Who is Prince Andrei's wife at the start of War and Peace?

Prince Andrei's wife at the start of War and Peace is Lise Bolkonskaya.

Lise, formally Princess Elisabeta Karlovna Bolkonskaya, is the young wife of Prince Andrei Nikolayevich Bolkonsky. Tolstoy introduces her in the early Petersburg society scenes as charming and sociable, while Andrei feels increasingly detached from fashionable life and from his marriage.

When Andrei leaves for the Napoleonic Wars, Lise remains at the Bolkonsky estate, Bald Hills, with his severe father and deeply religious sister, Maria. She is pregnant, and Andrei's absence becomes especially painful because he has not fully appreciated her emotional vulnerability. After he returns from the Battle of Austerlitz, Lise dies in childbirth; their son, Nikolai, survives.

A common mix-up is Marya Bolkonskaya, or Maria, who is Andrei's sister rather than his wife. Lise is also distinct from Natasha Rostova, who later becomes Andrei's fiancée but never his wife. The nickname “little princess” is another identifying detail associated with Lise.