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Three volumes, presumed Review copies, soft cover, 8vo, in uniformly designed paper wraps printed in red and black of Sartre's "Roads to Freedom" novel trilogy. First appearance in book form. Publisher's ads to rear of wraps. In original glassine covers. Printed Author's "with compliments card" laid in to first volume. Publisher's prospectus laid in, for "La mort dans l'âme". Text in French. 309 [3] pp, 350 [2] pp, 293 [3] pp. CONDITION: Overall, Very Good. None appear to show creasing to the spines. All volumes have browned text, both moderate and more heavily, as seen. "L'âge" with inch-long split at head of wrap, which is a bit tanned, and the glassine with a few very small chips and closed tear mirroring wrap. Also, a closed tear of about one inch long to fore edge of wrap, and mild dog ear lower right cover which is worse in the photo than in real life. Owner name in old ink to ffep. and with brief pencilled note. "Le sursis" with partial small loss at head of spine (quarter inch) and two open tears to glassine at spine (one half-inch). "La mort" with slightly tanned wraps, the glassine with a half-inch open tear at foot of spine and a few other small chips. This volume largely unopened. **Influential existentialist and Nobel prize-winning French novelist-philosopher JEAN-PAUL SARTRE (1905-1980) fretted about the futility of "just being," as a young man, seeking to find deeper meaning for his existence --or any meaning at all. His first novel, "Nausea" (1938), represented Sartre's existential starting point; expanded on in the following "Roads to Freedom" trilogy, more fully exams the limitations of this solipsism in the character of Mathieu, a teacher of philosophy. In "The Age of Reason" (1945) Mathieu discovers that his lover is pregnant, and obsesses over finding the means to get her an abortion. Above all, he wants to preserve his freedom. Sartre admitted that this was a semi-autobiographical novel. In "The Reprieve" (1945) Mathieu is called up to serve in the military in the year before WWII, as it seems all but certain that France will go to war with Germany. The "reprieve" comes in the form of the 1938 "Munich Agreement" which delayed the onset of war, but at the cost of the fall of Czechoslovakia. Mathieu learns that the pure freedom he had once thought essential was meaningless without engagement with the broader world, and with other people. In "Iron in the Soul" (1949), Mathieu finally makes a political stand in real action in the world, giving up his imagined, solitary "freedom" for solidarity and selfless action.** REF: Contat & Rybalka, "The Writings of Jean-Paul Sartre"(1974) "L'Âge de Raison": first book edition, first printing March 15th, 1945, 45/60 (c). "Le Sursis": first book edition, first printing August 31st, 1945. 45/61 (b). "La mort dans l'Âme": first book edition, first printing August 24th, 1949. 49/179 (c). (AJ)
Ref: FICT20 9820
$325.00