British Prime Minister Theresa May. Biography and career
Theresa May, Prime Minister of England, was born on October 1, 1956 in Eastbourne. She began to be called the new iron lady, who replaced Margaret Thatcher. She began to pursue a tough and cold-blooded policy, thanks to which she built a successful career and achieved tremendous success. In her native country, she began to be treated with great respect. Theresa May in her youth strove for knowledge and tried her best to improve herself.
Theresa May in her youth (photo)
Theresa May's age is difficult to determine by her appearance. A woman can hardly be given as many years as she actually turned out. She looks just great, constantly looks after herself and does physical exercises. The future politician was born in the family of a clergyman in Sussex. This is where she spent her youth. Parents sent the girl to study in two schools at once: regular and parochial. As a result, both were graduated with honors, and Teresa went to conquer Oxford, where she chose the Faculty of Geography and in 1977 became a bachelor. The talented student greedily absorbed knowledge, read literature and even wrote her own popular science articles.
Pictured: Theresa May as a child Labor activity the young girl started out as a consultant in a bank. Parents were not able to provide material assistance to their daughter, so she had to get her own bread. She did not have influential or wealthy relatives who could help her get a decent education or make a brilliant career, she had to achieve everything gradually herself. Only 10 years later, Teresa began to rapidly climb the corporate ladder. She did not stop reading, improving her knowledge and skills, reinforcing them with practice. The woman began to make a political career by the beginning of the 80s, and in the early 1990s she made her first attempts to break into parliament.
Pictured: Theresa May with her parents In her youth, Theresa May was not deprived of attention by representatives of the opposite sex. A beautiful and smart girl could not help but attract the attention of guys. She had a lot of fans, but over time they all became rejected.
Pictured: Theresa May's wedding Only in 1980, Teresa truly fell in love and remains faithful to her chosen one to this day. It turned out to be the current husband of the new iron lady Philip John May. True, they never had children.
Even on vacation I keep an eye on things in the United Kingdom, after all, too radical changes can happen. Therefore, I’m interested in how Theresa May met with Nicola Sturgeon (the leader of Scotland), what they agreed on and what they didn’t agree on, is it good or bad that most positions in May’s cabinet will be occupied by graduates of public schools, and not, as usual, graduates of Eton and privileged private schools, and how the clown Boris Johnson will behave as foreign secretary.
But, of course, the personality of Theresa May herself is of most interest. Before Brexit, all I knew about her was that she was the home secretary, and it was she who brought Kitten Hill shoes back into fashion.
Former prime minister and current prime minister
Theresa May (nee Brazier) is 59 years old and the daughter of a vicar. Both her grandmothers worked as servants. Teresa studied at public school Graduated in Geography from Oxford. Teresa's father died in a car accident when Teresa was 25 years old, her mother did not survive her father for long, and never recovered from her husband's death. Teresa soon learned that she would never be able to have children. Troubles hardened her character, she achieved everything in her life herself. Climbing the political Olympus was not easy for Theresa May. According to a friend, she always dreamed of becoming the first woman prime minister (she was even upset that Margaret Thatcher was ahead of her), and she became prime minister, albeit not the first.
Teresa met her future husband, Philip, in 1976 at the Oxford Union debating club. The couple is said to have been introduced at a Conservative Party dance party by future Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Teresa and Philip married in 1980.
Teresa with her parents
Teresa began her political career in the City of London, where she first worked at the Bank of England and then headed the European department of the Association of Interbank Settlement Systems. Then she became a member of the local council of the Merton area in south London, grew up to the deputy head of the council and went higher to the national level. At that time, the Conservative Party was unpopular, and May was defeated in the elections in Durham, but she was elected in Maidenhead, in Barkshire (she still represents this constituency).
In 1999, Theresa May entered the shadow cabinet. She was not close to Michael Howard, nor later to the so-called Nottinghill Group of David Cameron and George Osborne, so at first she was trusted only in small posts, but gradually, seeing her acumen and performance, she began to be trusted with larger posts. In 2009, she was already the shadow minister of labor and pensions. And in 2010, she became Minister of the Interior. For many, this came as a surprise. But the option for the government was a win-win. Few of "their-" were eager for this post, it was considered a "graveyard" of political careers. But, as it turned out, not for Theresa May.
She thoroughly studied the work of her department, appointed deputies with whom she had complete mutual understanding, and was not afraid to conflict with other ministers. It became impossible to remove her from office, voters liked her tough statements.
