Hope Now: The 1980 Interviews
Sartreans, including Simone de Beauvoir, Sartre's longtime companion, were furious when these interviews between Sartre and his secretary, Levy, appeared in Le Nouvel Observateur a few months before Sartre's death in 1980, interviews whose authenticity Sartre confirmed. The critics claimed that Levy, a Maoist convert to orthodox Judaism, exploited Sartre's failing health, forcing him to abandon his leftist principles and to adopt a messianic Judaism. But in his introduction here, Sartre authority Ronald Aronson interprets the interviews as only another evolution in Sartre's philosophy. Just as Sartre had at first preached existentialism, then Marxism, here Sartre expresses belief in a political hope, replacing Marxism with ethics. Written in 1990, the commentary by Levy that precedes the interviews clarifies Sartre's philosophical evolution, and his concluding remarks further elucidate Sartre's and his views on freedom and death. A fascinating work that gives further insight into a great thinker; highly recommended.?Robert T. Ivey, Univ. of Memphis, Bartlett, Tenn.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.