Product Description
One of Sartre’s greatest existentialist works of fiction, The Wall contains the only five short stories he ever wrote. Set during the Spanish Civil War, the title story crystallizes the famous philosopher’s existentialism.'The Wall', the lead story in this collection, introduces three political prisoners on the night prior to their execution. Through the gaze of an impartial doctor—seemingly there for the men's solace—their mental descent is charted in exquisite, often harrowing detail. And as the morning draws inexorably closer, the men cross the psychological wall between life and death, long before the first shot rings out. This brilliant snapshot of life in anguish is the perfect introduction to a collection of stories where the neurosis of the modern world is mirrored in the lives of the people that inhabit it . This is an unexpurgated edition translated from the French by Lloyd Alexander. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Great work of existentialism
What a phycological journey Sartre is presenting us in every little story of this book. Wow! All the stories are perfectly written. My favorite ones are "The Wall", "The room", and "Erostratus". I must admit though, I found "Intimacy" a bit hard to follow.
I recommend this book to everyone who wanna read a unique piece of work of existentialism. You won't regret :)

In depth study of human psychology
This particular work of J P Sartre should be ranked as one of the masterpieces in modern literature...The author used to possess a penetrating insight in the complex mind and behaviours of a modern human being...It is true that he analyses different reactions of any human mind on the basis of the doctrine of existentialism, of which he is one of the main proponents...However one should not look upon his judgement as biased as the celebrated basis of his philosophical doctrine, ie. "Existence should precede the essence " is really logical and highly optimistic as well as humanistic....All the five stories that are presented in this book bear the mature signature of an efficient interpreter of human mind along with it's anxieties and the decisions and choices taken at such critical moments,eg., when a man is condemned to die.....It seems the stories in this book imply that one should always consider those anxious moments,those contradictions that are constantly perturbing the man and only his response and choices that he make, ultimately defines him and give him a relative meaning in this otherwise meaningless world..I feel this book should be read by those who are aware of the divine futility of human life but still are optimistic about the triumph of human mind and creativity.....

Who didn't feel the fear and smelled the sweat of Pablo Ibbieta?
In fact "The wall" was one of the best stories in the book along with "Erostratus" where once more Sarte makes his claim on the proof of freedom, and how most of us tend to pretend we are not that free and crawl behind our available and yet limited choices.

Rationalization of marginality
The wall gives the reader the chance to infuse into the consciousness of characters with, seemingly, absurd & extreme behaviors. The depiction of the inner world of these marginal people, rationalize their conduct by using some common humane themes like willingness to survive, fear, submission to power, altruism etc.

A Mesmorizing Journey.Extreme Psychological Insight
"The Wall and other short stories" is a triumph in literature.Each story explores the depths of human thought and reason through an existential point of view.Each story can be interpreted different by all readers, therefore making this a great book for discussion.

"The Wall" is the first story presented.It consumes the reader because of its brilliant writing style. The story is narrated by a man named Pablo Ibbieta, who is in a jail cell with 2 others awaiting execution the following morning. Every event that transpires that particular night is analyzed almost too thoroughly thus leaving the reader in a trance. I wont get into it too deeply, but believe me, this story is worth reading...i guarentee it will have to be read again. After finishing the story, I felt as though nothing mattered.Who cares if the dishes were not washed, who cares if I would be late for work. Believe me, this story will have a profound impact on the way you think.Don't be surprised if you have a new appreciation for life.This story enlightens the mind.

Another great story from this book is called "Erostratus". Erostratus was a character who wanted to be famous, so he burned down the temple of Ephesus, which was one of the 7 wonders of the world.This is the central symbol of the story, the quest for glory.It also brings up an interesting point when the narrator asks one of his colleagues "Who built Ephesus?" and the colleauge did not know, he only knew who burned it. "Erostratus" in short is one mans decent into madness because of his quest to be remembered. The ending of "Erostratus" is filled with suspense and makes your heart beat in fear.It serves as a grim reminder that there are people of this type, and we should be prepared at any time for them to strike.

There are also 3 other stories, that being "The Room", "Intimacy", and "The Childhood of a Leader", which also draw the reader inside the workings of the mind through an existential window (ie: we are all here by accident, man is condemned to choose).

In short, these stories are all perfect, and leave the reader with a feeling of enlightment.Sartre is an extremely intelligent and clever writer.This is evident in these short stories.So turn off the television, buy this book, and start questioning your existence, you owe it to yourself. Besides, they are short stories, so you will be able to get through at least one a day...that isnt much to ask considering the benefits you will reap by reading them. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The best of Jean Paul Sartre's Mind
Always lucid, profound and ever irreverent, this is a delicious collections of reprints and interviews on the "whys" and "why nots" of Sartre's century of intellectual and political ideas. Here is a once in a life time "head session" that covers the waterfront - from Existentialism to Marxism, from Genet and Tintoretto to Flaubert, from politics to the Arts, to Sartre's attitude towards his own writings, and on to Freud and back -- giving those who do not yet know him well an unobstructed window into some of his most valuable intellectual insights. And for those who do know him well, this book becomes a summary of many of Sartre's core ideas and further confirmation of why he will remain one of the towering intellects of our times.

In this short collection, Jean Paul Sartre covers so much intellectual ground with so much ease and clarity, and with so much intellectual depth and facility that it literally takes the breath away. As a result, these pages must be read slowly and savored, for there are only a handful of intellectuals in history who can match Sartre's rich and deep insights, or who can shock our minds into complete attention for such a long span of time: For our troubled times, his prodigious intellect, his wit, his literary skills, his clarity and his iconoclastic irreverence, are an iron tonic that is as much an existential and literary, as a political, necessity.

Most refreshingly here is the fact that Sartre and the first interviewer, Madam Madeleine Chapsal, engage in a compellingly "scrappy" intellectual repartee designed to draw Sartre into revealing the "motive forces" behind his intellectual insights. Madeleine Chapsal's "in your face" discussion of why some of Sartre's most fundamental views have changed over time makes for interesting repartee. Un-awed by Sartre, and like a hunter who has cornered her prey, Madam Chapsal is relentless in pushing Sartre over the horizon pass "the expected and ordinary" to"the-meat-and bones" of his ideas, all done in a freewheeling, almost didactic dialogue between intellectual equals. Intellectual repartee does not get much better than this.

