Dostoyevskiyan

— Amos Oz (see Preface), in a literary essay dedicated to S.Y. Agnon’s artistry, wonders about the surprisingly close relations between Agnon and Y. Ch. Brenner (a highly prominent Israeli author, 1881–1921): “What, in God’s name, makes a bitter person, sentimental, of slack appearance and bad-tempered like Brenner, a person of a Russian mentality, perhaps a little Dostoyevskiyan, to endear a refined and soft young person, shy lyrical and coquettish, a delicate aromatic fruit spoiled in its protecting cover, like Agnon…?”