What I Believe.

TOLSTOI, Leon. [Leo Tolstoy].

Item Number: 124056

London: Elliot , 1885.

First English edition of Tolstoy’s fervent attack on the church, the sequel to A Confession in which he outlines his profound spiritual awakening. Octavo, original brown cloth with gilt titles and tooling to the spine, patterned endpapers. Advance copy with the publisher’s “Presented with Compliments” slip tipped in. In very good condition. Scarce.

Generally regarded as one of the greatest writers of all time, Leo Tolstoy is best known for his novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877). Tolstoy's fiction includes dozens of short stories and several novellas such as The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Family Happiness, and Hadji Murad. Tolstoy had a profound moral crisis and spiritual awakening in the 1870's which he outlined in his work, A Confession. What I Believe further develops the initial ideas laid out in A Confession and develops his attack on the church, which he accuses of hiding the true meaning of Jesus' teachings.