We discover here that there are two formative experiences that drive most European intellectuals: First and foremost, is the trauma of two world wars fought back-to-back on European soil -- the greater being WW-II where Hitler embarrassed and humiliated Europe, and most especially the "uber-proud" French: Hitler's occupation was an abyss from which it seems the French have yet to completely recover, and from which they had nowhere to hide between their choice of the "false experience" of imagined French heroism, and the brutal reality of Nazi power. It is no longer a secret that much too often, this choice was resolved in the cruelest of ways: to die, be imprisoned and tortured, or become a ignominious traitor to France.

For Sartre -- captured, imprisoned and tortured by the Nazis, Hitler's occupation ceased to be a theoretical abstraction, but became the "lived archetype" of absolute power corrupted absolutely. Nazi reality was a powerful existential crucible into which the French were quickly sucked into and crushed. It became the defining "lived experience" for European philosophy: Perhaps for the first time, the German occupation was where the typical European was trapped by "lived circumstances" beyond his control and against his will. Hitler's occupation thus became the archetype of lost control dictated completely by circumstances and conditioning. And yet, it is here, from the very bottom of the abyss that, Sartre, and the French, were forced to "stay in the game" and be totally responsible "for what society had made of them." From there, they had to refashion themselves into a quiet, solitary, self-respecting, and self-defined, hero.

The existentialist problem for "European Man" was also true for man more generally: to be able to "take responsibility for making something out of what society has already fashioned us to be." The highest level of existential honor is to be found in how we "act" as we reject the conditioning that has been imposed on our freedoms from above, and in how we "go about" refashioning what society has tried to make of us. Existential heroism thus by definition is to "continue along the road to freedom" while fashioning a new self from the very ashes of slavery - whether self-imposed or otherwise. The ultimate nobility of "existential man" is to be found in this solitary project, within whose goal, lay the very definition of freedom.

In addition to two world wars, what was also formative for the European intellectual experience was the tense and troubled relationship between the individual's private struggles for independence from the worldview of his bourgeois (and usually) Catholic parents: a worldview that Sartre claims was inherited through social osmosis, but then, was just as quickly and resoundingly rejected and abandoned. In Sartre's case, Christianity was not a total lost. For he successfully "transposed [it] into literary terms" and it became the unconscious driving force of his writings.

On Marx and Freud

One of the things that comes through more clearly here than elsewhere among Sartre's many writings, takes place as Sartre attempts to answer the question posed to him by Madeleine Chapsal as to: Why he became such a late, if not an entirely reluctant, convert to Freud? His answer was surprisingly terse but killed two birds with one stone: "The thought of both Marx and Freud is a theory of conditioning in exteriority. When Marx says `It matters little what the bourgeoisie thinks it does, the important thing is what it [actually] does,' one could replace bourgeoisie by `a hysteric,' and the formula would be Freud."

Thus Marxism for him was always a two-pronged tool: First it was a whetstone for honing ones ability to reason about the meaning of the social forces that have shaped history, and then only secondarily it was a tool of methodology, of praxis: for engaging in the necessary committed social and political actions "called up" by the times. Freud's preoccupation, on the other hand, was somewhat less noble: He was preoccupied with the machinations of the unconscious, the mechanics of which turned out to be a mere artifact of his own theoretical imaginings; imaginings that proved to be true and powerful only when they were correct: But, according to Sartre, they were correct only at the intersection, or confluent, of their many intuited forces. Yet, these "intuited mechanisms," appearing at the intersection, were at no point "primary" or even necessarily centered in "lived experience" as Freud's theories erroneously assumed and claimed. Freud's mechanisms were in fact not the "real" independent variables" that he thought them to be. It is Sartre's belief that Freud himself failed to recognize the fact that it was the "confluence itself," rather than the "intuited mechanisms" that was the irreducible unit of consciousness, and of psychoanalysis. Thus, through an obsession to make psychoanalysis into a reductive science, Freud may have missed his own deepest insight: that only the confluence of his mechanisms were real. This single oversight ensured that Freudian psychoanalysis would forever remain suspended in what Sartre describes as a "mechanistic cramp," and indeed in the backwaters of intellectual solipsism, devoid of its most important irreducible content: independently "lived experience."

On Vietnam

In this essay, entitled Imperialism and Genocide, Sartre explains the imperatives of Colonialism about as well as they can be explained, and then demonstrates that in general it is a form of slow-motion, cautionary, conditional, cultural genocide: implemented by blackmailing, terrorizing and intimidating colonial subjects into giving up their aspirations for freedom and independence. The U.S. version, occurring in Vietnam, broke the old post-war mold in that it was no longer driven by economic imperatives (i.e. by greed) but by racism and a pure pursuit of cultural hegemony.

On Czechoslovakia

He summaries the experience of the thirteen Czech interviewees living under Soviet style socialism as "that long night of the [modern] Middle Ages."

100 Stars
... Read more

Product Description
Being and Nothingness may well be thought of as Sartre's greatest work; it has also come to be regarded as a text-book of existentialism itself, and this is for many reasons a proper way to read it. These pages set out with relative perspicuity almost all of the salient ideas of existentialism; and, in addition, the method according to which the book is composed is itself highly characteristic of existentialist philosophers.
From the Introduction by Mary WarnockAmazon.com Review
Jean-Paul Sartre, the seminal smarty-pants of mid-century thinking, launched the existentialist fleet with the publication of Being and Nothingness in 1943. Though the book is thick, dense, and unfriendly to careless readers, it is indispensable to those interested in the philosophy of consciousness and free will. Some of his arguments are fallacious, others are unclear, but for the most part Sartre's thoughts penetrate deeply into fundamental philosophical territory. Basing his conception of self-consciousness loosely on Heidegger's "being," Sartre proceeds to sharply delineate between conscious actions ("for themselves") and unconscious ("in themselves"). It is a conscious choice, he claims, to live one's life "authentically" and in a unified fashion, or not--this is the fundamental freedom of our lives.