The crime rate in the country has fallen, since 2010 there has not been a single large-scale terrorist attack in the UK, and Theresa May managed to deport the radical preacher Abu Qatada from the country. But during May's leadership, chaos broke out in the passport department. May has also been under constant criticism for her agency's failure to bring immigration levels down to 100,000 a year, as promised by the government ahead of the election. In addition, there was a public skirmish between Theresa May and Minister Michael Gove over how best to deal with Islamic extremism. The episode ended with Gove having to apologize to the Prime Minister and May having to fire one of her closest advisers. It is said that after this incident, she became cooler towards David Cameron.
Theresa May advocated equal rights for same-sex couples, but at the same time against giving gay couples the opportunity to adopt children. She opposed the adoption of laws to combat climate change, against the further integration of the UK into the European Union, against a smoking ban in in public places, against the ban on fox hunting, but for the invasion of Iraq and for the reduction in the number of migrants.
In the 70s, Theresa May was fond of the hippie movement.
It is considered the "oldest" prime minister in the last 40 years.
At the annual lottery in the county where she and her husband live, Teresa wins the Guess the Weight contest four times in a row. Mei's colleagues explain this by saying that she has a habit of using a pocket calculator to calculate the volume of a pie by measuring its circumference and thickness.
Quite regularly, Mr. and Mrs. May sing songs in chorus with their neighbor Jimmy Page from the rock band Led Zeppelin. Teresa's husband describes it this way: "When we drive up to Jimmy's house, he greets us with Whole Lotta Love, Teresa takes out a harmonica and plays something from Andrew Lloyd Webber back to him.
Theresa May has diabetes and injects herself with insulin every day.
Contrary to popular belief, Teresa has a very developed sense of humor. She loves to watch old movies and people around her often hear her laugh out loud. Her favorite movie is Alien.
Theresa May's nicknames are Theresa Maybe, Mother Theresa, Darth Mayder, Merkel of Maidenhead
Theresa May is blonde.
Theresa May's hobbies are cooking (according to her, she has more than 100 cookbooks) and hiking in the mountains.
Theresa May has a yearly subscription to Vogue and keys to 10 Downing Street, and she doesn't see anything strange about it. To paraphrase the phrase of the sun of Russian poetry "You can be a smart person and think about the beauty of your nails", Theresa May lives by the principle: you can be a politician and think about fashion.
Theresa May with her husband - Philip John May, an employee of the Capital Group Companies
The paparazzi have long noticed Theresa May's love for beautiful shoes. She wears different shoes, but most often shoes with small thin heels up to 5 cm high - kitten heels. These shoes were brought into fashion by Audrey Hepburn, who often wore kitten heels in her films. These shoes were extremely popular, but in the 80s they were supplanted by thin stilettos. Now shoes are gaining popularity again. They look good with office wear and feminine dresses and trousers.
Theresa May's kitten heels
Women politicians have a very meager choice of clothes, endless taboos in both the choice of style and the choice of color, but Theresa May breaks stereotypes, nevertheless, without falling into outrageousness. For example, she came to the Conservative Party convention in a dark blue "Bitzer" dress from French designer Roland Mouret. Dresses from Mouret are worn by the Duchess of Cambridge, Victoria Beckham and many Hollywood actresses.
On July 13, 2016, Queen Elizabeth II officially accepted David Cameron's resignation from the post of prime minister and proposed to form a new government for Theresa May, who became the second woman after Margaret Thatcher as prime minister of Great Britain. About how her career developed and why she was entrusted with withdrawing the country from the European Union, NTV tells.
Read below
Who is Theresa May?
Theresa May was born in 1956 in the UK (East Sussex). She received her bachelor's degree in geography from the University of Oxford. In addition, she worked in the Bank of England and the London government.
In 1992, she participated in the parliamentary elections in the district of North West Durham and in the early elections in 1994 in the district of Barking, but Theresa May then could not get enough votes.
However, a few years later she was elected from the new constituency of Maidenhead. Since the same year, he has been constantly re-elected.
From 1997 to 2002, she held various minor positions in the Conservative shadow government.
In 2002, she became the first female leader of the Conservative Party. She was engaged, unlike the leader of the party, in technical issues of ensuring the functioning of the conservatives.
From 2003 to 2005, she was the shadow minister of transport and the shadow minister of food and the environment.
