War and Peace Volume 4, Part 4, Chapter 2 Summary

  • All hell breaks loose when the Rostovs get the news of Petya’s death.
  • The Countess totally loses it. She’s crazed and in denial, raving and ranting that it can’t be true.
  • The only one who can calm her down is Natasha, so Natasha just lives in her mom’s room for three weeks, getting her to slowly come back to sanity.
  • One day, there’s a weird moment when Countess Rostov suddenly starts talking to Natasha as if she’s Petya. It’s creepy. But then everything turns out OK and the Countess starts crying for her son for the first time. As we all know from pop psychology, this is the first step toward recovery.