An influential forerunner of French Existentialism the Russianborn thinker Lev Shestov 18661938 elaborated a radical critique of rationalist knowledge and ethics from the point of view of individual human existence. Best known for his groundbreaking comparative studies of Tolstoy and Nietzsche and of Dostoevsky and Nietzsche Shestov defined his conception as the philosophy of tragedy. Shestovs philosophical hermeneutics of the literary work of art was later developed and disseminated through the writings of his disciple the Romanianborn Benjamin Fondane 18981944 who was also a poet filmmaker and playwright. The two authors provided one of the earliest and most consistent critical accounts of Husserlian phenomenology in France. The philosophy of tragedy and its associated notions of revolt and existential truth had a lasting impact on a number of prominent writers and philosophers including Georges Bataille Andr Gide Andr Malraux Albert Camus and Emmanuel Lvinas. Prcurseur influent de lExistentialisme le philosophe dorigine russe Lon Chestov a labor une critique radicale de la connaissance rationnelle et de lthique du point de vue de lexistence individuelle. Connu en particulier pour loriginalit de ses tudes comparatives sur Tolstoi et Nietzsche et sur Dostoevski et Nietzsche Chestov a dfini sa conception comme une philosophie de la tragdie. Lhermneutique philosophique de luvre littraire chez Chestov a t ultrieurement developpe et dissmine travers les crits de son disciple dorigine roumaine Benjamin Fondane philosophe mais aussi pote cinaste et homme de thtre. Les deux auteurs ont labor une des premires et des plus cohrentes critiques de la phnomnologie dHusserl en France. La philosophie de la tragdie et les notions qui y sont associes en particulier celle de rvolte et de vrit existentielle ont exerc une influence durable sur nombre dcrivains et des philosophes rputs dont Georges Bataille Andr Gide Andr Malraux Albert Camus et Emmanuel Lvinas.