A Confession. Leo Tolstoy (Great Ideas) [Paperback]

Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2009 | Series: Great Ideas

Describing Tolstoy's crisis of depression and estrangement from the world, "A Confession" is an autobiographical work of exceptional emotional honesty. It describes his search for 'a practical religion not promising future bliss but giving bliss on earth'. Although the Confession led to his ex-communication, it also resulted in a large following of Tolstoyan Christians springing up throughout Russia and Europe. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Confession is Leo Tolstoy's memoir of midlife spiritual crisis. In 1879, having written War and Peace and Anna Karenina, the 51 year-old Tolstoy began to believe that his life was meaningless. Confession is his account of the limited satisfactions he derived from his aesthetic and intellectual triumphs, and of his first yearnings for real faith. This book marks the turning point in his career as a writer: after 1880 he would write almost exclusively about religious life, especially devotion among the peasantry (in works such as The Death of Ivan Ilych and Resurrection). Near the end of Confession, Tolstoy describes the desolation he felt upon deciding that he could not solve his crisis of faith by taking refuge in the church. "I have no doubt that there is truth in the doctrine," he writes, "but there can also be no doubt that it harbors a lie; and I must find the truth and the lie so I can tell them apart." Confession does not find the full Truth, but it offers an inspiring example of a man rejecting the lies that cling to unthinking orthodoxy. Its final, exhilarating, heart-rending account of a spiritually awakening dream ranks with the best of Christian mystical writing. --Michael Joseph Gross --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Count Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy was born in 1828 and educated privately. He studied Oriental languages and Law at the University of Kazan, then led a life of pleasure until he joined an artillery regiment in the Caucasus in 1851. He served during the Crimean War and after the defence of Sebastopol wrote The Sebastopol Sketches, which established his reputation. He continued to write while developing educational projects, writing War and Peace and Anna Karenina between 1865 and 1876. A Confession marked an outward change in his life and works: he became an extreme rationalist and moralist, and his theories led to his excommunication from the Russian Holy Synod in 1901. He died in 1910.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books (November 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0141036699
• ISBN-13: 978-0141036694
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,152,019 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tolstoy challenges society, religion, and worldly wisdom., September 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Confession (Paperback)

Tolstoy takes the reader through his personal spiritual struggles as a young adult. Tolstoy, saturated with worldly knowledge, begins to understand the implications of a life purely devoted to rational and explanable thought: a meaningless existence. Scorning the stubborness of many past thinkers and speculators, Tolstoy heralds faith as the only avenue to true meaning. To be rich in the knowledge of men is weak and ultimately inconclusive, but to believe in an ultimate creator, inherent with purpose and direction, bids a life soaked with a paucity of excitement, conviction, and optimism goodbye. Tolstoy masterfully paints the tragedy of his early years, only to inevitably reveal an eternal triumph which exists in a victorious union with the divine. Simple, straightforward, and genuine, Confession allows the reader to reflect and speculate about his or her own existence.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great commentary on life, June 4, 1998

By 

Allen Riberdy (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Confession (Paperback)

When reading A Confession I felt as if I were listening to a wise, animated friend. This book spoke to me. Tolstoy convincingly details the reasons not to live only to conclude that the best thing to do is to continue living. Since it is not a particularly well-known Tolstoy work, I thought it deserved some promotion here. It really is wonderful.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Journey Unfulfilled, January 19, 2004

By 

OrthodoxMama (Germantown, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Confession (Paperback)

Tolstoy's Confession was written during his time of deep internal spiritual struggle. Upon his renunciation of a life of aristocratic wealth and worldly pleasure, Tolstoy longed for the sense of true peace that he saw in the peasant class. Thus he embarked upon a search for meaning and happiness through a life of simple faith, manual labor, and poverty. He formulated his own Chrisian philosophy based on Christ's Sermon on the Mount stressing the existence of the Kingdom of God within the human heart, civil disobedience, and total pacifism. This "law of love" is explored deeply in confessional form throughout this autobiographical work. Although this particular approach to living the life in Christ ultimately did not cultivate in Tolstoy the deep inner peace that he yearned for, I feel that many of his ideas can be beneficial to people both within the Church as well as not. Regardless of the validity of his doctrine, it cannot be denied that this is an authentic, genuine, and very human confession of a man searching for God and some meaning to life on earth. Although I personally disagree with many of Tolstoy's points, I still hold his Confession to be a universal work that deserves a fair exploration by all who have ever felt a similar need for inner peace and true reconciliation with God.