Literarily speaking, there is no doubt that the didactic and confessional tones are not among the most refined forms, and that they often provoke aversion in experienced readers. However, if we take Tolstoy as an example, we will see that, although they are certainly not his masterpieces, the books he wrote using these tones possess a special charm. It is as if the great author, the man of indisputably recognized qualities, were to strip himself of all sorts of artifice in order to objectively express what has most deeply affected him and what, if he could, he would like to teach us. For a novelist, this is an act that requires courage, because it means producing a work lacking in literary charm, a work that will likely displease. But we, who read it, cannot deny that, through it, we come a little closer to the man who chose neither to hide nor to protect himself.