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Cover of A Confession

Autobiography

A Confession

by Leo Tolstoy

With Aylmer Maude

Translated by Aylmer Maude

A brief meditation on depression, philosophy, religion, and the meaning of life.

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First published
1879
Length
26,165 words
Reading time
About 1 hr 50 min
Language
English (UK)

About the book

Leo Tolstoy wrote this short meditation on sadness and the meaning of life when he was middle aged. He had already completed his masterworks, Anna Karenina and War and Peace , reared fourteen children, and gained fame and acclaim in Russia as a man of letters. But despite having attained that success, he still found himself unhappy and always returning to the disturbing idea that all achievement is meaningless.

A Confession is his attempt to put these thoughts in words as he teetered on the brink of suicide. It forms the first in a four-volume series that included A Criticism of Dogmatic Theology , The Gospel in Brief , and What I Believe (also known as My Religion or My Faith ).

First published 1879; the Read4Max reading text contains approximately 26,165 words arranged in 18 navigable sections.

The source metadata identifies Annotator: Aylmer Maude; Translator: Aylmer Maude.

About the author

Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) is described by Wikidata as Russian author (1828–1910), with citizenship or national association recorded as Russian Empire.

Recorded occupations include writer, playwright, philosopher, novelist, pedagogue, and essayist. Languages recorded for Leo Tolstoy include Russian, French, and English. The structured record associates Leo Tolstoy with literary realism. Wikidata lists War and Peace, Anna Karenina, A Confession, The Kingdom of God Is Within You, What Is Art?, and Boyhood among Leo Tolstoy's notable works. Open Library identifies Legal process for battered women: a manual for intermediaries as a leading work in its author record. Open Library catalogs 3 works under this author record. The Read4Max catalog currently includes A Confession, Anna Karenina, Hadji Murád, Resurrection, Short Fiction, The Kingdom of God Is Within You, and The Power of Darkness under Leo Tolstoy's authorship.

1828–1910

Contributors

Annotator

Aylmer Maude

Translator

Aylmer Maude

Reading options

  • A complete text with direct section navigation in the browser reader.
  • A downloadable EPUB for phones, tablets, desktop reading apps, and compatible ereaders.
  • Book and contributor metadata are checked against the source edition before indexing.

Themes and ideas

  • Tolstoy, Leo, graf, 1828-1910--Religion
  • Faith
  • Christianity

Table of contents

Open reader
Show all 18 sections
  1. I
  2. II
  3. III
  4. IV
  5. V
  6. VI
  7. VII
  8. VIII
  9. IX
  10. X
  11. XI
  12. XII
  13. XIII
  14. XIV
  15. XV
  16. XVI
  17. Afterword
  18. Endnotes
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