transcendence consciousness existentialist existentialism

books:

11 reviews
Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean Genet

Grove/Atlantic, 1982

Revealing
Genet's final novel is perhaps his most personal written document. All his desires are finely crafted here and his book is , as usual, crammed with idols and mystification. What prevents me from calling this his greatest novel is the influence of Sartre. By this point, as Genet's biographrer Edmund White has pointed out, Genet was conciously incorporating the use of Sartre's theories in his work ...

Kean

2 reviews
Jean-Paul Sartre

Schoenhofs Foreign Books, 1954

Brilliant and seemingly forgotten...
I, too, have only ever seen this produced, and never found it in print... but it's just brilliant. And FUNNY. How do you build a farce around the idea that "bad faith makes the world go 'round?" Well, Sartre manages it... I'll stop before this turns into an essay, and just recommend that anyone who has a chance to see this performed by a cast of any distinction at all should jump at it.

The transcendence of the ego;: An existentialist theory of consciousness (Noonday paperbacks)

3 reviews
Jean Paul Sartre

Noonday Press, 1963

mind blowing
transcending the ego, is the state to which 'organized' religions preach, whether christian, jew, muslim, hindu, buddhist, shamin. this little book is so deep, with so few words, it is astounding. read this and the second half of Flatlander by Abbott.

Jean Paul Sartres No Exit and the Flies

2 reviews
Jean-Paul Sartre

Monarch Press, 1983

An incredible piece
Sartre's "No Exit" not only provides a version of Hell that is the complete polar opposite of Dante's vision but he succeeds in making it seem scarier...and funnier. The fact that these three strangers start attacking each other like small children causes the reader (and viewer if watching a produced version) to secretly chuckle. One always wonders though as to whether they would fall into ...

The Maids and Deathwatch: Two Plays

3 reviews
Jean Genet

Grove Press, 1994

Horrific , violent existentialism at its most absurd.
Genet based 'The Maids' on an actual event, one he felt a certain kin-ship with. In 1933 french police found Madame Lancelin and her daughter face down, in their living room, utterly mutilated. The eyes had disappeared, all teeth had been knocked out, fragments of bone and flesh were strewn about the floor, walls covered in blood. Upstairs the two servant-maids, the Papin sisters, were ...

Essays In Existentialism

2 reviews
Jean-Paul Sartre

Citadel, 2000

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 ...

The Question

4 reviews
Henri Alleg

Bison Books, 2006

Beautifully Written, Brutally Honest
The Question is, without doubt, the single best argument against torture under any circumstances. It is a brutally true and personal account of a man caught up under the circumstances beyond his control during the Algerian War of Independence. It was a time when the French, desperate to maintain control over Algeria, had allowed its army to use torture in order to obtain information about its ...

L'Imagination

4 reviews
Jean-Paul Sartre

French & European Pubns, 1986

Suite française
This is a magnificently written book (also available in English). It is historically accurate (I was in France in June 1940) and describes beautifully and with deep understanding the changing ambience of the time and the individual and collective behavior of Frenchmen (and women) from diverse economic groups as well as that of the German invaders (the newly arrived onquerors)...

The Age of Reason

2 reviews
Jean-Paul Sartre; David Caute; Eric Sutton

Penguin, 1990

A Quiet Treatise on Freedom: A Classic of Existentialist Angst
This is the beginning of Sartre's existentialist "Road to Freedom" trilogy, the other two in the series being "Iron in the Soul," and "Reprieve." As is true of most of Sartre's novels, this one too is emotionally flat -- all the more it seems to dramatize the utter randomness of life. It is eerily autobiographical as it is a story of a rather ordinary life situation set in the heyday of ...

Search for a Method

3 reviews
Jean-Paul Sartre

Vintage, 1968

The Dawn of Marxist Existentialism
As the quote on the cover suggests, this may very well be "the most important work of Sartre's to be translated since Being and Nothingness." To be sure, The Critique of Dialectical Reason may be also, or even The Family Idiot. But it must also be recalled that Search for a Method, while first published as an occasional piece for a Czech journal, was latter published as the introduction to The ...

