Abstract

A condensed but extensive survey of existentialist classics shows the way to Sartre's ontological philosophy, exposed straightforwardly and non-critically in the main text. As an exposition of Sartre's long, tangled L'Etre et le néant, it unavoidably does some violence to its subtleties and overall development; but Salvan, writing clearly, wittily, and energetically, does not oversimplify. What is more, he knows how to translate Sartre's idiom judiciously and creatively into current American expression.--C. D.