent, and Marya, as is her way, forgives them.

5 Apr: Chapter 14

Chastened, Pierre listens attentively to the pilgrims and treats them with renewed kindness. Marya tells Pierre she is worried about Andrei. His wound has re-opened and he is suffering spiritually. During his stay, everyone takes a shine to Pierre. “A fine fellow” who “talks rubbish” says the old prince. Pierre realises the strength of his friendship with Andrei, conveyed in the happiness he brings to the household at Bald Hills.

Book Two, Part Three

15 Apr: Chapter 3

Marya doesn’t notice the change in Andrei in the summer of 1809. Outwardly he is as cold and stern as ever:

At such moments Princess Marya would think how intellectual work dries men up.

7 May: Chapter 25

At Bald Hills, the old prince's health and temper are getting worse. He takes it all out on Marya, attacking her religion and the way she cares for Andrei's son. Andrei visits and Marya notices he is more gentle and happy than he has been for a long time. She writes to Julie, who has just lost her brother in the war. She does not believe the rumours about her brother and Natasha.

8 May: Chapter 26

Six months pass. Andrei writes to Marya from Switzerland, informing her of the betrothal. He asks her to give the letter to their father and get his agreement to shorten his exile. The letter angers the old prince, who threatens to marry Bourienne. "Wait until I am dead," he says. Marya thinks about her private dream to become a pilgrim, running away to a place without "sorrow or sighing".

Book Two, Part Four

23 May: Chapter 2

Marya has moved to Moscow with her father and nephew. The old prince has become the centre of the anti-French opposition to government. But his health has deteriorated and Marya’s life has become even harder. Lonely and isolated in Moscow, she becomes irritable: losing her temper with little Nikolai and attacking Mademoiselle Bourienne. The old prince increasingly favours and flirts with the Frenchwoman and loses all control on the mention of Countess Natasha Rostova.

24 May: Chapter 3

On her father’s name day, Marya goes about his day as though a gun is cocked and pointed at her, about to go off. Her father accuses her of letting a doctor in without her permission and says that she must leave the house. At dinner, she looks at the other guests, wondering whether they can see how cruelly her father is treating her.

25 May: Chapter 4

After dinner, Pierre tells Marya that Boris is in Moscow with the intention of marrying a rich heiress — Marya or Julie Karagina. Marya begins to confide in Pierre about her father and her torments but stops and asks instead about Natasha. Pierre decides to speak the truth, even though it is not what Marya wants to hear. She endeavours to befriend Natasha and accustom the old prince to her.

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. An optimistic Natasha and a nervous Marya have a stilted conversation in the obstructive presence of Mademoiselle Bourienne. The two women are united in forming negative opinions of each other based on appearances.

4 June: Chapter 14

Marya sends a letter to Natasha. She says she is tormented by the thought that Natasha thinks Marya doesn’t like her.

Book Two, Part Five

11 June: Chapter 21

Mademoiselle Bourienne steals Natasha’s letter to Marya and shows it to the old prince.

BOOK THREE

Book Three, Part One

Chapter 8

On his way to the western front, Andrei stops at Bald Hills and argues with his father about Mademoiselle Bourienne. Despite Marya imploring him to forgive and forget, Andrei leaves his family on bad terms without remorse or regret.

Book Three, Part Two

Chapter 2

After Andrei left Bald Hills, he broke off relations with Mademoiselle Bourienne. Marya interprets this as done to wound her. Julie writes (in Russian) to express her patriotism, and Andrei writes to advise his father to leave Bald Hills. The old prince refuses to discuss the war and seems confused about the French position. Instead, he immerses himself in a building project.

Chapter 8

Andrei’s father and sister are not in Moscow. At Ball Hills, the old prince awoke as from a dream and vowed to defend his home to the death. Marya refuses to leave him and he says much that cannot be unsaid. Soon after, he has a stroke, and Marya takes him to Bogucharovo. Three weeks pass, and he asks to see Marya, telling her with great difficulty that he loves her and wants her to forgive him. He dies on a hot and sunny day as Marya walks through the lime trees Andrei planted.

