Les Temps modernes
The three published novels revolve around Mathieu, a Socialist teacher of philosophy, and a group of his friends. The trilogy includes: "L'âge de raison" ("The Age of Reason"), "Le sursis" (which is generally translated as "The Reprieve" but could cover a number of semantic fields from 'deferment' to 'amnesty'), and "La mort dans l'âme" ("Troubled Sleep", originally translated by Gerard Hopkins as "Iron in the Soul", Hamish Hamilton, 1950). The trilogy was to be followed by a fourth novel, "La dernière chance" (i.e. "The Last Chance"); however, Sartre would never finish it: two chapters were published in 1949 in Sartre's magazine "Les Temps modernes" under the title "Drôle d'amitié". The last part of "The Last Chance" was later reconstructed and published in 1981 (see section below).