War And Peace Characters

Question 1

Anna Pavlovna Scherer
“Annette”

Answer 1

Maid of Honour of the Empress Fyodorovna. Never married.
Known as an enthusiast with strong views. Loves Empress and Tsar Alexander. Hates revolutionary Napoleon.
40, looks fading with age.
Has agreed to find suitable match for Prince Vasily’s son Anatole.

Question 2

Kuragin, Vasily (Prince)

Answer 2

Languid, graceful, respected man. Glistening bald pate. A tease. Very aware of social standing and etiquette. His sons Hippolyte and Anatole causing him problems, but not his daughter Helene. Wants Anatole to get a job as First Secretary in Vienna, but the Empress favours Baron Funke. A bit more unpleasant, with a crude humour, in private. Wants to change Count Bezukhov’s will.

Question 3

Kuragin, Helene (Princess)
Yelena

Answer 3

Beautiful and dutiful youngest daughter of Prince Vasily. His favourite. Knows her beauty and humbly shows it to all around. Impeccable manners.

Question 4

Bolkonsky, Lise (Princess)

Answer 4

Young, beautiful wife of Prince Andrey. Pregnant. Excited and energetic. Wants to make a good impression. Short lip makes her more beautiful. Off to the country. Becomes more drawn and less beautiful around her terrifying father in law.

Question 5

Bolkonsky, Andre (Prince)

Answer 5

Husband to Lise, and contrast to her. Handsome but snarling and surly. Close friend of Pierre. Soon to be general Kutuzov’s aid. Relationship with Lise falling apart, and bitterly regrets getting married. Took a lower position in the army to fight.

Question 6

Bezukhov, Pierre

Answer 6

Illegitimate son of Count Bezukhov, a grandee from Catherine’s time. Big, close cropped hair and spectacles. Friend of Prince Andrey. Keen intellectual. Genial person. Drawn to Anatole, and gets drawn to his drunken parties.

Question 7

Kuragin, Anatole (Prince)

Answer 7

Vasily’s problem child. Tall, handsome. Dissolute and wild. Father Wants him to get a job as First Secretary in Vienna, but the Empress favours Baron Funke instead. Not quick-witted or eloquent, but supremely confident and knows his effect on women.

Question 8

Dolokhov, Fedya

Answer 8

Officer in the Semeyov regiment. Blue-eyed man of average height. Notorious gambler and swaggering madcap. Makes a crazy bet about drinking and standing in a window ledge in V1, P1, C6. Is demoted, and swear off gambling until re-promoted. Possibly has affair with Helene. Lived with his mother and is devoted to her.

Question 9

Rostov, Ilya (Count)

Answer 9

Round, cheery, clean shaven, face, with a bald patch. Fat, waddling and food-stained. Always energetic and friendly, and follows social etiquette. Likes fiddling about the house. Called a “half-licked cub” and “gambler” by Vasily.

Question 10

Rostov, Natalya (Countess)

Answer 10

Woman of 45 with a narrow, rather oriental face. Exhausted from bearing 12 children. Slowness of movement and speech based in weakness but bring her respect. Natasha her favourite daughter.

Question 11

Rostov, Nikokay (Count)

Answer 11

Student. Shock of hair and an innocent face. His white face expressed energy and enthusiasm. In love with his cousin Sonya, though flirts with other women.

Question 12

Vera, Rostov (Countess).

Answer 12

Eldest daughter. Good-looking, quite intelligent, nice voice, talks sense… But people find her awkward. Younger siblings mock her for her seriousness.

Question 13

Rostov, Natasha (Countess)
Natalya

Answer 13

12 or 13. Not pretty, but full of life. At a charming age. In love with Boris.

Question 14

Rostov, Sonya

Answer 14

Niece in the Rostov family. Slim, petite brunette. Smoothness in the way she moves. Compared to a cat and a tease. Skinny arms are sinewy but nicely shaped. In love with her cousin Nikolay.

Question 15

Anna Drubetskoy (Princess)
Anna Mikhaylovna

Answer 15

Elderly lady with kindly, careworn face. Friend of Countess Rostov since childhood. From a good family but impoverished. Mother to Boris. Hopes Count Bezukhov will improve her financial situation in his will.

Question 16

Drubetskoy, Boris

Answer 16

Fine young officer. Tall, fair-headed youth with fine regular features and a look of composure. Seems to love Natasha. Knows little of politics initially. Spiky, contrarian character. Focuses on the task at hand. A skillful climber who rises through the military ranks and Moscow society, despite mother’s downward mobility. Comes to be embarrassed by his previous love for Natasha.

Question 17

Akhrosimov, Marya Dmitriyevna

Answer 17

“Dreaded Dragon”, feared for speaking her mind. Friend of Countess Rostov. Laughed at behind her back. Fifty or so, with grey curls and a hoarse voice.

Question 18

Shinshin

Answer 18

A bachelor cousin of the Countess Rostov. Think, wrinkled, sallow, clean-shaven face. Getting on in years, but fashionably dressed.

Question 19

Bezhukov, Kirill (Count)

Answer 19

A grandee of Catherine the Great, dying as the book begins. Left his entire estate to illegitimate son Pierre, cutting out his nieces, the Mamontov sisters.

Question 20

Mamontov, Katerina
(Katishe)

Answer 20

One of Count Bezukhov’s heirs, as his niece. Extraordinarily smooth and glossy hair and a small rigid body too small for her legs. A little stupid. Cut out by Count Bezukhov’s will, and feels vengeful towards Pierre and Ann’s Mikhaylovna because of it.

Question 21

Bolkonsky, Nikolay (Prince)

Answer 21

Father to Andrey and Maria, and landlord of the huge Bald Hills estate. Exiled under Paul. Now permitted to visit cities but refuses to go. Spends his days on algebra, lathe work and supervising building work on his estate. Controls the household to the minute. Powdered wig, tiny withered hands, bushy eyebrows, body odour. Everyone fears him. Some signs of senility. Secretly dreads his daughter leaving him.

Question 22

Bolkonsky, Marya (Princess)

Answer 22

Meek daughter of Nikolay Bolkonsky. Terrified of him. Strict religious views. Feeble, unattractive body with a skinny, plain face. But when her eyes gleam, she has something better than beauty. Exchanges passionate letters with Julie Karagin. Desires earthly love with a man most, but ashamed of that desire on religious grounds.

Question 23

Denisov, Vasily (Captain)

Answer 23

Small figure of a man, red in the face, with sparkling black eyes, wayward black moustaches and tousked hair. Rough clothes. Gloomy and downcast. Likes to go out gambling.

Question 24

Bilibin

Answer 24

Russian diplomat and friend of Prince Andrey. Young, but experienced in diplomacy. Lean, sallow face covered in winkles, which look clean. His “bon most” are widely shared and influential.

Question 25

Tushin, Captain

Answer 25

Grimy, thin, artillery officer. Not neat - often walks round with not boots on. Forms a bond with Andrey after Andrey vouches for him.

Question 26

Bourienne, Mademoiselle.

Answer 26

Princess Marya’s French companion. Pretty, charming, socially confident. Knows she is prettier and more appealing than the princess. Without a home or social status. Dreams of being carried away by a rich Russian man.