BOOK ONE
Book 1, Part 1
8 Jan: Chapter 8
The count’s fifteen-year-old niece comes into the drawing room with Natasha and the other children.
9 Jan: Chapter 9
Here, we learn that Sonya adores her cousin Nikolai. She is a “slender little brunette” who has something of a “half-grown kitten” about her looks and demeanour. And she does not like how Nikolai smiles at Julie Karagina.
10 Jan: Chapter 10
In the conservatory, Nikolai consoles an angry and upset Sonya and seals it with a kiss. He wants to prove his love, but Sonya says she doesn’t like him to talk like that.
15 Jan: Chapter 15
Behind her smile, she is “tormented by jealousy” with the intimacy between Nikolai and Julie Karagin at Natasha’s party.
17 Jan: Chapter 17
Natasha finds her sobbing on a chest in the passage, “the place of mourning.” Vera has told her that their mother will never allow her to marry Nikolai. And that he cares only for Julie. Natasha comforts her and reassures her that it is “quite possible”.
Book 1, Part 3
21 Feb: Chapter 6
When Sonya hears the news, she "instantly turned white" at the thought of Nikolai being wounded. "I am in love with your brother," she tells Natasha, "and whatever may happen to him or to me, I shall never cease to love him." She blushes to hear that Nikolai still thinks the same of her.
BOOK TWO
Book 2, Part 1
7 Mar: Chapter 1
Nikolai comes home.
Sonya too, all rosy red, clung to his arm and, radiant with bliss, looked eagerly towards his eyes, waiting for the look for which she longed. Sonya was now sixteen and she was very pretty, especially at this moment of happy rapturoys excitement. She gazed at hom, not taking her eyes off him, and smiling and holding her breath.
The next day, Natasha talks to her brother. She tells him that Sonya still loves him but wants him to be free. Free of their childhood promise to one another.
8 Mar: Chapter 2
We learn that while in Moscow, Nikolai drifts away from Sonya.
17 Mar: Chapter 11
Sonya rejects Dolokhov’s marriage proposal, saying she loves another. She then tells Nikolai that “I love you as a brother and always shall, and I want nothing more.” It isn’t entirely convincing.
18 Mar: Chapter 12
At Iogel’s ball, Natasha and Sonya are pretty and happy. “That evening, proud of Dolokhov’s proposal, her refusal, and her explanation with Nikolai, Sonya twirled about before she left home so that the maid could hardly get her hair braided, and was transparently radiant with impulsive joy.”
21 Mar: Chapter 15
When Nikolai returns from losing at cards, everyone is grouped around the clavichord. “Sonya and Natasha in the light blue dresses they had worn at the theatre, looking pretty and conscious of it, were standing by the clavichord happy and smiling.”
22 Mar: Chapter 16
Sonya was more tender and devoted to [Nikolai] than ever. It was as if she wanted tos how him that his losses were an achievement that made her love him all the more, but Nikolai now considered himself unworthy of her.
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 is struck by Natasha’s happiness: “Why is she so happy?” On a beautiful moonlit night, he overhears Sonya and Natasha looking at the moon. Natasha would like to fly to it. The scene stirs “youthful thoughts and hopes” in Andrei.
26 Apr: Chapter 14
Sonya gets ready to go to the ball with the Rostovs.
27 Apr: Chapter 15
She and Natasha arrive at their first ball.
29 Apr: Chapter 17
Sonya gets all Natasha’s “superfluous partners” at the dance.
3 May: Chapter 21
Sonya joins the Rostovs at Vera’s housewarming.