From May to December 2005 she was the shadow minister of culture, media and sports.
From 2009 to 2010, she served as the shadow minister of labor and pensions.
After the 2010 elections, she was appointed Minister of the Interior, while simultaneously receiving the portfolio of Minister for Women and Equality. In this position, she campaigned for equal rights for same-sex couples, while becoming one of the first high-ranking politicians in the UK to publicly express her support for the legalization of same-sex marriage.
In the House of Commons, May voted for the invasion of Iraq, for the adoption of laws to combat climate change, against further integration of the UK into the European Union, against a ban on smoking in public places, against allowing gay couples to adopt children.
Why did she become the new prime minister?
It should be noted that during the campaign before the referendum on the UK's withdrawal from the European Union, Theresa May supported Prime Minister David Cameron, who was against Brexit. However, after summing up the results of the general vote, her opinion changed quite dramatically. After the victory of supporters of Britain's exit from the European Union and the announcement of Prime Minister David Cameron's resignation, she unexpectedly put forward her candidacy for the post of head of the Conservative Party. This automatically means the promotion to the post of prime minister of the country.
In the first stage of the election by the Conservative MPs of the leader of the Conservative Party, Theresa May became the leader of the race. On July 7, 2016, two women became the final contenders for the post of prime minister of the country at once - Theresa May (she scored 199 votes of parliamentarians) and Andrea Leds (gained 84 votes). Thus, it was Mei who became the most likely candidate for the post of head of the Conservative Party.
Photo: Reuters/Neil Hall
Already on July 11, 2016, Theresa May became the only candidate for this position. Andrea Leads ended her campaign ahead of schedule. After some time, May was declared the leader of the party, and David Cameron resigned.
Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain took over from the post of Prime Minister. Theresa May has officially been appointed head of government.
David Cameron: "It was not an easy path, but we passed it, not all decisions were correct, but our country has become much stronger than before."
Recall that Theresa May became the second in the history of Great Britain the mistress of the residence on Downing Street (the first woman in the post of prime minister was Margaret Thatcher).
The new Prime Minister of Great Britain: who is Theresa May
Theresa Mary May (Theresa May, maiden name - Brazier) was born on October 1, 1956 in the resort town of Eastbourne, East Sussex, located on the English Channel, in the family of an Anglican clergyman Hubert Brazier and his wife Zaidi Mary, née Barnes. She spent her childhood, school and student years in Oxfordshire, as her father served as parish priest in the village of Wheatley, located 8 km east of Oxford.
Her father, a country vicar, died in a car accident when Teresa was a student. Soon the mother died, who could not survive this loss.
Teresa studied at both public and private high schools in Oxfordshire.
May received her first education at a school operating at a local Catholic monastery in the village of Begbrook (despite the fact that May herself professes Anglicanism).
After receiving her primary secondary education, Teresa moved to a general education school in Whitley.
At that time, she willingly took part in public life - she played roles in performances at the local church parish, and worked at the bakery on weekends to earn her first personal money.
She graduated from the University of Oxford in 1977 with a degree in geography from the university's St. Hugh's College, earning a bachelor's degree.
In 1977-1983. was an employee of the Bank of England, then worked in the clearing company APACS, and in 1985-1997. - Consultant in the International Association of Clearing Payment Systems. In 1986-1994 She worked for the London Borough of Merton. Dealt with issues of education housing construction, was a press secretary, deputy head.
Since 1997, he has been a member of the House of Commons (the lower house of the British Parliament) from the Conservative Party, from the Maidenhead constituency in Berkshire.
In 1999, she joined the "shadow cabinet" of the Conservatives, taking the post of Minister of Education and Employment, in 2001-2002. was the "shadow" Minister of Transport.
Reference:The shadow cabinet is a “government in waiting”, created so that, under certain conditions, the powers of a real government will be transferred to it. The second "shadow" government is legally enshrined only in England.
In 2002-2003 - Chairman of the Conservative Party (as opposed to the leader, who owns the main role in the leadership of the party, the chairman deals with organizational issues). Mei became the first woman in this position.
In 2003, she became a member of the Privy Council, an advisory body to the Queen of Great Britain.
In 2003-2010 again held various positions in the "shadow" cabinet: Minister of Transport and Minister of Food and Ecology (2003-2005); Minister of Culture, Media and Sports (2005); Minister of Labor and Pensions (2009-2010). In 2005-2009 - "shadow" leader of the House of Commons.
