The article addresses the question of how suicide was perceived by Slovenian society of the second half in the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. It pays particular attention to the question of how autobiographical sources addressed the topic of suicide and how the latter was presented in the context of the period’s emotional regime. The contribution focuses on the reasons or motives for suicides mentioned in memoirs and letters, on the people who committed them, and on the mode in which suicides were described by the contemporaries, family members, or friends of those who committed them. As demonstrated, suicides were contextualised in various ways, depending on one’s gender, social class, or political affiliation, while the motives for taking one’s life included a plethora of reasons.