The Reprieve

Les Chemins de la Liberté #2

by Jean-Paul Sartre

An extraordinary picture of life in France during the critical eight days before the signing of the fateful Munich Pact and the subsequent takeover of Czechoslovakia in September 1938. Translated from the French by Eric Sutton.

Genres: Fiction, Philosophy, France, Literature, French Literature, Novels, Classics

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1945

About the author

Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th-century French philosophy and Marxism. Sartre was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology). His work has influenced sociology, critical theory, post-colonial theory, and literary studies. He was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature despite attempting to refuse it, saying that he always declined official honors and that "a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution."
Sartre held an open relationship with prominent feminist and fellow existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir. Together, Sartre and de Beauvoir challenged the cultural and social assumptions and expectations of their upbringings, which they considered bourgeois, in both lifestyles and thought. The conflict between oppressive, spiritually destructive conformity (mauvaise foi, literally, 'bad faith') and an "authentic" way of "being" became the dominant theme of Sartre's early work, a theme embodied in his principal philosophical work Being and Nothingness (L'Être et le Néant, 1943). Sartre's introduction to his philosophy is his work Existentialism Is a Humanism (L'existentialisme est un humanisme, 1946), originally presented as a lecture.

Reviews

[Vit Babenco · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Reprieve… Dead calm before the storm… The novel is the mosaic of thoughts, talks, events and dreams… And all the thoughts and conversations are about the imminent war…

He threw a last glance at the sea: war had not yet broken out: people were dining quietly in their villas: no guns, no soldiers, no barbed wire, the fleet at anchor off Bizerta or Toulon; it was still permissible to view the sea in splendour, the sea of the last evenings of peace. But it was inert and non-committal: an expanse of salt water, moving, but indicative of nothing.

Mobilization is declared… The atmosphere is gravid with anxiety… And the narration is thrashing about seemingly at random… From personage to personage… Casual men in the street and crowds… Peasants… Workers… Clerks… Lovers… Women… Passengers of the ship… A paralytic in the hospital… An illiterate tramp… And the protagonist of the previous novel Age of Reason, whose ideal is freedom, is mobilized as well…

The post-war epoch was a beginning. The beginning of peace. It passed unhurried, as a morning passes. Jazz was a beginning, and the cinema, which I so much enjoy, was also a beginning. Surrealism, too; and Communism. I hesitated, I chose with care. I had time enough. Time, peace—they were the same. And now that future lies at my feet, dead.

If one waits for something horrible to happen the waiting turns into a torture.

[Goldberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book Sartre uses a really interesting technique through which he switches instantaneously from a character to another one, even in the middle of the sentence.
We are in France, just before the beginning of the 2nd world war, and Sartre tries to describe what is happening from many different point of views.
The technique used in this book reminds me the counterpoint technique in music, in which different voices coexist and intertwine maintaining their individuality.
These continuos switches between the various characters creates a gestalt, something that is more than the sum of the single voices of the characters, Sartre creates invisible links that nearly create poetry.

I had never read a book using this literary technique and I like it very much, I think it has a great potentiality and if somebody read other books that used it please write them in the comments,
Thank you!

[Felek · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've liked and enjoyed the first book of the Roads to Freedom trilogy more. This one has more than 30,40 characters! The author switches from one character to another in the mid-same paragraph, too chaotic and not easy to follow in the beginning! Didn't like Sartre's stream consciousness technique in this book.

[E. G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Introduction

--The Reprieve

[Demet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yaşanmayan Zaman, "İyi ki kitaplar var!" dedirten muazzam eserlerden biri... Serinin ilk cildinde ana kahramanın ekseninde anlatılan insanın iç dünyasındaki soru işaretleri, endişeler ve kaygılar, bu kitapla kolektifin ortak sıkıntıyla harmanlanıyor. bazen peş peşe gelen cümlelerde bazen paragraflarda koca koca dünyalar değişiyor, aynı duygular farklı bedenlerde geziyor. Sartre'ın, beş yüz yuz kusur sayfada savaşın hemen öncesini kapsayan 23-30 Eylül tarih dilimini, yani yalnızca yedi günü, tam bir duygu ve beden sağanağıyla bu kadar kusursuz nasıl aktarabildiğini görmek için bile okumaya değer. 

