and "The Confession of a Fool and " by August Strindberg is an autobiographical novel. The narrative is a lightly fictionalized account of his life from 1874 to 1887, and especially of his first marriage to Siri von Essen. As his stormy marriage to Siri von Essen was coming to an end, August Strindberg feared there was a secret conspiracy between the women of Europe, and they were planning to silence him by conducting a campaign to make people believe he was insane. Strindberg therefore decided to hurriedly write a book revealing the truths about the marriage.