Chapter 77 Chapter One

After Prince Andrew's engagement to Natasha, Pierre suddenly felt that he could no longer live as before.Although he firmly believed in the truth revealed to him by his teacher, and despite his enthusiasm for self-cultivation at the beginning, after the engagement of Prince Andrei to Natasha and the death of Bazdeyev (the two news Pierre heard almost at the same time) After that, the charm of that kind of life for him suddenly disappeared.Life remained for him only an empty shell: his house, his flamboyant wife who was being favored by a dignitary, his contacts with the whole of Petersburg society, and a mere formality of dull official duties.Pierre suddenly felt that this life was extremely boring.He stopped keeping a diary, shunned his Masons, went back to clubs, drank again, and associated with his bachelor friends.He led such an absurd life that Countess Helen thought it necessary to criticize him severely.Pierre felt that her criticism was justified, and in order not to affect his wife's reputation, he set off for Moscow.

Arriving in Moscow, as soon as Pierre entered his huge residence, he saw the dwindling princesses and the large number of servants.As he drove into the city, he saw the Iver Church with golden statues and candles shining brightly, the fresh white snow on the square in front of the Kremlin, the huts of the coachmen and Sivtsev Vlazhk, the huts with nothing to do. An old man who has been seeking peace for the rest of his life, when he sees old women, Moscow ladies, Moscow balls and English clubs, he feels at home, in a peaceful place of shelter.He felt quiet, warm, comfortable and dirty in Moscow, like wearing an old nightgown.

The upper class of Moscow, men, women and children, all sat down to welcome Pierre like a long-awaited guest.In the eyes of Moss's upper class, Pierre is an extremely kind and lovely, intelligent, cheerful and generous eccentric, a lazy and enthusiastic old-fashioned Russian nobleman.His purse is always empty because he gives generously to everyone. Shows, bad paintings, sculptures, charities, gypsies, schools, fund-raising dinners, booze, Freemasonry, churches, books, nothing, anyone.He would have lost all his fortune, had it not been for the guardianship of two friends from whom he had borrowed a great deal.At the club there was never a banquet or a party without him.As soon as he had two bottles of Margarine and lay down on his old seat on the sofa, he was surrounded by many people talking, arguing, and laughing with him.Wherever there was a quarrel, as long as he smiled kindly and told a decent joke, everything would be all right.Without him, Masonic dinners are dull and uninteresting.

After the bachelor dinner, he smiled amiably and agreed to go somewhere with his jovial companions at their request.Then the young man let out a burst of jubilant cheers.At a ball, if a partner is missing, he dances.The young ladies liked him because he pursued no one and was polite to everyone, especially after dinner. "He's cute, but he's genderless." That's what they all say about him. Pierre was one of hundreds of retired senior court servants in Moscow who lived out the rest of their lives. Seven years ago, when he first came back from abroad, if someone told him that he didn't need to explore, he didn't need to think, his path was already determined, and no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't change the situation, he would be surprised.He couldn't believe it.Didn't he want to establish a republic in Russia with all his heart, and sometimes he also wanted to be Napoleon, a philosopher, a strategist, and the man who conquered Napoleon?Didn't he think that he can and fervently hopes to transform fallen human beings, and at the same time make himself a perfect person by cultivating his mind and nature?Didn't he found schools and hospitals, and freed the serfs?

But what about reality?He's a cuckold rich husband, a retired court valet who likes to eat and drink.He opened his clothes and scolded the government. He was a member of the Moscow English Club and a popular figure in Moscow's upper class.He could not reconcile himself to the thought of becoming the retired high court chamberlain in Moscow whom he had so much despised seven years earlier. Sometimes he consoled himself by saying that this life was temporary, but another thought immediately surprised him: how many people entered this life and this club with all their teeth and hair, and left with all their teeth and hair.