Le Mur

1 review
Jean-Paul Sartre

Le Club du Meilleur Livre. Armand Colin, 1958

5 Great Short Stories
I read the original French text in the Folio edition, and this review is based on that. Sartre is one of my favourite French writers, and these short stories (his only short stories, to my knowledge) are terrific tokens of his talent. The first story - The Wall - deals with a couple of prisoners as they live their last moments; it is a terrible experience to see through the eyes of someone ...

The philosophy of existentialism

2 reviews
Jean Paul Sartre

Philosophical Library, 1965

Penetrating and Original
An important work within the realm of 20th century philosophy. Marcel critiques the existentialism of Sartre, pointing out the many paradoxes and pitfalls, and then offers his own theories on ontology, metaphysics, ethics, and even psychology. It is immediately apparent that Marcel's work is daringly original, and is free from the many shortcomings found within the works of more "academic" ...

La Mort Dans L'Ame

1 review
Jean-Paul Sartre

Schoenhof Foreign Books Inc, 1997

Realistic portrayal of war
This book conveys such magnificent dread. Sartre looks at war as it really is; futile, horrifying, and something that, in 2002, we should all be looking to avoid. The final chapter, which examines the psyche of a group of captive French soldiers, is perhaps the scariest thing I have ever read.

What is literature? (Harper colophon books)

1 review
Jean Paul Sartre

Harper & Row, 1965

Between ART and sARTre
This book advances the notion and necessity of a "committed" literature. Reading is not a light hobby, nor is writing. The function of a committed writer is to reveal the world so that every reader loses her innocence and assumes all her responsibilities in front of it. The world, in the sartrian existentialism, is in fact the action's field of individuals. The writer shows the world as human ...

Huis Clos Les Mouches

1 review
Jean-Paul Sartre

Natl Textbook Co, 1947

Ever wondered what hell might be like?
While most of us have an image of hell similar to that of Dante (torture and physical pain), Jean-Paul Sartre chooses to express his view of hell as being somewhat different. According to one of the three main characters, Garcin, "Hell is others," and Ines and Estelle, the two others who join him in the locked room, would surely be in agreement. It gives a very interesting twist to our ...

Mallarme, or the Poet of Nothingness

1 review
Jean-Paul Sartre

Pennsylvania State University Press, 1988

the poetically ananlytical voice of nothingness
This book exceeds the linguistical capacity of appraisal. The intro- well constructed, cleanly written- has tranfixed an elusive Sartre that resides under the appearence of Sartre. The translation is utterly perfected to echo the nuances of Sartre's analytical style. Through Sartre's analysis, one becomes aware of the meaning of the poet. From the floating pen of Mallarme, to the analytical ...

Between Existentialism and Marxism

1 review
Jean-Paul, Sartre

William Morrow, 1976

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 ...

Literary Essays

1 review
Jean-Paul Sartre

Citadel, 1978

profound literary reviews
a collection of unusually profound literary reviews that put sartre's philosophy into practice. these essays have great value not only as literary reviews but as philosophical treatises (for lack of a better word). he reveals the style of a piece and demonstrates how it conveys or maybe betrays a meaning. existential psychoanalysis applied to literary reviews? included is an especially acute ...

Critique of Dialectical Reason, Volume One. [Subtitle]: Translated by AlanSheridan-Smith. Edited by Jonathan ...

1 review
Jean-Paul. Sartre

Publisher Unknown, 2004

Sartre's Inimitable Greatness - One response to the above reviews
Sartre was primarily a moral philosopher - not a metaphysician, epistemologist, or political philosopher. Yet, he was a bit of all these. He is a political thinker by way of his profoundly thought moral philosophy. Thus, I claim: 1) While it may be his last extensive philosophic work, Sartre's CDR is not his "last great philosophic work" - big is not always best. The tragically neglected, "Saint ...

Les Mots

1 review
Jean-Paul Sartre

French & European Pubns, 1990

Insightful, Superbly Written, Sublime.
"les Mots", or "Words", is Jean-Paul Sartre's autobiography about his childood, with a strong emphasis on literature; an emphasis which is only natural, since little Sartre grew up with them before he began writing himself (pun intended). Accordingly, the book is divided into two parts: "To Read" and "To Write". If you can read French, then please do yourself a favour and read this ...

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