Lev Shestov (1866-1938) is a Russian-Jewish philosopher of existentialism. In France he is well known as Léon Chestov. Variously described as an irrationalist, an anarchist, a religious philosopher, Shestov's themes were initially inspired by Nietzsche until he found a kindred spirit in Kierkegaard.

Shestov's development as a thinker lead him to undertake a vast critique of the history of Western philosophy which he saw broadly as a monumental battle between Reason and Faith, Athens and Jerusalem, secular and religious outlook. He thus engaged on what he termed a "pilgrimage through the souls" of such greats as Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Blaise Pascal, Descartes, Plotinus, Spinoza, Plato, Luther and others.

This site proposes a number of Shestov's works in extenso. The English translations published mainly by Bernard Martin (1928 - ? deceased) in the 1960's, have long been out of print. Were it not for the dedication of this academic, the most important of Shestov's writings would not be available to the English reader today.

The following English translations of Shestov works are available for download as plain txt files in zip format:


DOSTOEVSKY, TOLSTOY AND NIETZSCHE (260 KB)