A CONFESSION (WARBLER CLASSICS ANNOTATED EDITION)

Around 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.