In May 2010, following the results of the parliamentary elections, the head of the Conservative Party, David Cameron, formed a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, in which May received two ministerial posts - internal affairs and for women and equality (she held the second position until 2012). After the elections in 2015 in the one-party cabinet, Cameron retained the position of head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. May is the second woman in the history of the country in this position after Jackie Smith, who headed the ministry in 2007-2009. According to experts, May has been in this post longer than any of her predecessors since the end of World War II (in 1945-1951, the ministry was headed by James Ead).
According to the statistics of the British Home Office, in general, under May, the crime rate in the country has decreased. So, in 2009-2010. 620 murders were committed, and in 2014-2015. - 534; the number of deaths in traffic accidents due to dangerous driving decreased over the same period from 29 incidents to 11. The media note that since 2010, no large-scale terrorist attack has been recorded in the UK. It also points to the decisive actions of the minister in 2011, when a spontaneous wave of riots took place in London. A number of measures have been introduced to protect citizens, including a curfew.
On the other hand, May's activities have been criticized, since the promises of the Conservatives before the elections in 2010 to reduce the number of migrants arriving in the country to 100 thousand people a year were not fulfilled (according to the British Broadcasting Corporation BBC as of August 2015, for the year their number was 330 thousand). At the same time, Theresa May takes a tough stance on immigration. So, in 2011, her department decided to allow qualified specialists from other countries to stay in the country with their families after the expiration of their work visa only if they earn at least 35 thousand pounds sterling per year, which is approximately the average salary in the country. In October 2015, at a party conference, she proposed tightening control over foreign students in order to prevent them from illegally staying in the country after graduation.
After the referendum in June 2016, according to which 51.9% of the British voted for the UK to leave the European Union (Brexit), David Cameron announced his upcoming resignation, Theresa May nominated her candidacy as his successor as leader of the Conservative Party and - automatically - prime minister. Everyone expected that the new prime minister would be the ex-mayor of London, Boris Johnson, a politician with fantastic charisma and one of the main agitators for the country's exit from the EU. But Johnson was betrayed by his closest associate, Attorney General Michael Gove, who said many times that he was not fit to be prime minister. Gove made an unexpected act: he announced that Johnson, due to defects in his character, could not be the head of government, and he, Gove, although he still did not want power, was ready to "sacrifice himself" for the sake of the country.
Struck by the betrayal of a friend, Johnson abandoned the fight for the premiership. However, this did not help the Minister of Justice: public opinion branded him as a "traitor". The intrigue did not end there: a new favorite appeared in the premier race, a politician whom most of the British public had never heard of until that moment - Deputy Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom.
Initially, five contenders participated in the election, on July 7, Theresa May, who secured the support of 199 Conservative MPs, and Andrea Ledsom, Deputy Minister of Energy, who received 84 votes, became the finalists. It was assumed that the winner would be announced in early September after voting by members of the Conservative Party. In her first major newspaper interview with the influential media outlet The Times, Andrea Leadsom made the grandiose mistake of making it clear that Theresa May's childlessness made her an unacceptable candidate for prime minister. A storm of indignation arose, and Andrea Leadsom left the race for the post of head of government. On July 11, it became known that Leedsom had abandoned further struggle. Only one member remained in it - the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Theresa May, who became the leader of the party on the same day.
On July 13, 2016, Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain appointed Theresa May as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
According to May in the future, "Great Britain should become not a country comfortable for a few privileged citizens, but a country for all." May's first task will be to prepare negotiations for the UK's exit from the European Union. She opposes attempts to slow down this process or hold a new referendum and promises to "negotiate the most favorable conditions for the state." Theresa May herself, like Cameron, was a supporter of maintaining the country's membership in the EU, but did not participate in the campaign before the referendum. At present, she intends to unite supporters and opponents of the UK's exit from the EU in the ranks of the conservatives.
Other plans include reforming the principles of work and the composition of the boards of directors of large companies. May believes that employees of the company itself should be represented in these structures. In the social sphere, the prime minister promised to take measures to help the less well-off segments of the population.
Over the years, May has spoken out against a ban on smoking in public places, as well as against granting members of sexual minorities the right to adopt children (however, May supports same-sex marriage).
According to the BBC, Theresa May has great respect for Margaret Thatcher, but points out that "she has no role model in politics, and she prefers to go her own way."
