On Novels and Novelists

Iconic French novelist, playwright and essayist, Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) is widely recognized as one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century, whose work has remained relevant and thought-provoking through the decades. The Seagull Sartre Library now presents some of his most incisive philosophical, cultural, and literary critical essays in twelve newly designed volumes.

We find ourselves face to face with Sartre the literary critic in this collection of brief but insightful essays that carefully examine the works of renowned French writers such as François Mauriac, Nathalie Sarraute, Jean Giraudoux, Jules Renard and, most movingly, André Gide after his death: ‘We thought him sacred and embalmed; he dies and we discover how alive he was.’