SOURCE: "A Sceptic with a Purpose," in The Times Literary Supplement, No. 784, January 25, 1917, p. 40.

Below, The Times Literary Supplement offers a thematic analysis of the critical essays collected in Anton Tchekov and Other Essays.

Mr. Shestov is evidently a remarkable critic, and these essays of his were well worth translating. He is, Mr. Murry tells us in his introduction, fifty years old and has written little. Criticism with him is not a hand-to-mouth business. He does not choose a subject and then to begin to wonder what he can find to say about it. His criticism is philosophy expounded by means of a particular example, and rather hinted at than expounded. One feels that he has strong convictions but is shy of proclaiming them. Mr. Murry says that he is afraid of being dogmatic. If so it is not a cowardly fear, but a desire to leave the...