May said she was going to build a new society in the country, the principles of which are justice and solidarity, or, as Teresa herself put it, she will create a “collective society”.
According to Teresa, the first thing that needs to be done for the UK is to overcome the division of the country, including narrowing the gap between rich and poor.
According to May, the most common victims of injustice in Britain are ordinary citizens - people from the "working class". And such people in the country the vast majority. And all these people have to face and put up with the instability of the economy, the labor market and the very low quality of public services. And so the UK has long been demanding global social reforms.
Theresa May is an obedient parishioner and attends church every Sunday. At the same time, she supports gender equality and is a supporter of same-sex marriage.
Theresa May's height is 1.72 m (according to other sources - 1.63 m), in the EU - 59 kg, the sign of the zodiac is Libra.
May has been married since 1980. Her husband, Philip May, is a bank clerk and account manager for Capital International, a financial company. Previously, he worked for Deutsche Asset Management UK and Prudential Portfolio Managers UK, investment management companies, brokerage de Zoete & Bevan.
Philip is also an Oxford graduate. He studied at the same St. Hugh's College as Teresa, only he was two years younger.
The May couple have no children. The politician does not hide the fact that the reason for childlessness is her health, and she is very sorry that she could not know the joy of motherhood. May has publicly admitted that she suffers from diabetes and injects herself with insulin four times a day.
According to The Guardian, Teresa Brazier and Philip May first saw each other at a dance party organized at their college by the Conservative Party Association, and were introduced by the future Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto (who died at home in 2007 as a result of a terrorist attack).
As the daughter of the ex-president and at that time the current prime minister, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (later executed by the Zia-ul-Haq regime), she studied at Oxford University in the mid-1970s, like the future May spouses.
Like her husband Philip, Teresa is an avid cricket fan. She campaigned for the knighthood of legendary cricketer Geoffrey Boycott so that the former player nicknamed "Sir Geoffrey" would become a genuine sir. However, this idea was rejected by Buckingham Palace due to a controversial 20-year-old episode in Boycott's personal life.
May is a great cook. There are more than a hundred books on the art of cooking in her house. The British Prime Minister is a big fan of Earl Gray tea. Theresa May always takes tea bags with this type of tea with her on business trips in case they are not in the hotel room.
May is not indifferent to clothes and shoes leopard print. The Times journalists counted at least 10 pairs of shoes of a similar color in her.
Sayings:
"First, we need a bold, new, positive vision for the future of our country that works for everyone, not just a small number of privileged individuals. Second, we need to unite our party and country. And third, our country needs a strong, proven leadership to guide us through a period of economic and political uncertainty, and to reach the best possible agreement in the Brexit negotiations and shape a new role for us in the world. Brexit means Brexit, and we are going to succeed."
"No democratic government, in the face of such a danger (terrorist - Ed.), can do otherwise than support defense and security, and must be ready to deploy all resources if necessary."
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
Political career
From 1986-1994 she was a local councilor for the London Borough of Merton. Ran in the 1992 parliamentary elections in the constituency of North West Durham and in the early elections of 1994 in the constituency of Barking, but was not successful.
In the House of Commons, May voted for the invasion of Iraq, against climate change laws, against further integration of the UK into the European Union, against a ban on smoking in public places, against allowing gay couples to adopt children.
Election of the leader of the Conservative Party
During the campaign in 2016, before the referendum on the UK's exit from the European Union, she supported Prime Minister David Cameron and was an opponent of Brexit. But after the referendum, which was won by Eurosceptics and the announcement of Prime Minister David Cameron about her upcoming resignation, she put forward her candidacy for the post of head of the Conservative Party and, therefore, Prime Minister of Great Britain.
On July 5, 2016, in the first round of elections by Conservative MPs for the leader of the Conservative Party, Theresa May immediately became the favorite of the race - gaining 165 votes. And on July 7, two women became the finalists in the race for the post of leader of the British Conservatives and the prime minister of the country - Theresa May, who enlisted the support of 199 parliamentarians, and Deputy Minister of Energy Andrea Leadsom, who received 84 votes, after that Teresa was considered the most likely contender for the post of Prime Minister of Great Britain.
On July 11, 2016, Leadsom ended her campaign, leaving May as the only candidate. Soon she was declared the leader of the party. David Cameron has announced that he will hand over the powers of prime minister to Teresa on July 13. Queen Elizabeth II accepted his resignation and gave an audience to Theresa May, at which she invited her to form a new government. Theresa May gave her consent and thus became the second woman in British history to hold the post of Prime Minister (after Margaret Thatcher).
