Volume 3: Book 12 - Chapter 2

Characters Present:

Anna Pávlovna
Prince Vasilí Kurágin
others

Location: 

Anna Pávlovna's house, Petersburg


Anna returns from the Emperor's birthday celebrations with news of Kutúzov's resistance against the French.  Rumours are swirling that Napoleon has been captured and that the French have surrendered.  News that Moscow has been given up unsettles everyone. 

News also arrives late in the evening that Countess Hélène Berzúkhova committed suicide by taking too many pills given to her by the Queen of Spain's physician, to treat her angina. Apparently, she had become paranoid that the old count that had married knew that she had written a letter to her other husband, Pierre. 

Volume 3: Book 12 - Chapter 1

Characters Present:

Anna Pávlovna
Bilíbin
Prince Vasilí Kurágin
others

Location: 

A soiree at Anna Pávlovna's house, Petersburg


High society in Petersburg has carried on much as before, but with more tension than usual between some key social circles. 

Gossip ensues at Anna's house, including news that Countess Hélène Berzúkhova has angina, due to the stress of having two husbands.

It is the Emperor's birthday on the morrow, and Anna has received an invitation. 

Volume 2: Book 10 - Chapter 6

Characters Present:

Anna Pávlovna
Countess Hélène Berzúkhova
General, Prince, Commander-in-Chief Kutúzov
Prince Vasíli Kurágin
Barclay de Tolley

Location:

Petersburg


The social circles are all gossiping about the war, and  Anna Pávlovna's circle has contradictory gossip to Countess Hélène Berzúkhova's social circle.

Prince Vasíli goes to visit Anna Pávlovna on several occasions, and General Kutúzov tends to be the topic of conversation.

Apparently Barclay de Tolley is doing a terrible job at commanding the army, but Kutúzov seems to be ok, though no one really commits to this idea.

Then, Kutúzov gets promoted to Prince Kutúzov, and then, on the same day, also promoted to Commander-in-Chief Kutúzov, even though the Tsar doesn't really like him. Kurágin says that he has always thought that Kutúzov was a man of great merit.

Volume 1: Book 5 - Chapter 7

Characters Present:

Anna Pávlovna

Boris Drubetskóy

Prince Hippolyte Kurágin

Countess Hélène Kuragina

Location: 

Anna Pávlovna's house in Petersburg/Countess Hélène's house

The soiree goes on and Prince Hippolyte holds everyone's attention with a series of jokes about Prussia.

The evening ends and Hélène insists that Boris Drubetskóy go around to see her on the coming Tuesday.  He goes, and doesn't understand why he was invited, as she barely speaks to him.  

Hélène then requests that he go to see her again for dinner the following evening, and the book then describes Boris as becoming an "intimate" in the countess's house.

Volume 1: Book 5 - Chapter 6

Characters Present:

Anna Pávlovna

Boris Drubetskóy

Prince Vasíli Kuragin

Location:

Anna Pávlovna's house, Petersburg

Anna Pávlovna is holding another soiree with the cream of Russian society.  They gossip mostly about Pierre, and how he has once again fallen out of favour.   

Boris is the star of the moment, having risen through the ranks despite his lack of money, and Anna Pávlovna steers the conversation so that he becomes the centre of it.  He speaks well, and the people enjoy the novelty of it all.

Book 3 - Chapter 2

Characters Present:

Prince Vasíli Kuragin
Princess Aline Kuragina (Vasíli's wife)
Princess Anna Mikháylovna Drubetskáya
Anna Pávlovna
Count Pierre Bezukhov
Other guests

Location:

Prince Vasíli's house

It is Hélène's birthday and Vasíli and Aline are throwing her a small party.  Pierre has grown increasingly obsessed with Hélène and is now trying overcome his belief that she is a bit dim. 

It gets to the end of the evening and though they are sitting alone chatting, Pierre still cannot ask her to marry him.  Prince Vasíli Kuragin keeps being awkward and going over to see what is happening, and eventually pretends that he had heard from his wife that they were now engaged, and congratulates them both on their engagement very publicly.

Pierre and Hélène get married six weeks later.

Book 3 - Chapter 1

N.B For context go back to Book 1 - Chapters 19-24

Characters Present:

Prince Vasíli Kurágin
Count Pierre Bezukhov
Anna Pávlovna
Hélène Kuragina - daughter of Prince Vasíli Kuragin

Location: 

Moscow generally, then Anna Pávlovna's drawing room.

Vasíli has taken it upon himself to manage Pierre's riches, and is taking advantage of Pierre's trust by paying himself with several thousand rubles, taken from Pierre's peasants.  He is also trying to get Pierre to marry his daughter, Hélène. 

Pierre attends a tea at Anna Pávlovna's house and she purposefully places him in conversation with Hélène.  She stands rather advantageously to her figure and he gets wooed by her cleavage, thinking that he must, must marry her.   He leaves and is pulled between thoughts of her beauty, and how stupid he thinks she is.

