\b0 Born in Paris in 1905, Jean-Paul Sartre became a gifted student and a brilliant professo
r of philosophy before devoting himself exclusively to writing after the Second World War. Philosopher (\i L'Etre et le NΘant\i0 , 1943) (\i Being and Nothingness\i0 ), tutelary figure of \i Existentialism\i0 , novelist (\i La NausΘe\i0 , 1938) (\i Nause
a\i0 ), playwright (\i Huis Clos\i0 , 1944) (\i No Exit\i0 ), pamphleteer, columnist, and memorialist (\i Les Mots\i0 , 1960) (\i The Words\i0 ), he tried his hand at all the roles and tasks of the intellectual. Politically engaged, he professed revoluti
onary ideals and, in a symbolic gesture, refused the Nobel Prize in 1964. His work, still relevant to the present day, constitutes an incomparable reflection on the freedom of the individual, on the tragedy of the choices we have to make, and on human be
ings: vain, heroic, pitiable, and sublime, they are magnificently embodied in the heroes of his dramas. \par