Personal life
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An excerpt characterizing May, Teresa
Natasha was going to the first big ball in her life. She got up that day at 8 o'clock in the morning and was in feverish anxiety and activity all day long. All her strength, from the very morning, was focused on ensuring that they all: she, mother, Sonya were dressed in the best possible way. Sonya and the countess vouched for her completely. The countess was supposed to be wearing a masaka velvet dress, they were wearing two white smoky dresses on pink, silk covers with roses in the corsage. The hair had to be combed a la grecque [Greek].Everything essential had already been done: the legs, arms, neck, ears were already especially carefully, according to the ballroom, washed, perfumed and powdered; shod already were silk, fishnet stockings and white satin shoes with bows; the hair was almost finished. Sonya finished dressing, the countess too; but Natasha, who worked for everyone, fell behind. She was still sitting in front of the mirror in a peignoir draped over her thin shoulders. Sonya, already dressed, stood in the middle of the room and, pressing painfully with her little finger, pinned the last ribbon that squealed under the pin.
“Not like that, not like that, Sonya,” said Natasha, turning her head from her hairdo and grabbing her hair with her hands, which the maid who held them did not have time to let go. - Not so bow, come here. Sonya sat down. Natasha cut the ribbon differently.
“Excuse me, young lady, you can’t do that,” said the maid holding Natasha’s hair.
- Oh, my God, well after! That's it, Sonya.
- Are you coming soon? - I heard the voice of the countess, - it's already ten now.
- Now. - Are you ready, mom?
- Just pin the current.
“Don’t do it without me,” Natasha shouted: “you won’t be able to!”
- Yeah, ten.
It was decided to be at the ball at half past ten, and Natasha still had to get dressed and stop by the Tauride Garden.
Having finished her hair, Natasha, in a short skirt, from under which ballroom shoes were visible, and in her mother's blouse, ran up to Sonya, examined her and then ran to her mother. Turning her head, she pinned the current, and, barely having time to kiss her gray hair, she again ran to the girls who were hemming her skirt.
The case was behind Natasha's skirt, which was too long; it was hemmed by two girls, hastily biting the threads. A third, with pins in her lips and teeth, ran from the countess to Sonya; the fourth held the entire smoky dress on a high hand.
- Mavrusha, rather, dove!
- Give me a thimble from there, young lady.
– Will it be soon? - said the count, entering from behind the door. “Here are the spirits. Peronskaya was already waiting.
“It’s ready, young lady,” said the maid, lifting a hemmed smoky dress with two fingers and blowing and shaking something, expressing with this gesture the awareness of the airiness and purity of what she was holding.
Natasha began to put on a dress.
“Now, now, don’t go, papa,” she shouted to her father, who opened the door, still from under the haze of a skirt that covered her entire face. Sonya closed the door. A minute later, the count was let in. He was in a blue tailcoat, stockings and shoes, perfumed and pomaded.
- Oh, dad, you're so good, lovely! - said Natasha, standing in the middle of the room and straightening the folds of smoke.
“Excuse me, young lady, excuse me,” the girl said, kneeling, pulling at her dress and turning the pins from one side of her mouth to the other.
- Your will! - Sonya cried out with despair in her voice, looking at Natasha's dress, - your will, again long!
Natasha stepped aside to look around in the dressing-glass. The dress was long.
“By God, madam, nothing is long,” said Mavrusha, who was crawling along the floor after the young lady.
“Well, it’s a long time, so we’ll sweep it, we’ll sweep it in a minute,” said the resolute Dunyasha, taking out a needle from a handkerchief on her chest and again set to work on the floor.
At that moment, shyly, with quiet steps, the countess entered in her toque and velvet dress.
- Wow! my beauty! shouted the Count, “better than all of you!” He wanted to hug her, but she pulled away, blushing, so as not to cringe.
“Mom, more on the side of the current,” Natasha said. - I'll cut it, and rushed forward, and the girls who were hemming, who did not have time to rush after her, tore off a piece of smoke.
- Oh my God! What is it? I don't blame her...
“Nothing, I notice, you won’t see anything,” said Dunyasha.
- Beauty, my darling! - said the nanny who came in from behind the door. - And Sonyushka, well, beauties! ...
