Existentialism and Excess: The Life and Times of Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre is a legend of French thought, known for his intellectual writings and creative and artistic flair. This biography covers his tumultuous personal life, including love, lust, drug abuse, high-profile fallouts, and political and cultural rebellion. It also discusses his intellectual development, famous feuds, encounters with other giant figures, and his long and complex relationship with Simone de Beauvoir. The book is accessible, fast-paced, often amusing, and deeply moving.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 352 pages
Publication date: 27 June 2019
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Jean-Paul Sartre, a towering figure in twentieth-century philosophy, has left an indelible mark on the world of thought. Through his intellectual writings that popularized existentialism, coupled with his creative and artistic prowess, he has become a legend of French philosophy. However, his tumultuous personal life, intricately intertwined with his philosophical ideas, is a captivating tale of love, lust, drug abuse, high-profile fallouts, and political and cultural rebellion. This comprehensive and meticulously researched biography, accessible, fast-paced, often amusing, and occasionally deeply moving, delves into the remarkable seventy-five-year life of Sartre.

From his early years as a precocious brat, devouring his grandfather's library, to his time as a brilliant student in Paris, his wilderness years as a provincial teacher-writer experimenting with mescaline, his World War II adventures as a POW and member of the resistance, his post-war politicization, his immense amphetamine-fueled feats of writing productivity, his harem of women, his numerous travels, and his final decline into blindness and old age, Existentialism and Excess chronicles the major events of Sartre's remarkable life. Along the way, there are countless intriguing anecdotes, some amusing, some tragic, some controversial: his loathing of crustaceans and his belief that he was being pursued by a giant lobster, his escape from a POW camp, the bombing of his apartment, his influence on the May 1968 uprising, and his numerous love affairs.

Author Cox skillfully transitions from these episodes to discussing Sartre's intellectual development, his renowned feuds with Aron, Camus, and Merleau-Ponty, his encounters with other towering figures of his day: Roosevelt, Hemingway, Heidegger, John Huston, Mao, Castro, Che Guevara, Khrushchev, and Tito. Moreover, the book explores Sartre's long, complex, and creative relationship with Simone de Beauvoir, a pivotal figure in his life and work.

Existentialism and Excess offers a comprehensive and insightful exploration of the life and ideas of Jean-Paul Sartre, providing a deeper understanding of this influential philosopher and his enduring legacy.

Weight: 390g
Dimension: 194 x 124 x 27 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350066571