Drawing on history and his own rich imagination for examples, Sartre offers compelling supplements to his more formal arguments. The waiter who detaches himself from his job-role sticks in the reader's memory with greater tenacity than the lengthy discussion of inauthentic life and serves to bring the full force of the argument to life. Even if you're not an angst-addicted poet from North Beach, Being and Nothingness offers you a deep conversation with a brilliant mind--unfortunately, a rare find these days. --Rob Lightner ... Read more

Customer Reviews (61)

Bible of existentialism?
If you want to learn about existentialism, you might want to bypass this book. Existentialism is not hard to understand, though Sartre goes out of his artsy-fartsy way to make it all but incomprehensible.

I expected better of Sartre, since his plays and fiction are so well done and make for enjoyable reading. And who knows: in the original French, his ideas may have come across much more readily. But in English translation, "Being and Nothingness" is all but unreadable. It is clearly aimed at specialists, snooty philosopher majors who don't mind reading 800 pages of torturous nonsense. My question: of what use is philosophy if those of us in the real world can't comprehend it? One could be forgiven than philosophers are more interested in intellectual snobbery than they are in actually saying anything of consequence. Perhaps that's why Nietzsche is so widely read. He at least knows how to make a point.

It's said that Sartre "moved on" from the views he expresses in his masterpiece, which makes one wonder why we should be bothered to read it.

Makes for a nice doorstop, though, I must say.

Amazing Insight
Sartre's treatise on Existentialist thought is a revealing, startling, and bold pronouncement of the power of humankind.Many folks pan this type of philosophy as outdated, but I think in contemporary times Sartre's message is particularly salient. I am not sure I have ever encountered a text that possessed so much power that I felt overwhelmed and indebted to its gravity. This is definitely something that takes a few reads, maybe some explanation by a thoughtful philosophy professor (which I was lucky enough to have) and much contemplative, individual rumination on its meaning. But in the end, I might go so far as to say it will change your life.

The Hobo Philosopher
I have been reading one version or another of this book, off and on, for the last 40 years - mostly off. I finished it once but, of course, one reading is hardly enough for this type book. It is very difficult reading. I keep a philosophy dictionary beside me whenever I pick this book up. Whenever I start reading I am torn between the notion that Mr. Sartre is a philosophical genius or the man is putting me on.

I always recommend this book to friends and associates who brag on their knowledge of philosophy and philosophers. I ask them to get back with me after they have read the book and let me know what they have learned. It's my personal joke on my intellectual friends. I know of no one who has ever finished the book. Nor do I know anyone who could explain what the book has to say.

This book is for those versed in philosophy. You must have an understanding of philosophical terms and certainly beyond a freshman level. If you haven't studied philosophy in college or are not truly interested in the academics of philosophy and well versed in terminology, you will go nowhere with this book.

I haven't read the other reviews on this page but I would guess that there are no detailed analyzes of this book with criticisms of Mr. Sartre ideas and philosophybecause I doubt that there are any reviewers who have the background or capacity to truly understand what this man is saying. I think most people would be better off buying a book that explained this book - like Being and Nothingness for dummies or some such thing. But I haven't given up yet. I will find out what this man is trying to say ... one day ... if I live long enough.

Books written by Richard Noble - The Hobo Philosopher:
"Hobo-ing America: A Workingman's Tour of the U.S.A.."
"A Summer with Charlie" Salisbury Beach, Lawrence YMCA
"A Little Something: Poetry and Prose
"Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother" Novel - Lawrence, Ma.
"The Eastpointer" Selections from award winning column.
"Noble Notes on Famous Folks" Humor - satire - facts.

So So Version
Being and Nothingness is the best known and most comprehensive exposition of Sartre's philosophical system.The following comments pertain to the Washington Square unabridged version of the text.

One of Sartre's objectives in Being and Nothingness is to develop an understanding of knowledge that avoids what he sees as the two extremes of idealism and realism (Cartesian dualism).Very much in the existential/phenomenological tradition of early twentieth century continental philosophy, the starting point for Sartre's system is the public shared world rather than the private world of thought.From this perspective he puts forth a tripartite ontology, consisting of `being-in-itself', `being- for-itself' and `being-for- others'.While Sartre's discussion of being-in-itself and being-for-itself are laborious and not particularly original (heavily indebted to Heidegger), he is most interesting in his phenomenological discussion of what it is like to be a in a shared world with others. At its best, Being and Nothingness provides an interesting and eclectic mix of philosophy and psychology which challenges the reader to recall and interact with an array of thinkers and ideas.

While not without some strength the book is a difficult read on several front, first,the subject matter is dense (the nature of being), and, second, Sartre's awkward and pretentious prose cloud examination of this already challengingsubject.Indeed, the combination of poor style and sheer length (800 pages) causes many readers to skim the text or put it away entirely.Potential readers should be forewarned, this is rambling and repetitive text which reads very much like an early manuscript. While Sartre has his followers, to many commentators he is seen more as a political activist and public personality than a serious thinker, often being criticized for misunderstanding and misrepresenting the works of others.

While the Washington Square version is relatively inexpensive, the font is small and the quality of the print is lacking in sharpness - this could be a specific problem with my copy, but, I think that it is likely a wider print issue. Overall, while Sartre's popularity has been eclipsed by other existential thinkers of the period, Being and Nothingness continues to have some historic significance, and, as a result, may be worth a look by students of twentieth century continental philosophy.I would not normally recommend a commentary in place of an original text, however, if ever there was a case to do so, this would be it - Joseph Catalano's commentary is good in this regard, he does a commendable job of summarizing and representing Sartre's ideas.

