A Confession

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Overview

A Confession is Leo Tolstoy's short autobiographical account of a spiritual crisis in his late forties and fifties. Written around 1879 to 1882, it describes how a famous, wealthy and successful author found that he could not answer the question of what his life was for, came close to suicide, and then found a new direction in the faith of ordinary working people. It matters because it states the problem of meaning with unusual honesty and shows a mind testing science, philosophy and religion for an answer. William James later used Tolstoy's account as a leading example of what he called the sick soul.

Context

Tolstoy had written War and Peace and Anna Karenina and was among the best-known writers in Europe. In the late 1870s he turned from fiction to questions of faith and conduct. A Confession was written in Russia but its publication was restricted by the censors, and it first appeared in print in Geneva in 1884. His later religious writings led to conflict with the Russian Orthodox Church, which excommunicated him in 1901.