My Confession

Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910)

"My Confession" is a brief autobiographical story of Leo Tolstoy's struggle with a mid-life existential crisis of melancholia. It describes his search for answers to the profound questions "What will come of my life?" and "What is the meaning of life?", without answers to which life, for him, had become "impossible." Tolstoy reflects on the arc of his philosophical life until then: his childhood abandonment of his Russian orthodox faith; his mastery of strength, will, power, and reason; and how, after he had achieved tremendous financial success and social status, life to him seemed meaningless. After despairing of his attempts to find answers in science, philosophy, eastern wisdom, and his fellow men of letters, he describes his turn to the wisdom of the common people and his attempts to reconcile their instinctive faith with the dictates of his reason. The main body of the text ends with the author reaching a compromise: faith, he realizes, is a necessity, but it must be constrained by reason. However, an epilogue that describes a dream he had some time after completing the body of the text suggests that he has undergone a radical personal and spiritual transformation. (Summary from Wikipedia)

Genre(s): Philosophy, Memoirs

Language: English

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 01 Chapter 01 Expatriate
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Play 02 Chapter 02 Expatriate
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Play 03 Chapter 03 Expatriate
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Play 04 Chapter 04 Expatriate
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Play 05 Chapter 05 Expatriate
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Play 06 Chapter 06 Expatriate
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Play 07 Chapter 07 Expatriate
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Play 08 Chapter 08 Expatriate
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Play 09 Chapter 09 Expatriate
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Play 10 Chapter 10 Expatriate
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Play 11 Chapter 11 Expatriate
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Play 12 Chapter 12 Expatriate
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Play 13 Chapter 13 Expatriate
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Play 14 Chapter 14 Expatriate
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Play 15 Chapter 15 Expatriate
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Play 16 Chapter 16 Expatriate
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