Sartre's angst to write the epitome of existentialism (living life outside of it!)
This book is for the most part tedious and often it will get on your nerves, but nonetheless your effort will be rewarded with some valuable knowledge. Sartre intentionally writes in an academic, obscure, constipated way that makes you wonder whether it is due to your limited mental capacity that you do not understand what he is saying, or that he takes so much pride in his superior self that he does not want to be understood by the many. The trick when you read Sartre is to recognize in his writing those parts that correlate with the experience of your own everyday life. Doing so, you will be able to find some practically useful wisdom in Sartre's thinking. After all, every philosophy of life should fundamentally relate with our everyday existence, otherwise it is not philosophy but some sterile theory destined to fall in limbo. ... Read more

Product Description
"Sartre is a true post-colonial pioneer. His ethical and political struggle against all forms of oppression and exploitation speak to the problems of our own times with a rare courage and cogency."
Homi K. Bhabha, Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of English and American Literature Harvard University
Nearly forty years after its first publication in French, this collection of Sartre's writings on colonialism remains a supremely powerful, and relevant, polemical work. Over a series of thirteen essays Sartre brings the full force of his remarkable intellect relentlessly to bear on his own country's conduct in Algeria, and by extension, the West's conduct in the Third World in general. The tussle is not equal, and the western imperialists emerge at the end, bloody, bruised and thoroughly chastened. Most startling of all is Sartre's advocacy of violence as a legitimate response to repression, motivated by his belief that freedom was the central characteristic of being human. Whether one agrees with his every conclusion or not, Colonialism and Neo-Colonialism shows a philosopher passionately engaged in using philosophy as a force for change in the world. An important influence on postcolonial thought ever since, this book takes on added resonance in the light of the West's most recent bout of interference in the non-Western world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

One of the last great fictional statements of man in search of meaning...
The capstone to Sartre's monumental *Roads to Freedom* trilogy, *Troubled Sleep* is in itself a magnificent novel and a fitting conclusion to a series that forever remains unfinished, as Sartre had planned but never completed at least one additional volume. Here several storylines--and lives--developed in the first two books are resolved, the direction of others suggested, and the rest left provocatively open to the reader's imagination.

I've read all three novels in succession over the last couple of weeks and found each one as riveting as the other. In *Troubled Sleep,* the French have already lost the war without much of a fight and now must come to grips with their defeat. Do they collaborate, rebel, retreat further from active engagement with the politics of the world? Do they rationalize their cowardice or is it perfectly rational to acknowledge the apparent superiority of the victorious Nazis?

It's Sartre's genius as a novelist to bring these weighty philosophical questions to life in a breathtaking narrative peopled with passionate, complex, fully-realized characters. Before the pallid postmodern ennui of our own age fully set in, Sartre harkens us back to a time when ideas and principles mattered, when evil hadn't been rationalized out of existence and ambiguity dissolved truth into another species of lie, when one's philosophy could literally be a matter of life or death. Those times are gone, probably gone for good, but *Troubled Sleep* gives us an intoxicating taste of what it was like to really care about the Big Questions, even to acknowledge that there *are* Big Questions to answer.

All that aside *Troubled Sleep* is an exciting, engaging page-turner of men at war with each other--and with themselves. Along with *The Age of Reason* and *The Reprieve,* this novel completes one of the richest, most rewarding, and satisfying reading experiences I've had in recent memory.

a not so memorable conclusion to a great trilogy
this is the 3rd in the trilogy, the "roads to freedom". although not necessary, it is recommended that you read them in order. the main characters you meet in this book were first introduced in the "age of reason" novel.

this tells the story of the overrunning of france by the germans in 1940. the first part of the book looks at the last of the soldiers who face the oncoming germans and face imminent death. the second part looks at the soldiers taken prisoner and their reaction to the war and what the future now holds.

unlike the two earlier novels, this book leaves a lot of open ends. some like the death of mathieu can easily be assumed, while the fate of others is left unresolved.

the interesting part of this book like the previous ones is its perspective of france and its people. although the feelings run the gamut of emotion, they are driven by those who feel betrayed by their leaders, their younger generation, and their laziness. in part 2, we begin to see the drift of the socialist sartre from the communism of russia to pure socialism. this is the most interesting part of the book.

of the three books, this was my least favorite, but i enjoyed them all and highly recommend them. they are very insightful especially about the french, but also about ourselves.

Different view
This is the first Sartre book that I have ever read. I liked it enough to read more from this author. There were 2 (maybe more) other sub plots going on that just left you hanging, I thought.I have not read much literature that dealt with WW II that wasn't directlyrelated to the Holocaust(sp?) or from an American perspective.That made, for me, all the difference in the world.

troubled sleep may not be the problem
THis is the first novel length fiction I've read of Sartre.Not his best form I think. Perhaps too many blank, beguiling pages to fill with unrelenting existentialism incarnate in meandering vignettes of characters that one can neither really place nor pity.A pity.Such a stunning writer in a shorter format ("The Wall" and other short stories).One grows a bit weary of self-castigating anti heros (the common man hero I gather one is supposed to infer) but a bone to lick for all one's trouble would be nice.Alas, one is not ever offerred a bone, which is not really the problem.One is never offerred a bone and therefore expects one.What one does procure, in turn, is a handful of mordant, self pitying and pitiable characters indignant that their forces were overcome with such swift Teutonic efficiency.Above and outside of this, however, Sartre has his own efficiency for writing dialogue, the sum of which, becomes many times more than the mere words which comprise it.Suffice it to say, if one is interested in Sartre's philosophy, this book, in parts, is not a bad sugarpill.

