I’ve read this several times - one of my favorite books, along with “Childhood, Boyhood, Youth.” Also, the novella, “The Cossacks” - my first Russian Blue cat was named Marianka, after its heroine. And further, did you know that the Tolstoi family originated in Ukraine? They came from Chernihiv in the 13th century - they moved to Moscow.
Thanks for your attention to this lesser-known work. I will follow your serialization carefully in hopes of dispelling a concern I have often heard from good scholars. Critics say—from George Steiner’s warning about Tolstoy’s moralism, to A.N. Wilson’s stress on his contradictions, to Gary Saul Morson’s account of the gulf between novelist and prophet—that A Confession misleads as much as it reveals: the honesty of Tolstoy’s despair still grips, but his later ethic hardened into demands that left little room for grace and estranged him from those closest to him. What begins as an authentic search becomes a doctrine of renunciation that risks repeating the emptiness he feared. — But I look forward to reviewing this impression firsthand, thanks to your posts!
I’ve read this several times - one of my favorite books, along with “Childhood, Boyhood, Youth.” Also, the novella, “The Cossacks” - my first Russian Blue cat was named Marianka, after its heroine. And further, did you know that the Tolstoi family originated in Ukraine? They came from Chernihiv in the 13th century - they moved to Moscow.
Thanks for your attention to this lesser-known work. I will follow your serialization carefully in hopes of dispelling a concern I have often heard from good scholars. Critics say—from George Steiner’s warning about Tolstoy’s moralism, to A.N. Wilson’s stress on his contradictions, to Gary Saul Morson’s account of the gulf between novelist and prophet—that A Confession misleads as much as it reveals: the honesty of Tolstoy’s despair still grips, but his later ethic hardened into demands that left little room for grace and estranged him from those closest to him. What begins as an authentic search becomes a doctrine of renunciation that risks repeating the emptiness he feared. — But I look forward to reviewing this impression firsthand, thanks to your posts!