Sartre's collection takes its name from the title story, set during the Spanish Civil War. Pablo Ibbieta, a captured Republican fighter, spends a night in a cell waiting to be shot at dawn. His captors offer him a bargain: reveal where the anarchist leader Ramon Gris is hiding and he lives. Pablo sends them to the wrong cemetery as a bitter joke, and the outcome mocks his sense of control. The other stories in the volume treat sexual obsession, self-deception and bad faith with the same cold clarity.
Existentialism is easier to grasp when you watch it happen to someone facing death. Readers new to Sartre will find his ideas about freedom, absurdity and choice here in dramatic form, short enough to finish in an evening and sharp enough to argue over afterward.
Deep, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Literary Connoisseur. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1939
- Language
- EN
Quotes by Jean-Paul Sartre
More →Hell is other people.
No Exit
Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.
Being and Nothingness
