Princess Yelena "Hélène" Vasilyevna Kuragina () is a fictional character in

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

's 1869 novel ''

War and Peace ''War and Peace'' (; pre-reform Russian: ; ) is a literary work by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, the work comprises both a fictional narrative and chapters in which Tolstoy discusses history and philosophy. An ...

'' and its various cinematic adaptations. She is played by Anita Ekberg in the 1956 film, by Amber Gray in the New York stage premiere of '' Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812'', and by

Tuppence Middleton Tuppence Amelia Middleton (born 21 February 1987) is a British actress. In 2010, she was nominated for the ''London Evening Standard'' Film Awards for Most Promising Newcomer. Middleton appeared in various films before making her breakthrough ...

in the 2016 BBC miniseries.

Biography

Hélène is described as being in her early to mid-twenties and is considered a great beauty. Within Petersburg society, she is considered very cultured and intelligent on account of her social graces, despite actually being quite vapid. Early in the novel, it is rumoured and later implied that Hélène has an incestuous relationship with her profligate brother, Anatole. After

Pierre Bezukhov Count Pyotr "Pierre" Kirillovich Bezukhov (; ) is the fictional protagonist of Leo Tolstoy's 1869 novel '' War and Peace''. He is the favourite out of several illegitimate sons of the wealthy nobleman Count Kirill Vladimirovich Bezukhov, one of th ...

is legitimised as the heir to his father's title and fortune, Hélène's father, Prince Vasily Kuragin, arranges for the two of them to be married. Despite finding Pierre odd, Hélène goes through with the marriage for the sake of social and financial advantage. Pierre is at first thrilled to be married to such a beautiful woman, but he quickly sours on the match, especially after Hélène tells him she will never have children with him. Not long after they are married and living in Moscow, Hélène has an affair with their houseguest, the crude but fearless soldier Dolokhov, who flaunts the romance. Pierre fights Dolokhov in a

duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people with matched weapons. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the rapier and later the small sword), but beginning in ...

, and by a stroke of luck wins by wounding him. Pierre sinks into depression, losing all love for his wife. He leaves her and goes to St. Petersburg. Hélène begs him to maintain the marriage, which he does only for the sake of appearances, while she continues to engage in sexual affairs, most notably with Boris Drubetskoy. Continuing to pursue her social ambitions, she frequently hosts dinner parties for the elite, and her

salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment that provides Cosmetics, cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, ...

becomes extremely popular. Later, she conspires with Anatole to help him in his pursuit of Natasha Rostova, to whom Anatole is powerfully attracted. Late in the novel, Hélène forsakes the Russian Orthodox Church and adopts

Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, believing that a large donation to the church will lead the Pope to annul her union with Pierre so she can remarry. Soon afterward, Hélène becomes pregnant and then dies; it is implied that she died from a

drug overdose A drug overdose (overdose or OD) is the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities much greater than are recommended. Retrieved on September 20, 2014.

in an attempted

abortion Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...

References

Characters in War and Peace Fictional Russian people in literature Female characters in literature Literary characters introduced in 1869 {{novel-char-stub

Biography

See also

References