At a quarter past eleven we finally got into the carriages and drove off. But still it was necessary to stop by the Tauride Garden.
Peronskaya was already ready. Despite her old age and ugliness, she had exactly the same thing as the Rostovs, although not with such haste (for her it was a habitual thing), but her old, ugly body was also perfumed, washed, powdered, also carefully washed behind the ears , and even, and just like at the Rostovs, the old maid enthusiastically admired the outfit of her mistress when she went into the living room in a yellow dress with a cipher. Peronskaya praised the Rostovs' toilets.
The Rostovs praised her taste and dress, and, taking care of their hair and dresses, at eleven o'clock they got into the carriages and drove off.
Natasha had not had a moment of freedom since the morning of that day, and had never had time to think about what lay ahead of her.
In the damp, cold air, in the cramped and incomplete darkness of the swaying carriage, for the first time she vividly imagined what awaited her there, at the ball, in the illuminated halls - music, flowers, dances, sovereign, all the brilliant youth of St. Petersburg. What awaited her was so wonderful that she did not even believe that it would be: it was so inconsistent with the impression of cold, crowdedness and darkness of the carriage. She understood everything that awaited her only when, having walked along the red cloth of the entrance, she entered the hallway, took off her fur coat and walked beside Sonya in front of her mother between the flowers along the illuminated stairs. Only then did she remember how she had to behave at the ball and tried to adopt that majestic manner that she considered necessary for a girl at the ball. But fortunately for her, she felt that her eyes were running wide: she could not see anything clearly, her pulse beat a hundred times a minute, and the blood began to beat at her heart. She could not adopt the manner that would have made her ridiculous, and she walked, dying from excitement and trying with all her might only to hide it. And this was the very manner that most of all went to her. In front and behind them, talking in the same low voice and also in ball gowns, the guests entered. The mirrors on the stairs reflected ladies in white, blue, pink dresses, with diamonds and pearls on open hands and necks.
Natasha looked into the mirrors and in the reflection she could not distinguish herself from others. Everything was mixed in one brilliant procession. At the entrance to the first hall, a uniform rumble of voices, steps, greetings - deafened Natasha; the light and brilliance blinded her even more. The master and hostess, who had been standing by the front door and those who said the same words to those who came in: “charme de vous voir,” [in admiration that I see you] also met the Rostovs and Peronskaya.
Two girls in white dresses, with identical roses in their black hair, sat down in the same way, but the hostess involuntarily fixed her gaze longer on thin Natasha. She looked at her, and smiled at her alone, in addition to her master's smile. Looking at her, the hostess remembered, perhaps, her golden, irrevocable girlish time, and her first ball. The owner also looked after Natasha and asked the count, who is his daughter?
- Charmante! [Charming!] – he said, kissing the tips of his fingers.
Guests were standing in the hall, crowding at the front door, waiting for the sovereign. The Countess placed herself in the front row of this crowd. Natasha heard and felt that several voices asked about her and looked at her. She realized that those who paid attention to her liked her, and this observation calmed her somewhat.
“There are people like us, there are worse than us,” she thought.
Peronskaya called the countess the most significant persons who were at the ball.
“This is a Dutch envoy, you see, gray-haired,” Peronskaya said, pointing to an old man with silver gray curly, abundant hair, surrounded by ladies, whom he made laugh at something.
“And here she is, the Queen of Petersburg, Countess Bezukhaya,” she said, pointing to Helen entering.
- How good! Will not yield to Marya Antonovna; see how both young and old follow her. And good, and smart ... They say the prince ... crazy about her. But these two, although not good, are even more surrounded.
She pointed to a lady passing through the hall with a very ugly daughter.
“This is a millionaire bride,” said Peronskaya. And here are the grooms.
“This is Bezukhova’s brother, Anatole Kuragin,” she said, pointing to the handsome cavalry guard, who walked past them, looking somewhere from the height of his raised head through the ladies. - How good! is not it? They say they will marry him to this rich woman. .And your sousin, Drubetskoy, is also very entangled. They say millions. “Well, it’s the French envoy himself,” she answered about Caulaincourt when asked by the countess who it was. “Look like some kind of king. And yet the French are very, very nice. There is no mile for society. And here she is! No, everything is better than all our Marya Antonovna! And how simply dressed. Charm! “And this one, fat, with glasses, is a worldwide freemason,” said Peronskaya, pointing to Bezukhov. - With his wife, then put him next to him: then that jester of peas!
