After days of anger and idleness, Pierre receives a letter from Ellen asking for reconciliation; his mother-in-law also comes to make the same request. Pierre calls on his benefactor, Osip Bazdyev, for advice. Only in midst of worldly cares can you achieve self-purification, peace, and love of death, that is, regeneration into a new life, he is told."Life shows us its vanities only through worldly corruptions," says Osip Alexyevitch. As a result, Bezuhov recalls his wife and, once having overcome the pain of this reconciliation, he feels happy and regenerated.
Once established in Petersburg, Countess Ellen Bezuhov becomes one of the most distinguished women in society. Attendance at one of her soirées insures a"certificate of intellect" to an aspiring social climber. Pierre appears as a harmless, contemptible figure as be moves absent-mindedly among his wife's guests. He is always amazed at how her stupidity can be considered the expression of intelligence, how her least remark gains rapt attention.
Since his visit with Bazdyev, Pierre keeps a diary to chronicle his spiritual progress. Here he recounts being the rhetor for Boris Drubetskoy's initiation into the lodge. He notes that Boris, intent on grooming the"outer man," seeks in freemasonry another connection with influential persons. When they meet, Pierre cannot repress anger and insults Boris. Another entry in Pierre's diary recounts a dream in which Bazdyev talks of"conjugal duties," and later he receives a letter from his benefactor with the same advice. In another dream Bezuhov symbolizes his sexual desire and is terrified by the strength of these base passions within him.
