What does it mean to speak of a novelist in relation to “philosophy”? Does it mean that we seek to read novels by using works of philosophy? Or does it mean that we seek to ascertain an author’s own philosophy from his or her novels? By philosophy do we mean “political outlook” (a “political philosophy”) or a deeper set of ontological propositions about the world at large? Could all of these possible answers simultaneously be correct?

More importantly, what makes us think that philosophy is a good way to approach novels? For novels are not, in any conventional sense, works of philosophy. Yet there are also works of philosophy that resemble poetry or fiction, from the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche through to the aphorisms of Theodor W. Adorno. Like the novel, philosophy does not stand alone and apart from interpretation. Philosophy can also “lie” and use artifice or rhetoric in its quest for truth, as may the novel.