No Exit and Three Other Plays (Vintage International): Amazon.ca: Jean-Paul Sartre: Books

Product Description

Book Description

4 plays about an existential portrayal of Hell, the reworking of the Electra-Orestes story, the conflict of a young intellectual torn between theory and conflict and an arresting attack on American racism.

Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
A drawing-room in Second Empire style. Read the first page

Explore More
Concordance

Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

(What's this?)

Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)

existentialism(1)

humanism(1)

jean paul sartre(1)

philosophy(1)

Customer Reviews

40 Reviews

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

4.3 out of 5 stars (40 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most helpful customer reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Much Impressed, May 3 2004

By

Laura Pope (Muncie, IN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: No Exit and Three Other Plays (Vintage International) (Paperback)

I was a bit skeptical going into this one. The premise of the book is fairly simple: three strangers are locked into a single room with minimal furniture and expected to stay there with one another for all eternity. That's it. No violent overthrow of government, no breaking into an elaborate computer mainframe. So why bother reading? C'mon Sartre, show us some plot.
The amazing thing was, I completely enjoyed this play. I gave it a chance and read it through and was not at all disappointed. Think of it: three strangers walk into a room containing three couches, a mantle, an odd mantle decoration, and a door that won't open, and try to make sense of the whole setup.
The female/male ratio is 2 to 1, leaving Garcin to hold his own against Inez, a trouble-making bisexual, and Estelle, a woman who doesn't believe she can function without the support of a man. They realize that the room is their torture chamber, of sorts, in a long corridor of Hell, and their punishment is to be carried out through--are you ready?--annoying one another.
For fear of giving away the plot, or lack thereof, I'll leave you with this: the book is a must-read, if only to discover for yourself the awesome ability of human beings to torture one another using only their personalities. :o)

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

4.0 out of 5 stars Great drama, great philosophy, Jun 17 2004

By

Matthew Krichman (Durango, CO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: No Exit and Three Other Plays (Vintage International) (Paperback)

No Exit is a tautly written that works on both the dramatic and philosophical levels. With only one act, four characters, and no set other than a sofa and chairs, this play takes minimalism to its extreme. The tension is palpable throughout. Sartre creates a perfectly unworkable triangle of personalities in Garcin, Inez, and Estelle, and within this triangle the dramatic tension steadily builds.

The real beauty of this play is that its message can be interpreted in many different ways. It's not entirely clear what Sartre is trying to say about human nature here. I've heard some people argue that the main point is that the company of other people can be a form of hell. I think this is way to simplistic. If anything, Sartre might be trying to say that hell is a self-fulfilling prophecy - that these people, realizing that they were in hell, created among themselves a set of circumstances that was hellish. The logical converse of that idea would therefore be that by exercising their free will, they could have chosen otherwise. Then there is also the interesting question of why these people are in hell in the first place. Here Sartre makes a strong argument that people have a moral responsibility to act in the best interest of humanity as a whole - something that none of these characters can claim to have done.

While existentialism as a movement has long since been abandoned by most philosophers, this play has lived on, and rightly so. It's well worth the hour that it takes to read it.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

5.0 out of 5 stars Some of the Greatest Writing Ever, Jun 7 2004

By

Hunter H "Hunter H" (DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: No Exit and Three Other Plays (Vintage International) (Paperback)

No Exit and The Other Plays is, in my humble opinion, the greatest collection of plays I have ever read, restoring my enjoyment of them after high school ruined it by shoving Shakspere down my throat. Sartre is able to convey great imagery and story lines through his writing, and it makes for a gripping read. Out of these, I would recommend Dirty Hands as the best, but all of them are an essential read.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 40 customer reviews on Amazon.ca

Want to see more reviews on this item?

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 54 reviews 4.4 out of 5 stars

Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Nothingness
Okay, let me start with mentioning that this book is worth of few hours. Turn off the TV and read it. Read more

Published on Oct 25 2003 by M. Akimoto

4.0 out of 5 stars Not a mirror of most people
To hold to a view of hell as being in a room without mirrors forever can be characterized as an excess of narcissm. Read more

Published on Aug 15 2003 by Dr. Lee D. Carlson