Name: the question
Price: 52.38 NZD
Availability: InStock
Author: Jean-Paul Sartre
ISBN: 9780803259607

Type

Physical Book

Author

Preface by

Publisher

Language

English

Pages

102

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

20.3 x 13.8 x 0.7 cm

Weight

0.14 kg.

ISBN

0803259603

ISBN13

9780803259607

Synopsis "the question"

Originally published in 1958, The Question is the book that opened the torture debate in France during Algeria's war of independence and was the first book since the eighteenth century to be banned by the French government for political reasons. At the time of his arrest by French paratroopers during the Battle of Algiers in June of 1957, Henri Alleg was a French journalist who supported Algerian independence. He was interrogated for one month. During this imprisonment, Alleg was questioned under torture, with unbelievable brutality and sadism. The Question is Alleg's profoundly moving account of that month and of his triumph over his torturers. Jean-Paul Sartre's preface remains a relevant commentary on the moral and political effects of torture on both the victim and perpetrator.This Bison Books edition marks the first time since 1958 that The Question has been published in the United States. For this edition Ellen Ray provides a foreword. James D. Le Sueur offers an introduction.

Jean-Paul Sartre

(Preface by)

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Jean-Paul Sartre (Paris, June 21, 1905 – April 15, 1980) was a French philosopher, novelist, playwright, and political activist, considered the main representative of existentialism and a key figure in twentieth-century thought. He studied at the École Normale Supérieure, where he met Simone de Beauvoir, his lifelong intellectual and romantic partner.

His most influential philosophical work, Being and Nothingness (1943), develops an ontology based on the radical freedom of human beings, proposing that “existence precedes essence,” meaning we are not predetermined and must construct ourselves through our choices. In literature, he stood out with Nausea (1938) and the play No Exit (1944), where he addressed the absurdity of existence and human relationships.

Sartre was also a committed political activist: he participated in the French Resistance during World War II, supported decolonization movements, and was critical of capitalism and totalitarianism. In 1964, he declined the Nobel Prize in Literature, believing that a writer should not be institutionalized.

He died in 1980, leaving a philosophical and literary legacy that continues to influence ethics, politics, and existential theory.

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