True passion can drive you mad. Stephen Dedalus, the main character in James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man straddles many lines, including those between sanity and insanity, piety and sin, and individuality...

Read the full text of the short story "The Venial Sin" by Honore de Balzac.

Text of the short story "Reginald on Besetting Sins" by H. H. Munro. (Free site registration offers some additional features, e.g., the ability to insert annotations.)

Read the full text of the short story The Secret Sin of Septimus Brope by H. H. Munro. Register for a free account to unlock annotation tools, printing, and more.

One of the Gnostic texts, this is the revelations of Adam as he revealed them to his son Seth. This was part of the Nag Hammadi library.

Read all thirteen books in the autobiography "The Confessions of Saint Augustine" by St. Augustine. St. Augustine discusses his sinful past and conversion to Christianity.