Maria Bolkonskaya

Common card · No. 363298

Princess Maria Nikolaevna Bolkonskaya (Russian: Мария Николаевна Болконская, also Romanized Marya) is a fictional character in Leo Tolstoy's 1869 novel War and Peace. Maria, the sister of Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, is a deeply religious young woman who has resigned herself to an unmarried life to be with her domineering father, Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky. Princess Maria is a plain woman, whose lack of beauty is offset by her large, caring eyes. She is overshadowed by her beautiful French companion, Mademoiselle Bourienne. An attempt to marry her off to the profligate Prince Anatole Kuragin fails. Princess Maria's father dies during the days leading to the battle of Borodino. The peasants on her Bogucharovo estate threaten to become violent and Maria is rescued by Nikolai Rostov. They fall in love, but several situations keep them apart and eventually they both forgo any hope of marriage. Maria's brother, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, is seriously wounded in battle and chances to fall under the...

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