Modern Times

Philosopher, novelist, playwright and polemicist, Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-80) was perhaps the central figure in post-war European culture and political thinking. Designed for a new generation of readers, this superb anthology includes Sartre's personal responses to New York and Naples, an essay on surrealism and on Brecht, a spoof psychoanalytical dialogue, an extended essay on sexual desire and shorter pieces on maternal love and masturbation. It explores Sartre's celebrated quarrel with Camus, his constant but clear-eyed fascination with communism and, in 'Portraits' of Gide, Genet, Tintoretto and Baudelaire, his revolutionary approach to biography. There could be no better introduction to one of the greatest witnesses to the twentieth century. 'One of the most brilliant and versatile writers as well as one of the most original thinkers of the twentieth century.' The Times