A Confession (Warbler Classics Annotated Edition), A Confession (Warbler Classics Annotated Edition)

“Tolstoy has left us…a wonderful account of the attack of melancholy which led him to his own religious conclusions.”—William James, The Varieties of Religious ExperienceAround the age of fifty, Tolstoy began to experience profound moments of confusion, as if he no longer knew how to go on living or what his purpose was. Things that had always seemed self-evidently meaningful now appeared hollow. The questions “Why?” and “What next?” began to haunt him with increasing frequency. A Confession is Tolstoy’s deeply personal story of the his struggle with this midlife existential crisis. Written after the peak of his literary success, Tolstoy grapples with profound questions about life, death, and faith. It details his search for an answer to the ultimate philosophical question: If God does not exist, and death is inevitable, what is the meaning of life? Tolstoy explores four possible attitudes toward this dilemma, each of which has some merit but which he deems unsatisfactory or unsuitable. After careful examination, he turns to a mystical, intuitive affirmation of God’s presence—a revelation that fills his life with new meaning and ultimately leads him toward a new understanding of spirituality and morality.This Warbler Classics edition includes Tolstoy’s essays “Religion and Morality” and “Church and State,” a new introduction that contextualizes his search for truth, and suggestions for further reading.LEO TOLSTOY (1828–1910) was a Russian writer and philosopher best known for his monumental novels, including War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Born into an aristocratic family, Tolstoy later embraced a simple life and a spiritual and moral philosophy that influenced his later works. His advocacy for nonviolent resistance and Christian anarchism left a lasting impact on social and political thought.PATRICK MAXWELL is a writer and journalist, based as a historian at New College, Oxford. He writes regularly for The Big Issue and TheArticle magazine as a literary critic, and as a correspondent on foreign and domestic policy. He is also a conductor and a singer.