Théâtre

12mo of 298 pp., (3) ll. 
Publisher’s wrappers, uncut, as issued.

187 x 118 mm.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Théatre. Les Mouches - Huis clos - Morts sans sépulture – La Putain respectueuse.
Paris, Nrf Gallimard, 1947.

First edition of Sartre’s Theater with Huis clos, “probably the most famous play by Sartre” (Dictionnaire des Œuvres).

One of the first 55 copies printed on vélin pur fil Lafuma Navarre.

Theater occupies a special place in the work of Sartre, the philosopher, novelist, and socially engaged intellectual: it is the stage where the hero in the making reveals himself, a place where, through action, in a present that is unfolding, man seeks to give meaning to his destiny.

Huis Clos « is probably Sartre’s most famous play. Its structure is rigorous, almost mathematical, as it is based on the love triangle formed by characters who are incapable of forming a genuine relationship with one another. It illustrates the fundamental struggle between consciences that arises as soon as the evasions of social life and the artifices of bad faith disappear » (Dictionnaire des Œuvres).

A one-act play in five scenes, the last of which alone takes up more than three-quarters of the play; a plot reduced to its simplest form—the confrontation between three characters—set in no particular place and outside of time; an ending that resolves nothing and opens onto an eternal cycle… By its very structure, *Huis clos* seems to be a formal challenge. The first four scenes serve as a kind of exposition.

In the living room of what appears to be a hotel room, a bellhop brings in, one after another, a man and two women. Very quickly, we realize that the three characters are dead and find themselves in hell. There is no escape, no way out: forever prisoners of their actions and condemned to “live” for eternity under the gaze of others, Inès, Estelle, and Garcin tragically bear witness to what Garcin sums up in a phrase that has become famous: “Hell is other people. 

“No Exit is Jean-Paul Sartre’s lean, mean one-act drama about our dire human condition. The play distills and presents the ideas that Sartre explored at great length in his magnum opus Being and Nothingness, published a year earlier… As Garcin puts it inn the play’s most famous line, “Hell is – other people!” And a clever, gripping, living hell it is” (James Mustich, 1000 books to read before you die, a life-changing list).

Les Mouches. This first play by Sartre, written during the German Occupation, marked the beginning of the author’s fame. The character of Oreste represents the advent of freedom through a challenge to tyranny and to a religion based on self-accusation and terror. It is seen as a call to revolt against the moral and social order that prevailed at the time.

A very fine uncut copy, one of the 55 first printed on large paper, in publisher’s wrappers, as issued.