In "Confession" Tolstoy poses the question: Is there any meaning in my life that will not be destroyed by my death?In 1879 the fifty-year-old author of "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina" came to believe that he had accomplished nothing in life. Either of these magnificant novels would have assured Tolstoy's permanent place in the annals of world literature, yet his achievement was not enough to give his life meaning."Confession" is an account of this spiritual crisis, marking a shift of Tolstoy's central focus from the aesthetic to the religious and philisophical.
In 1879 Leo Tolstoy reached a state of spiritual crisis, believing that he had accomplished nothing, and that his life was meaningless. This account of an individual's struggle for faith relates this spiritual crisis, posing questions about the meaning of life and death.