A basic fiction/philosophy book
Well, since I'm the one person who read it, I suppose I'm talkin to meself, but I thought that this is one of the greatest books I've ever read.The main purpose of this book is to examine the minds of people withno short, medium, or long term plans (disposessed french soldiers) whenfacing confrontation with an alternate culture in which everything fallsunder a master plan (the Nazi invaders.)Lots of good commentary betweenthe lines on topics such as human nature, art, sociology, and moderateinternational politics of the '40s.A very humbling book, if you're anegotist; a very profound book if you're a fatalist.I've passed it alongto a few potheads, and they seem to think it's a very good book too. ... Read more

Product Description
Jean-Paul Sartre's famous autobiography of his first ten years has been widely compared to Rousseau's Confessions. Written when he was fifty-nine years old, The Words is a masterpiece of self-analysis. Sartre the philosopher, novelist and playwright brings to his own childhood the same rigor of honesty and insight he applied so brilliantly to other authors. Born into a gentle, book-loving family and raised by a widowed mother and doting grandparents, he had a childhood which might be described as one long love affair with the printed word. Ultimately, this book explores and evaluates the whole use of books and language in human experience. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

The Examined Life
Nearing age 60 and one of the most widely recognized writers and intellectuals of the 20th century, Jean-Paul Sartre decided in the early 1960's to sort out his early influences in the memoir THE WORDS.For anyone familiar only with the adult, his work and philosophy, this should be something of a surprise.Someone once told him that he seemed to be a person who never had parents.They might have well have said that he seemed like a person who was never a child.But he was, and a not unhappy one at that.

When Sartre's French naval officer father died very young, his mother, Anne Marie Schweitzer (cousin of Albert), took her baby home to her parents.In her parents' home, Anne Marie functioned more like Sartre's sister or playmate.Her father, Charles, was a stern academician who loved the child.For the first ten years of his life, Sartre did not know other children; the trio of adults was his world.The book, an extended essay really, is divided into two sections, "Reading" and "Writing." He taught himself to read early and at a young age began writing what he enjoyed reading: adventure books.Charles tried to turn off the adventure spigot and turn the child to writing about serious literature, which did not go over well.For the most part, Sartre portrays the life of a precocious boy who, by age 10, was beginning to get a sense of the tension between the past, present and future and the question of existence.Sartre concludes the book as his young self enters preadolescence, with a foot out in the world, in the society of other boys at school.

The voice of this book is surprisingly spritely, honest, 20th century modern and European.It comes out of a time when autobiography and memoir could be exercises in authentic learning, not mere navel-gazing.

'I had no rights because I was overwhelmed by love'
Everyone's life is unique - the result of events, circumstances and particular sequences of incidents. George Sand in her novella 'The Devil's Pool' says `..... everyone has a story (and everyone would be able to rouse interest in the novel of their own life, if they had really understood it.....)' But perhaps, sometimes, a person's story is largely irrelevant to most of their potential readers simply because the events of their life are too extraordinary. Sartre's events are not all that extraordinary and yet they are sufficiently distinct to separate him from many people (his father died when he was very young and he was brought up largely by his maternal grandfather and mother - coupled with this Sartre was not a robust person and seems to have been extravagantly protected and praised, apparently with the intention of getting the best out of him). That upbringing did achieve significant outcomes, and yet still I wonder about this autobiographical account. Can it be meaningful to most readers - and especially those readers whose own extraordinary 'events' may have headed them off in another direction?

This book is not a labour to read. It has many unusual and fascinating stories and accounts. It does have some extraordinary people (not just Sartre himself). You can make what you want of the psychological insights.

other recommendations:

'The Confessions' - Rousseau
'Memoirs of a Revolutionist' - Kroptkin
'Memoirs' - Berlioz
'I Felt the Eagles Heart' - Macnab

Self-Creation
It is very understandable that Sartre's "The Words" is often compared to Rousseau's "Confessions". Both autobiographies seem to be brutally honest, striving to take away any romantic notions of the writers. Sartre's work however, focuses on the first ten years of his life. Sartre offers an extremely thorough psychoanalytical view of himself as a child and doesn't hesitate to apply Freud's notions of the Superego and the Oedipus complex onto himself. Sartre concludes that, lacking a father, he doesn't have a Superego or Oedipus complex, and this has made him into an extraordinary child who is able to actively create the image of himself and his identity, by using spoken, and later also written, words.
My impression of Sartre as a child is that of a clever, manipulative actor. As someone who was always trying to please the adults, and be admired by them, Sartre as a child came across to me as an annoying and spoiled kid, created by his circumstances and reading, but also a self-creating identity that writes. An example of this characterization in writing is a sentence in which Sartre proves how his virtuosity and views of equality are merely an act, befitting his view of human life as a ceremony: "I treat inferiors as equals: this is a pious lie which I tell them in order to make them happy and by which it is right and proper that they be taken in, up to a certain point" (p.33).
Like the case with Rousseau however, I did appreciate the author's honesty, but I also wonder whether this self-portrait in writing is another manipulative trick in order to create an image through words. After all, Sartre has left me with the impression of an incredibly intelligent child that knows how the world around him can be influenced and manipulated, but I can hardly imagine anyone thinking at this level at such a young age, and wonder if this autobiography is an attempt of the adult Sartre to re-create his identity through his childhood, literature and psychoanalysis. What I did love about this work is how Sartre explains his childhood and the world surrounding him through words and language, the books that he read as a child and the influence they had on his ideas. By doing this, Sartre emphasizes the idea that identities are indeed the products of an active creative process of using language and writing. Ultimately, this book explores and evaluates the whole use of books and language in human experience.

Wonderful account for any lover of words
This is Jean-Paul Sartre's brief autobiography about the impact the printed word had on his life. The book is divided into two sections, the first is titled "Reading," and the second "Writing," and I think that's an excellent summary of his life. Sartre recounts his early childhood, being born into a family without a father, and ultimately living a secluded a childhood submerged in his grandfather's library. Sartre then discusses life at the Ecole Superior, when he began to develop as a writer of prodigious genius. Sartre doesn't discuss his work particularly; this text is not a critical examination of his literary and philosophical work. Rather, it is a deeply introspective reflection and inquiry into the powerful and lasting effects words can have in life. I recommend it to all fans of reading.

