War and Peace Volume 4, Part 1, Chapter 14 Summary

  • As soon as she hears that Andrei is with the Rostovs, Marya takes off for the city of Yaroslav.
  • It’s a hard trip, because the most direct road is in French hands, but Marya is full of energy, and she makes it in under two weeks.
  • Although she is very happy about Nikolai, feeling that he loves her as much as she loves him, she pushes all of this aside with the stress about Andrei.
  • In Yaroslav, she finds the house where the Rostovs are staying. No one will say how her brother is doing, so she goes straight to the house.
  • She first runs into the Countess, who starts to hug her. Marya is going crazy wanting to see Andrei or hear something about him, so she gets upset when the Rostovs start doing their visitor politeness formalities.
  • She asks to see Andrei again, but the Countess and Sonya are leading Nikolushka and Mlle. Bourienne into the house, and then doing more introductions.
  • Finally, as Marya is beginning to cry in frustration, Natasha bursts through the door.
  • Immediately, Marya can tell by her face that they are united in their fear and grief about Andrei. Marya falls into Natasha’s arms and starts to cry.
  • Natasha has a hard time explaining how Andrei is. We get the sense that he’s taken a turn for the worse, but it’s hard to really understand how – just that Natasha knows that he isn’t going to make it.