Chapter 10

After her father’s funeral, Marya shuts herself away. She thinks of her ‘own spiritual baseness’ at desiring her father’s death and her sense of freedom now he is gone. When Mademoiselle Bourienne comes to comfort her, she lets her, and they are briefly partners in sorrow. But Bourienne’s advice to ask for French protection inflames her Bolkonsky spirit. She summons Dron, who tells her there are no horses and the peasants are dying of hunger. She authorises him to distribute their reserves, and Dron pleads to be discharged from her service.

Chapter 11

Marya’s maid, Dunyasha, tells her that the peasants have assembled and wish to speak with her. Her maid and her nanny tell her not to see them, but she goes with Dron to the barn. She tells them the grain is not a bribe to stay and that they will have food and housing near Moscow. The peasants say they do not want her grain and will not leave. Defeated, Marya returns to her room and her thoughts.

Chapter 12

Alone in the silence of the house, Marya broods over her last moments with her father. She refuses to think about his dead body. She regrets not being with him on that final night and thinks of what he might have said. She asks herself, what is he thinking now? This thought summons the image of her father’s corpse, and in the silence of the night, she screams out.

Chapter 13

Nikolai Rostov is camped ten miles from Bogucharovo and rides out with Ilyin and Lavrushka to take the estate’s provisions before the French arrive. The soldiers encounter drunk peasants, Alpatych and the maids from the house. Alpatych tells Rostov that the peasants won’t let Marya leave. He goes to her and offers his protection. She tries not to evoke pity; he tries to remain deferential — but it is a moment torn from a picture book of old.

Chapter 14

Pulsating with impetuous rage, Nikolai Rostov storms off to speak with the peasants. He has Karp, the ringleader, and Dron tied up. Marya gets Dron released to help get their possessions onto the carts. Rostov escorts Marya to Yankovo, where he respectfully takes leave of her. On the road to Moscow, Marya wonders whether she loves him. Meanwhile, Nikolai is angry because he knows she will make the perfect wife.

BOOK FOUR

Book Four, Part One

Chapter 6

Marya arrived in Voronezh sad but at peace – mourning her father, relieved to have stifled her hopes and dreams. Nikolai’s presence disturbs her peace, and she is at a loss about what to do. When they meet, they are both bewildered by the effect they have on each other.

Chapter 7

Marya resolves to go in search of her brother. At the cathedral, Marya and Nikolai exchange words – the encounter has a strong impression on Nikolai, who prays to be released from his promise to Sonya. Marya sets off to reach Andrei, and Nikolai returns to the regiment.

Chapter 14

These last few days have been the happiest of Marya’s life. She now makes the long and hazardous journey from Voroenzh to meet her brother at Yaroslavl. Her nephew and Mademoiselle Bourienne accompany her. She meets the Rostovs and feels hostility towards Sonya and unexpected warmth towards Natasha. Natasha tells her that two days ago, something terrible happened to Andrei, and his condition became much worse.

Chapter 15

Marya goes in to see Andrei. She hopes for tender words from his brother but instead finds a man who is already resigned to death and far from them. He speaks coldly to Marya, cruelly of Natasha and kisses his son without knowing what to say to him. After this, Marya understood there was no hope left to save Andrei’s life.

Chapter 16

A few days later, she sees her brother die and weeps with ‘a reverent and softening emotion’ as a witness to the ‘simple and solemn mystery of death.’

Book 4, Part 4

Chapter 1

After Andrei’s death, Marya and Natasha’s grief brings them together. But while Natasha is stuck reliving her last days with Andrei, Marya’s responsibilities pull her back to life. She takes care of her nephew and their return to the Bolkonsky house in Moscow.

Chapter 3

In the following weeks and months, Natasha and Marya become close friends. Natasha grows thin and weak but her vital force heals her wound within. In January, Marya, Natasha and the count travel to Moscow.