A Confession and Other Religious Writings
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Product Description
Describing Tolstoy's crisis of depression and estrangement from the world, A Confession (1879) is an autobiographical work of exceptional emotional honesty. By the time he was fifty, Tolstoy had already written the novels that would assure him of literary immortality; he had a wife, a large estate and numerous children; he was 'a happy man' and in good health - yet life had lost its meaning. In this poignant confessional fragment, he records a period of his life when he began to turn away from fiction and aesthetics, and to search instead for 'a practical religion not promising future bliss, but giving bliss on earth'.
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.
Jane Kentish is a lecturer in Byzantine and early Russian History and Art at the University of Sussex.
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I was baptized and brought up in the Orthodox Christian faith. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
I was baptized and brought up in the Orthodox Christian faith. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This series of essays should be remembered as being among the great philosophical works of its day - more relevant now than ever.
It is pretty much impossible to encounter a rational/objective exposition of life today, and things seem to be getting worse. The logic of the world seems to be getting more convoluted and ridiculous and that is why this book reads like a breath of fresh air, like a little dosage of sanity to give you hope.
It's like Nietszche, Ghandi, Joseph Heller and the Pope all mixed into one book. Genius.
It is pretty much impossible to encounter a rational/objective exposition of life today, and things seem to be getting worse. The logic of the world seems to be getting more convoluted and ridiculous and that is why this book reads like a breath of fresh air, like a little dosage of sanity to give you hope.
It's like Nietszche, Ghandi, Joseph Heller and the Pope all mixed into one book. Genius.
6 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Tolstoy is rightly renowned for being a great novelist and for his ability to bring alive fictitious characters as though they were real people; that talent is very much on display in this book. His articulation of the emotional and intellectual turbulence involved in seeking truth is astounding. His subsequent philosophical conclusions are not accurate; albeit very interesting.
Tolstoy makes certain valuable observations about the Christian church but falls to victim to the glasshouse syndrome in regard to other major religions(he accuses others of things which he is guilty of himself - a common failure of logic). Strangely, he displays a real shortfall in his understanding of Judaism and Islam in particular - the later essays included in this book read a little bit like propoganda, in surprising contrast to the main article(a confession) - which is very objective.
Ultimately there is no one book or perspective which will give an adequate answer to the question of existence but these works by Tolstoy are genuine contributions. Take these contributions and combine them with a wider investigation of Western philosophy, Eastern philosophy and a better understanding of the worlds major religions, and you will be much wiser.
Tolstoy makes certain valuable observations about the Christian church but falls to victim to the glasshouse syndrome in regard to other major religions(he accuses others of things which he is guilty of himself - a common failure of logic). Strangely, he displays a real shortfall in his understanding of Judaism and Islam in particular - the later essays included in this book read a little bit like propoganda, in surprising contrast to the main article(a confession) - which is very objective.
Ultimately there is no one book or perspective which will give an adequate answer to the question of existence but these works by Tolstoy are genuine contributions. Take these contributions and combine them with a wider investigation of Western philosophy, Eastern philosophy and a better understanding of the worlds major religions, and you will be much wiser.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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9 reviews
29 of 30 people found the following review helpful
A Search Unfulfilled
19 Jan 2004
Format:Paperback
This book includes some of Tolstoy's essays 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 Christian 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 the works in this collection. 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 the meaning of 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.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Leo's crisis of faith...
7 Feb 2002
Format:Paperback
This is a very interesting book. Penned by one of the greatest writers in history, "A Confession..." by Leo Tolstoy provided me with great insight into his life, work, and relationships. I read this for a religion class in college and ended up keeping it. It is rather short and easy to read. Of interest to those who are seeking truth and those who have found it. It is fascinating to follow him thru his early religious experience, falling away from the church, and coming back to a unique faith in the end. Recommended.
23 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Not as good as I had hoped
11 Mar 2001
Format:Paperback
Tolstoy was a tremondous writer and intense human being. I approached this work expecting a great deal, and while it was certainly very much worth the effort, it was not as good as I hoped it would be.
After acheiving fame, fortune, artistic achievement, family and everything else that most people long for, Tolstoy had a philosophical crisis in which he searched for the meaning of life. This is his chronicle of his despair and search, which ultimately ended in his acceptance of a unique brand of Christian socialism (not to mention ascetisim, vegetarianism, pacifism, etc.,). However, I thought much of the book, especially its sections on philosophy, to be rather poor in quality: either too simplisitc or complex but very poorly worded and expressed. While this book is ok, if anyone wanted to know Tolstoy's later philosophy of life I would recommend his later short works of fiction such as The Devil, the Kreutzer Sonata, and the Forged Coupon. They are masterpeices, while this work is simply interesting.
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