Words about words
Sartre's world and life are dense with words. His books are dense with words. He is the kind of writer who seems to crowd the page with more and more words, so many words that words sometimes lose their meaning. But not all the time, and not in all of Sartre's work. True there is the famous metaphysical 'Being and Nothingness' with abstract words which mean mostly non- verifiable and non- understandable obfuscations. But there are also the words of ' Nausea' which do touch upon a certain experience, and Sartre's unique defnition of it. So too in this autobiography the words seem to have a meaning at times, a meaning defining a life which is a consciousness, a consciousness reflecting in words upon words. Sartre does have experiences, and a world in which he comes from and a way of seeing, and not seeing things all his own, but most of all he has words and more words. An intellectual and one enamored of his own abstractions he can make words appealing, and he can lose themselves to them so that he is blind to reality as he was in his failure to condemn Stalinism. But he also, and this autobiography shows this was tremendously precocious and a real worker one who produced hundreds and thousands of words about many different subjects including himself.
This work is like all Sartre's words wordy , but it has also at times a perceptiveness, an insightfulness an intelligence which makes it for a time anyway, a worthwhile read.
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A Treat
My very favorite reading material is biographical analysis, so this volume is a real treat. I don't know why the Tintoretto piece makes me think of Melville, but Sartre certainly has better communication skills than that reknowned author. ... Read more

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Be ready
It's short but requires you really be thinking existentially when reading it or shortly after. The story itself is good and very unusual. I'm not a fan of plays but it was written very well given the content. I loved all the characters and how it played out. If you're interested in a good, deep play- this is it! You're in hell with these people- that in itself is a doorway to so many interesting questions and the answers aren't always what you expect. ... Read more

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Examination of human consciousness; philosophy, metaphysics, semantics, existentialism. ... Read more

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Skip the Tintoretto
Rather than tackle Being & Nothingness (B&N) straightaway, the curious reader interested in exploring Sartre may find this volume a good introduction and preparation before deciding to take on B&N. In fact the first section of this book is actually taken from B&N. The Citadel Press version of B&N is definitely a more reader-friendly book than the Washington Square Press version: the type is cleaner and bigger; the paper is better quality; and the book is just overall better-looking. Unfortunately, it is an abridged version. One entire beginning section has been excised and placed into this volume as Section I. The rationale for this move (as far as I can tell) was that Sartre had republished this particular section at a later date in another volume of essays, incorporating some minor revisions. It amounts to some 60 or so pages of text. Citadel apparently chose to publish only the later version of the text in this volume of essays and cut it out of their edition of B&N. At any rate, reading this first section will give you a generous foretaste of B&N.

The second section is titled "A Sketch on the Theory of Emotions", an early essay that pre-dates B&N by some ten years. As Robert Solomon has written in his excellent book of essays, "From Hegel to Existentialism", this essay provides acomprehensive introduction to B&N in its own right, and is far clearer than the "oqaque" Introduction of B&N itself. It explains Sartre's theory of emotions, a theory he continued to hold throughout his life, even though he never got around to fleshing it out. (Incidentally, Solomon's book provides a penetrating critique of this essay, and is highly recommended.)

The third section is on mental imaging. I found this particular essay to be fascinating reading. It is an exploration of how the mind grapples with difficult concepts by creating mental images of them to help it conceptualize and assimilate them.

The final section of essays is on aesthetics, and was for me the most tedious and uninteresting of the lot. In particular the essay on the Renaissance painter Tintoretto was an absolute chore to read. Sartre psychoanalyses Tintoretto, and really seems to go over the top in analyzing his mind and historical situation. The essay seems to go on forever, is repetitious, and drifts aimlessly.

Jean Wahl's Introduction to Existentialism appears at the beginning of this volume. It was an address which he delivered to various professors in 1946. It is a gentle, sympathetic, non-rigorous introduction, covering all the major figures and themes. Wahl does an excellent job of explaining just what existentialism is. You will, for example, learn exactly what is meant by the phrase "existence precedes essence."

All in all, this book provides a great introduction to Sartre's writing.

Don't miss this book, it will change your life!!!
The scientific study of human nature is primarily a semantic one. This book is a wonderful analysis of consciousness and existence. Check this one out. To Sarte, tally hoe!!!!!! ... Read more

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Rethinking Assumptions in the Wake of Defeat
Sartre sets Part One of the excellent IRON IN THE SOUL in June 1940. In Part One, the Nazis have routed the French army and only random teams of fatalistic French soldiers still resist the invaders. Meanwhile, Sartre sets Part Two in a POW camp, where 20,000 French soldiers await their fate. Many of these have desperate hopes that the Nazis, once hostilities end, will treat them benignly.

In Part One, Sartre examines the Defeat of France from two perspectives. First, he shows the reactions of characters he has developed earlier in this ROADS TO FREEDOM trilogy. These include Gomez, a veteran of the Spanish civil war who resents France's failure to join the war against Fascism in Spain; Mathieu, a professor and non-combatant in the French Army whose commitment to personal freedom has become irrelevant in the war; Daniel, a self-loathing and predatory gay man who finds in defeated France a convenient target for his rage; Boris, the boyish kept lover of an older woman who finds a mission in warfare; and Jacques and Odette, a loveless older couple that rationalize Jacques's cowardice as they flee Paris.

Meanwhile, the second narrative-line in Part One follows a troop of non-combatant French soldiers who have been abandoned by their officers and are awaiting capture by the Nazis. Here, these leaderless men oscillate from drunken despair to baseless hope. In conversation, many declare that the Nazis, for their own benefit, will furlough all captured soldiers and send them home within a month. In following these soldiers, Sartre shows there are no good options, although personal fulfillment may come to soldiers who, despite pointless futility, do their duty.

Part Two of IRON IN THE SOUL examines attitudes in the defeated French army. In this case, Sartre principally follows two characters in a large POW camp. These are Brunet, a communist organizer; and Schneider, a sophisticated thinker who has great empathy with defeated French soldiers. Here, Sartre shows how Brunet keeps his dignity and grows as a person as other POWs, starved for information, develop childish and unrealistic expectations of their enemies. And, he uses the humane Schneider to define "iron in the soul". As he and Brunet discuss a POW with PTSD, he says: "He's trying to build up some kind of defense-mechanism, to think out the whole situation in which he finds himself; to get it straight from the beginning. But with what? He no longer has the necessary tools. Even his power to think straight is down and out. He's suffering from the iron that has entered into his soul..." This, certainly, is a problem--the need to rethink assumptions--that many French people faced during and immediately after World War II.

