The four plays in this volume, which has sold over half a million copies, are, in Eric Bentley's words, "among the chief dramatic events of the present." In them the great existentialist philosopher and novelist, Jan-Paul Sartre, who declined the Nobel prize, reveals his complete mastery of the drama. No Exit is an unforgettable, existential portrayal of hell. The Flies is a modern reworking of the Electra-Orestes story. Dirty Hands is the very contemporary conflict of a young intellectual torn between theory and action. The Respectful Prostitute is an arresting attack on American racism.
About the Author
Jean-Paul Sartre was a prolific philosopher, novelist, public intellectual, biographer, playwright and founder of the journal Les Temps Modernes. Born in Paris in 1905 and died in 1980, Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1964—and turned it down. His books include Nausea, Intimacy, The Flies, No Exit, Sartre’s War Diaries, Critique of Dialectical Reason, and the monumental treatise Being and Nothingness.