A Confession and Other Religious Writings [Anne Rice's Personal Copy]

Leo Tolstoy

London: Penguin Group Ltd. Softcover. Near Fine / No jacket issued. Item #5269
ISBN: 9780140444735

Signed to title page and annotated throughout by Anne Rice. A softcover edition of Tolstoy’s "A Confession and Other Religious Writings," personally owned, signed, and annotated by author Anne Rice.

Signed on the title page:

“Anne Rice / Oct–Nov, 2017 / didn’t date my first notes / Resuming 11–12–17.” Provenance is the estate of Anne Rice.

Rice, a lifelong admirer of Tolstoy, seems to have frequently annotated her personal copies of his works. This volume offers a glimpse into Rice's private reading and reflections on one of the Old World’s greatest literary contributors. Approximately two dozen pages feature Rice’s handwritten notes and underlinings, most focused on Tolstoy’s “A Confession,” his meditation on the meaning of life during a period of profound emotional crisis. Rice’s clear, elegant penmanship makes her commentary a pleasure to read. The book shows light shelf wear along the edges, otherwise Near Fine, with a tight binding and clean interior.

Two distinct ink colors distinguish Rice’s annotations, allowing readers to trace her thoughts across two separate readings of the text. In Chapter 4, she underlines Tolstoy’s existential crisis: “The truth was that life is meaningless…” with Rice’s date of her notes as 11–12–17 along with her summary and response. Elsewhere, she directly engages Tolstoy’s views, challenging his claim that art is merely “an adornment and embellishment of life,” responding firmly in the margin: “No; much more.”

Author-owned and annotated editions offer a unique form of literary association copies. While not necessarily specially printed or bound, association copies create a truly unique edition, unlike any conventional limited editions. A rather intimate Anne Rice edition; and really a delight to read the thoughts of both authors side by side.

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