Jean-Paul Sartre is an undisputed giant of twentieth-century
philosophy. His intellectual writings popularizing existentialism
combined with his creative and artistic flair have made him a
legend of French thought. His tumultuous personal life - so
inextricably bound up with his philosophical thinking - is a
fascinating tale of love and lust, drug abuse, high profile
fallings-out and political and cultural rebellion. This substantial
and meticulously researched biography is accessible, fast-paced,
often amusing and at times deeply moving. Existentialism and Excess
covers all the main events of Sartre's remarkable seventy-five-year
life from his early years as a precocious brat devouring his
grandfather's library, through his time as a brilliant student in
Paris, his wilderness years as a provincial teacher-writer
experimenting with mescaline, his World War II adventures as a POW
and member of the resistance, his post-war politicization, his
immense amphetamine fueled feats of writing productivity, his harem
of women, his many travels and his final decline into blindness and
old age. Along the way there are countless intriguing anecdotes,
some amusing, some tragic, some controversial: his loathing of
crustaceans and his belief that he was being pursued by a giant
lobster, his escape from a POW camp, the bombing of his apartment,
his influence on the May 1968 uprising and his many love affairs.
Cox deftly moves from these episodes to discussing his intellectual
development, his famous feuds with Aron, Camus, and Merleau-Ponty,
his encounters with other giant figures of his day: Roosevelt,
Hemingway, Heidegger, John Huston, Mao, Castro, Che Guevara,
Khrushchev and Tito, and, above all, his long, complex and creative
relationship with Simone de Beauvoir. Existentialism and Excess
also gives serious consideration to Sartre's ideas and many
philosophical works, novels, stories, plays and biographies,
revealing their intimate connection with his personal life. Cox has
written an entertaining, thought-provoking and compulsive book,
much like the man himself.
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