Similar to AGE OF REASON and THE REPRIEVE, the other books in this ROADS TO FREEDOM trilogy, Sartre's writing is absolutely first-rate and not to be missed. Still, his great writing may reach its highpoint as German tanks enter Paris and the character Daniel, crazy and enraged, watches alone from the streets. Here, his thoughts include:

"Paris was not, strictly speaking, empty. It was peopled by little broken scraps of time that sprang here and there to life, to be almost immediately absorbed again into this radiance of eternity."

"Everywhere, as far as the eye could reach, was silence and emptiness, an abyss stretching horizontally away from him... The streets led nowhere. Without human life, they all looked alike."

"...today the Reign of Evil begins."

A great book and highly recommended.

Sartre the Novelist

June 1940 and France is defeated. Mathieu is amongst soldiers in a small village awaiting the conquerors. Daniel roams an occupied Paris whilst others we know flee.Brunet is captured and tries to seize the opportunity to radicalize the men towards communism. Meanwhile Gomez is in New York, with both his homelands over run by the fascists. Amongst the populacethere is a fatalism that accepts and wants to accomodate the Germans.
Sartre captures the dissaray of defeat;the vacuum it creates in a society trying to reform itself around a new reality. Life must go on.
This is far removed from the Hollywood portrayals, this is so real and how it was.
Sartres dispair of the supine acceptance of defeat is evident, as is the feeling of a people unable unwilling or to fatiqued to see whats staring them in the face;the reality of totalitarian nazi rule.
'Iron in the Soul', the third in 'Roads to Freedom' is written in the more conventional 'novel' form (as opposed to the brilliant stream of consciousness of 'The Reprieve') and its power comes accross as events are detailed as so everyday;events and historical characters are all discussed or mentioned like one might discuss something in todays paper. It brings a searing reality to things.
'The Roads to Freedom' trilogy is superb;the slow drift into war and defeat. The blurb says that this was an abandoned project, that Sartre planed to write more. I dont know weather that would have been a good thing or not;the work is great as it stands.
Sartre the writer, the provoker of profound thought knows few equals. As the political ideologist he was flawed, the mistake being that all ideologies end up in paradox, achieving completely the opposite that they intended. Its a wonder Sartre fell for this trap.Perhaps he should have listened to Musil: ' Ideology is fine as long as no one takes it seriously'But forget the enigma of his ploitical leanings, there is so much to be had from his writings. ... Read more

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La clarificacion de las relaciones entre el marxismo y el existencialismo es uno de los problemas basicos de esta obra. La tarea de Sartre ha consistido en escribir un libro de Sociologia en el que estudia el grupo social dialectica y existencialmente. ... Read more

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El fin de esta obra -apunta Sartre- es descubrir la gran funcion irrealizante de la conciencia o Imaginacion y su correlativo noematico, lo imaginario. Un objeto imaginario es una creacion pura, un absoluto, y por lo tanto nos ofrece la posibilidad de negar al mundo, pero al mismo tiempo resulta inconcebible a esta imaginacion la posibilidad de aislarse de la conciencia que esta en el mundo. ... Read more

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A Mesmorizing Journey...Extreme Psychological Insights
"The Wall and other short stories" is a triumph in literature.Each story explores the depths of human thought and reason through an existential point of view.Each story can be interpreted different by all readers, therefore making this a great book for discussion.

"The Wall" is the first story presented.It consumes the reader because of its brilliant writing style. The story is narrated by a man named Pablo Ibbieta, who is in a jail cell with 2 others awaiting execution the following morning. Every event that transpires that particular night is analyzed almost too thoroughly thus leaving the reader in a trance. I wont get into it too deeply, but believe me, this story is worth reading...i guarentee it will have to be read again. After finishing the story, I felt as though nothing mattered.Who cares if the dishes were not washed, who cares if I would be late for work. Believe me, this story will have a profound impact on the way you think.Don't be surprised if you have a new appreciation for life.This story enlightens the mind.

Another great story from this book is called "Erostratus". Erostratus was a character who wanted to be famous, so he burned down the temple of Ephesus, which was one of the 7 wonders of the world.This is the central symbol of the story, the quest for glory.It also brings up an interesting point when the narrator asks one of his colleagues "Who built Ephesus?" and the colleauge did not know, he only knew who burned it. "Erostratus" in short is one mans decent into madness because of his quest to be remembered. The ending of "Erostratus" is filled with suspense and makes your heart beat in fear.It serves as a grim reminder that there are people of this type, and we should be prepared at any time for them to strike.

There are also 3 other stories, that being "The Room", "Intimacy", and "The Childhood of a Leader", which also draw the reader inside the workings of the mind through an existential window (ie: we are all here by accident, man is condemned to choose).

In short, these stories are all perfect, and leave the reader with a feeling of enlightment.Sartre is an extremely intelligent and clever writer.This is evident in these short stories.So turn off the television, buy this book, and start questioning your existence, you owe it to yourself. Besides, they are short stories, so you will be able to get through at least one a day...that isnt much to ask considering the benefits you will reap by reading them. ... Read more

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A look in the mirror
Everything that Sartre is saying about the anti-semite which is pretty much on target is just as true about Zionists, the psychopathic Jew who has less feeling for humanity, and ultimately the Palestinian, than a mountain rock. It's a book worth reading, especially with an eye to the Jew morphing into the Zionist. What a pity! They have become their own worst enemy.

A brilliant indictment against society
Imagine the value of a book on anti-Semitism composed by a non-Jew, a deep-thinker, a philosopher, a man living in France in 1944 during a period of fierce Jew hatred; imagine what ideas this book could impart. This is the value of Jean-Paul Sartre's short, but information-filled volume, his indictment of society.

Characteristics of an anti-Semite
An anti-Semite, Sartre explains in perhaps his most insightful insight, is an individual who hates Jews because he refuses to think. He is afraid of and threatened by thinking. Thinking requires the recognition that ideas change and grow. A thinking person never knows exactly what is true because he recognizes that ideas vanish like vapor; they develop and change as he gains new knowledge. But the anti-Semite needs to have an ossified never-changing world, a world set in stone, a stone that he can lean on, a stone that supports him, that holds him up. He cannot deal with knowing that what he understands today will change tomorrow.

