The Age of Reason

The first novel of Sartre's monumental Roads to Freedom series, The Age of Reason is set in 1938 and tells of Mathieu, a French professor of philosophy who is obsessed with the idea of freedom. As the shadows of the Second World War draw closer -- even as his personal life is complicated by his mistress's pregnancy -- his search for a way to remain free becomes more and more intense."Entertaining...the characters are well observed and conscientiously and intelligently studied."-- Edmund Wilson, The New YorkerPhilosopher, novelist, playwright, and polemicist, Jean-Paul Sartre is thought to have been the central figure in post-war European culture and political thinking. He is the author of The Age of Reason, The Words, and the play No Exit among other works.