‘More black sorrow, poet’: Lev Shestov and others as ideal readers of Dostoevsky

Abstract

The chapter raises the question of the nature of readers' love for Dostoevsky, using the example of constant appeal to the writer in the writings of the religious thinker Lev Shestov and some other philosophers and writers. The connection between Shestov's philosophy of tragedy and Dostoevsky’s oeuvre is discussed in the light of the existential categories of love, despair, sorrow and happiness, as well as the concepts of reason and faith, that were key for Shestov. Based on existing studies of the creativity and biography of both Dostoevsky and Shestov, the non-obvious ontological revelations of the writer are considered, and their closeness to the philosophy of Lev Shestov, largely inspired by Dostoevsky, is analyzed.