When he was proud, Pierre felt that he was completely different from the vulgar, stupid, self-sufficient retired court servant he had despised before, and he said to himself: "I am not complacent until now, I always want to do something for mankind. When frustrated, he thought: "Maybe my colleagues have struggled like me, have explored new paths in life, and like me have been forced by the environment, society, nature, and irresistible natural forces of human beings to the current state." situation." After living in Moscow for some time, he ceased to scorn contempt, but loved and sympathized with his colleagues who shared his fate, just as he sympathized with himself.

Pierre no longer had his moments of disappointment, melancholy, and world-weariness as before; the former violent attack was driven inside and never left him for a moment. "For what? Why bother? What is going on in the world?" He asked himself in confusion several times a day, involuntarily thinking about the meaning of life.But he knew from experience that these questions could not be answered, so he quickly got rid of them and read a book, or rushed to the club, or went to Apollon's to chat about social news. "Helene has never cared about anything but her body. She is the most stupid woman in the world," thought Pierre. Everyone despised him when he was a great man, but after he became a poor buffoon, Emperor Franz gave him his daughter as a second chamber. The Spaniards thanked God through the Catholic monks for defeating the French on June 14th ; and the French, through the Catholic monks, thank God that they defeated the Spaniards on the fourteenth of June. My Masons swear with blood that they will sacrifice everything for others, but refuse to give a ruble to help the poor. Raise the Astrians against the Bread, and push for a real Scotch rug and a Masonic scripture whose meaning the writers don't understand, and nobody wants. We all preached the Christian doctrine of forgiveness and love, and built many churches in Moscow for it, but yesterday a deserter was flogged to death, and it was the priest who preached the doctrine of forgiveness and love that sent that soldier to death kissed the cross before him," thought Pierre.This pervasive hypocrisy, though he was used to it, always shocked him like something new. "I understand the hypocrisy and confusion, but how can I tell everyone what I know? I try to do it, and I find that they know it as much as I do, and they just try not to see it. It seems that only So! But what shall I do?" thought Pierre.He has the sad ability that many people, especially Russians, have; to see and believe in the good and the real, but at the same time see the evil and hypocrisy in life too clearly to take a serious part in it.In his view, any activity is associated with evil and deceit.Whatever he wants to be, whatever he does, evil and hypocrisy are always his enemy and block his way.But he had to live, and he had to do something.These unsolvable problems of life troubled him so much that he took pleasure in every opportunity to forget them.He went out to social places, drunkenly, bought pictures, built a lot of buildings, and more was reading.

He reads and reads whatever he gets. When he gets home, the servant is still undressing him. He has picked up the book to read, and falls asleep while reading. When he wakes up, he goes to the living room and chats with the club. Gossiping to drink and find a woman, then gossip, read and drink again.Alcohol has increasingly become his physical and spiritual needs.He drank a lot even though doctors advised him that alcohol was dangerous for a fat person like himself.It was just drowsy pouring a few glasses of wine into his big mouth, feeling warm in his body, being kind to everyone, confused and indifferent to any problem-only then did he feel comfortable all over.It was only after two bottles of wine that he vaguely felt that the complicated life problems he thought before were not as terrible as he thought.But when he chatted, listened to people talking, and read after lunch and dinner, he was always dizzy and troubled by seeing problems.But as soon as he got a little drunk, he comforted himself and said, "It doesn't matter. I will solve it, and I will definitely solve it, but I don't have time now. I will think about it later!" But this will never come.

In the morning, without having eaten, Pierre again found the old problems difficult and troublesome.He hastily picked up a book to read, and was very glad when anyone came to him. Pierre sometimes remembered what was said: that in war soldiers are in trenches under fire, and if they have nothing to do, they try to find something to do, so that it is easier to bear the danger.Pierre felt that, in life, everyone was trying to escape troubles like soldiers: some by vanity, some by playing cards, some by enacting laws, some by women, some by playthings, some by Riding horses, some rely on politics, some rely on hunting, some rely on drinking, and some rely on official duties. "There is no one big or small, everyone is the same; all are trying to escape the troubles of life! Just escape from reality, from seeing this terrible reality."