It is easier for him to blame the Jew for evil, and speak of ridding the world of Jews to remove the evil, than seeing the true problems of society, thinking how to resolve them, and working to do so. Vaguely, without real thought, for he is unable to define "evil" or "good," he argues that the harmony of his life will be reestablished once the Jew is removed. His thoughts are vague and totally negative and destructive.

His notion of Jews is not based on ideas; "it is...a passion." Not only Jews, but even his conception of the world is based on passion. He has no real understanding of history and no real experience with Jews. His hatred is similar to irrational faith because he is "impervious to reason and to experience."

His passion disallows him to see anything good in the Jew. Just being a Jew, he feels, ruins the Jew and everyone around him. A Jew fowls everything that he does, even the air he breaths. When a Christian and a Jew work and create side by side and produce the same object, the Jew's production is tainted, infected, soiled, and besmirched, even though it looks, smells, and feels the same.

The anti-Semite admits that the Jew is intelligent and hard-working; "he even confesses himself inferior in these respects." But he thinks that his irrationality is better than the Jew's intelligence because it is not contaminated with Judaism. Thus, he needs the Jew so that he can feel better, more than mediocre.

The origin of anti-Semitism
There is nothing in the history of any nation that justifies anti-Semitism. The ancient myth that Jews killed Jesus cannot, or should not, be the reason for modern anti-Semitism. The Romans crucified Jesus. Even if the myth is accepted, people should recognize that we cannot punish the current generation of Jews for deeds committed by a few two millennia in the past.

Current anti-Semitism, Sartre insists, is based upon what Christianity did to the Jews. The Church forced Jews to become money lenders so that Christians could avoid the sin of usury. This bred the still-persisting notion that Jews have and control money and take advantage of non-Jews for personal gain.

"It is society, not the decree of God, that has made him a Jew and brought the Jewish problem into being.... In this situation there is not one of us who is not totally guilty and even criminal; the Jewish blood that the Nazis shed falls on all our heads."

Other Sartre insights
Sartre also discusses related subjects: What about people who are not anti-Semites but who do nothing to help Jews? These people, says Sartre, are not human beings, and may be unconscious anti-Semites. Are Jews a race? No, because Jews in different countries differ in looks and habits. What is a Jew? The Jew is what Christians have made him. What keeps Jews Jewish? Persecution and other bad treatment of Jews by non-Jews do not allow them the chance to forget being Jewish. What is Jewish history? Most Jews know little more of the history of Judaism than how their ancestors were persecuted. What has anti-Semitism done to the Jew's thinking and his behavior? Sartre spends half his book describing the many adverse ways that Jews have been affected. He adds that non-Jews have also been affected by not allowing Jews to contribute what they can to improve society.

"What must be done," the French philosopher ends his book, "is to point out to each one that the fate of the Jews is his fate. Not one Frenchman will be free so long as the Jews do not enjoy the fullness of their rights. Not one Frenchman will be secure so long as a single Jew - in France or in the world at large - can fear for his life."

As Relevant now as it was more than Half a Century ago
This book is an excellent study on some of the origins of hate.Although Sartre may have wished to examine more the role of socialization as the fundamental root of prejudice, he does a good job in exposing the numerous "sins of omission"in religion and the media in causing hate, in this instance, the horrors of the Holocaust.He does so also with extreme rhetorical skill when he asks, for example:"Why were the concentration camps not in the news"?, or when he speaks of"Christian propaganda that the Jews killled Jesus."(It was the Romans.)Certainly, the world has advanced since then, (or so it seems) as evidenced in part by the late Pope John Paul II's apology for the role of Christianity in the Holocaust. And certainly that propaganda had nothing to do with what Christ taught, to do things for the "least of these" and to "love Thy neighbor."We can still see I think some of these forces at work today, especially in regard to extreme poverty throughout the world.It is as if "class" has become a new "blind spot".Why do we rarely hear about the one billion (referred often to as the "bottom billion") who go to bed starving each night, making each day merely a struggle to survive? What is it about our educational system and the media, that seem to block out such atrocities?We need to change all that, so that our minds (and hearts) are more open to the struggles of so many in the world.

Sartre is still relevant.
Sartre's work is still a classic.His insights are provocative and pointed.I am especially impressed by his comments on what is now called universal human rights.Sartre is concerned that in stressing our common humanness we forget that there are important difference that should not be ignored.

too limited to its time and country
This book, written just after World War II, tries to explain what makes anti-Semitism attractive to anti-Semites, the effect of anti-Semitism on Jews, and the ultimate causes of anti-Semitism.

In Sartre's view, "By treating the Jew as an interior and pernicious being, [the anti-Semite] affirm[s] at the same time that [he] belong[s] to the elite."In other words, every person is a king so long as he/she has someone to look down upon.This seems like a perfectly plausible interpretation of mid-century antisemitism; it seems to me, however, that today's Arab Jew-hatred has more concrete causes.

Sartre's description of Jews is a bit narrow.He writes that "the Jew considers himself the same as others.He speaks the same language; he has the same class interests, the same national interests; he reads the newspapers that the others read, he votes as they do, he understands and shares their opinions."And according to Sartre, these "inauthentic" Jews seek to avoid any trace of "Jewish traits."

Perhaps an accurate description of the most assimilated Jews in France in the 1940s- but certainly not of more religious Jews, or even of most American Jews (though I do know some who seek to avoid overly "Jewish" physical traits). Few of Sartre's generalizations are true of (for example) the most insular Hasidic sects, and some are equally untrue as to America's more liberal Jews.

Finally, Sartre argues that anti-Semitism is the result of capitalism and of social classes, because anti-Semites seek to unite the bourgeiousie and the proletariat.Given the existence of anti-Semitism in communist and precapitalist societies, this view seems to me implausible. ... Read more

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