Epicureanism (эпикурейство) takes its name from Epicurus (342–270 BC), an ancient Greek philosopher.1 A Confession (Исповедь, 1879–82) does not name Epicurus. The book gives its own definition and uses the word five times.
The second way out
In chapter VII, Tolstoy finds four ways out of the position he was in: ignorance, epicureanism, strength and energy (suicide), and weakness. The second “consists, while knowing the hopelessness of life, in making use meanwhile of the advantages one has, disregarding the dragon and the mice, and licking the honey in the best way” (VII.5).2 The dragon, the mice and the honey come from the Eastern fable of the traveller in the well, told in chapter IV. Solomon gives the words for this way out, in a quotation from Ecclesiastes (VII.5–7).
Those who take it, “the majority of people of our circle”, are able to because their circumstances give them more comfort than hardship, and because they forget that their advantage is an accident: “not everyone can have a thousand wives and palaces like Solomon” (VII.8).3
Later in the book
- VIII.4. The working people do not fit the four ways. He cannot count them as epicureans, “for their life consists more of privations and sufferings than of enjoyments.”4
- X.8–9. The faith of believers in his own circle “is not a real faith but an epicurean consolation in life”, and their superstitions “a kind of epicurean diversion”; the superstitions of working people, by contrast, are bound up with their lives.5
- XI.1. What hid the truth from him was not so much an error of thought as “my life itself in the exceptional conditions of epicurean gratification of desires in which I passed it.”6
Open questions
- Whether “epicureanism” in A Confession owes anything to Epicurus’ own teaching, or is the word in its everyday sense, is not shown by the text or its commentary.
Dive provenance
- 1879-1882-a-confession — the text of A Confession (PSS 23:1–59); Johan’s reader notes of 10 October 2026 (VII.4–VII.11, the four ways out) asked for this page.
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«Древнегреческий философ» (Tolstoy Digital,
personList.xml, person 15991, Epicurus: 342–270 BC). ↩ -
«Второй выход — это выход эпикурейства. Он состоит в том, чтобы, зная безнадежность жизни, пользоваться покамест теми благами, какие есть, не смотреть ни на дракона, ни на мышей, а лизать мед самым лучшим образом» (PSS 23:27, ch. VII). English: Maude. ↩
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«всем нельзя иметь 1000 женщин и дворцов, как Соломон» (PSS 23:28, ch. VII). English: Maude. ↩
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«Признать их эпикурейцами тоже не могу, потому что жизнь их слагается больше из лишений и страданий, чем наслаждений» (PSS 23:32, ch. VIII). English: Maude. ↩
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«их вера не есть вера, а только одно из эпикурейских утешений в жизни»; «были только своего рода эпикурейскою потехой» (PSS 23:39, ch. X). English: Maude. ↩
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«истину закрыло от меня не столько заблуждение моей мысли, сколько самая жизнь моя в тех исключительных условиях эпикурейства, удовлетворения похотям, в которых я провел ее» (PSS 23:41, ch. XI). English: Maude. ↩