Volume 1: Book 1 - Chapter 6

Characters Present:

Anna Pávlovna
Prince Hippolyte Kurágin
Princess Lisa Bolkónskaya
Vicomte Mortemarte
Pierre Bezukhov
Prince Andrew Bolkónski

Location:

Firstly at Anna Pávlovna´s reception

Secondly, Prince Andrew´s study.

The guests finally leave the reception and Hippolyte gets a bit touchy-feely with Lisa. Mortemart notices and is nothing but encouraging.

The scene then moves to Pierre lying languidly on Andrew´s sofa, where they discuss what occupation that Pierre will take. Prince Andrew reveals that he will soon leave for battle.

Book 1 - Chapter 5

Characters Present:

Anna Pávlovna

Vicomte Mortemart

Pierre Bezukhov

Prince Andrew Bolkónski

Hippolyte Kurágin

Setting:

Still at Anna Pávlovna´s reception

The discussion about Napoleon has moved into more serious realms, with Andrew snidely disagreeing with anything that Mortemart has to say on the matter.

Mortemart believes that if Napoleon is on the throne for one year longer, then matters will have gone too far and that French society will be forever doomed. Prince Andrew believes that it will now be too difficult to return France to its prior state.

To Anna´s horror, Pierre decides to add his two cents and says that Napoleon is fantastic and that his various horrifying acts, including the execution of the Duc, are signs of a great leader. Despite all of this being very awkward, this endears Pierre to Andrew even more, and Hippolyte steps in to save the day with an extraordinarily awkward anecdote about a woman who prefers large servants.

Volume 1: Book 1 - Chapter 4

Characters Present:

Anna Pávlovna

Princess Lisa Bolkónskaya

Princess Anna Mikháylovna Drubetskáya

Prince Andrew Bolkónski 

Prince Vasíle Kuragin
Pierre Bezukhov

Location:

Still at Anna Pávlovna´s reception.

Andrew arrives and is utterly bored by the company and his wife, Lisa. He is by comparison, delighted when Pierre approaches him, and takes his arm and insists that they meet for dinner.

Anna Mikháylovna Drubetskáya implores Vasíle, to speak to the Emperor about moving her son into the Guard. 

Vasíle is resistant at first, but is soon convinced when Princess Anna reminds him of how her father helped his own career along. He agrees to effect the move, and then is told that he will be late for a fete held by his daughter, Princess Héléne Kuragina, and leaves.

Volume 1: Book 1 - Chapter 3

Characters Present:

Anna Pávlovna

Princess Hélène Kuragina

Princess Lisa Bolkónskaya

Vicomte Mortemart

Pierre Bezukhov

Prince Hippolyte Kurágin 

An Abbot

Location:

Still at Anna´s reception.

The party is now in full swing, and the guests have formed into three groups; the most interesting being the the one with Mortemart at the centre, who is gossiping about the murder of Duc d´Enghien.

Mortemart is so charming that the beautiful Hélène´s circle merge into his and Mortemart proceeds to tell a tale of Duc d´Enghien going to Paris secretly to visit Mademoiselle George. At her house, he meets Bonaparte, who reportedly also enjoys the Mademoiselle's favours. Apparently Bonaparte fainted in the presence of Duc d´Enghien and due to extreme embarrassment, Bonaparte had the Duc killed.

Anna interrupts an impolite conversation between the Abbot and Pierre, and proceeds to move them into the larger group so that she can observe and control their conversation.

Volume 1: Book 1 - Chapter 2

Characters Present:

Anna Pávlovna
Anna Pávlovna´s Aunt
Prince Vasíli Kurágin
Hélène Kuragina- Prince Vasíli´s daugher, 
Hippolyte Kurágin
Vicomte Mortemart
Princess Lisa Bolkónskaya (married to Prince Andrew Bolkónski) - Pregnant
Pierre Bezúukhov - The illegitimate son of Count Bezúkhov

 
Location:

Still at Anna´s reception.


More people are arriving at the reception. Nobody wants to speak to Anna´s Aunt, as she is a stodgy old woman that they are made to greet on arrival. They subsequently get exposed to her ramblings about the queen's health.

Anna is mildly offended by Pierre, who has just arrived back from an overseas education and has no idea how to behave in proper society. This is his first outing into it and he is fascinated by the conversational matter of the other guests, leading him to jump from discussion to discussion.

Volume 1: Book 1 - Chapter 1

Characters Present:

Anna Pávlovna (Maid of Honour to Empress Marya Fyodorovna)

Prince Vasíli Kurágin

Location: 

Anna Pávlovna's house for tea

The prince is the only one there so far. They discuss Napoleon for a bit and mention that England and the rest of Europe are not doing enough to stop him, Austria are bastards and Russia alone must save Europe.

They then move onto other topics, including the Prince´s three children, of which only two are charming. In other social matters, Prince Vasíli requests to be set up in an affair with Prince Andrew Bolkónski´s new wife, Lisa, who is bored.