[Nikola Jankovic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Drugi deo trilogije Putevi slobode, serije romana koje je Sartre napisao za vreme i odmah nakon Drugog svetskog rata i koje je iskoristio za objašnjenje nekih svojih filozofskih ideja.

Odlaganje se dešava za osam dana tokom konferencije u Minhenu 1938., kad se određivala sudbina Čehoslovačke. Tih dana, Velika Britanija i Francuska su popustile Hitleru, potez koji je kasnije postao sinonim za izdaju slobodarskih ideala. "Istorijsko ubistvo", kako to zove Sartr.

Iako je nastavak Zrelo doba, ovo je drugačije čitalačko iskustvo. Nekolicini glavnih likova Sartr dodaje na desetine drugih, razbacanih po Evropi. Retko se udubljuje u njihove probleme i filozofska razmišljanja, a pripovedanje je rascepkano. Malo me podsetio na Gataličin Veliki Rat, koji pripoveda priče osoba sa različitih krajeva Evrope u istorijski velikim trenucima. Međutim, kod Sartra su ti fragmenti mnogo sitniji. Često priča u jednom pasusu o političarima u Minhenu, pa se brzo prebacuje u Prag, pa u Maroko i u Francusku. Ti preleti su brzi, često i u okviru iste rečenice. Ovo je originalno, ne sećam se da sam čitao nešto slično, ali na trenutke te dovodi do očaja. O kome je reč nećeš znati ukoliko nisi potpuno fokusiran, a ponekad ni tada.

Sartr na taj način i skače sa bitnih na nebitne događaje - u jednom trenutku priča o sudbini mira u Evropi, pa nastavlja sa "Ona kupi mrvice hleba po stolnjaku s usredsređenim izrazom na licu. Malo je potištena, kao kad ima letnju kijavicu..." To je i najbolja strana romana, uspeo je da dočara atmosferu iščekivanja rata, vreme kad je Evropa brojala poslednje dane mira pre nego što padne u propast... propast, koja je doduše "odložena". Odličan roman na tu temu je i Minhen Roberta Harrisa, koji je bolji kao priča, mada Sartrov pristup ima literarno veću vrednost.

Osim fragmentiranosti, nedostajala mi je i dublja introspekcija iz Zrelog doba. Krene ponekad tim pravcem, ali čak i tada se pomalo sprda sa sobom. Smešan je deo kad Matje čita Danijelovo pismo, u kom ovaj naširoko raspravlja o viđenju sebe, o svojim odlukama, o religiji... I onda nasred tog čitanja gubi živce, gužva papire i baca ih kroz prozor. Smešno, ali na taj način i nas čitaoce uskraćuje za nešto što je počelo obećavajuće.

"Vreme između dva rata. Dvadeset godina: 1918 - 1938. Samo dvadeset godina! Juče je izgledalo u isti mah i kraće i duže: u svakom slučaju nikome ne bi na pamet palo da ih broji, pošto nisu bile završene. Sad, sad jesu. Bila je to lažna budućnost. Sve što se živelo za poslednjih dvadeset godina, živelo se lažno. Bili smo vredni i ozbiljni, trudili smo se da razumemo i evo: ti lepi dani nosili su u sebi jednu tajnu i crnu budućnost, varali su nas, današnji rat, novi Svetski rat nam ih je krao ispod žita. Bili smo rogonje i ne znajući za to. Rat je sad tu, moj život je mrtav; bio je i prošao, moj život: sve treba početi iznova."

[Mosca · Rating 5 out of 5]

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This novel is the second book of Sartre's "Roads to Freedom" trilogy: "The Age of Reason"; "The Reprieve", and "Troubled Sleep". The trilogy is over-simply described as an historical fiction occurring among the events leading to, and including, France's experience of World War II. A handful of protagonists recur throughout.

In "The Reprieve" these familiar fictional protagonists interact with their fates (and Europe's) as war with Germany is anticipated, and then "prevented", over Czechoslovakia. Europe congratulates itself. This novel is non-linear and stream-of-consciousness. Multiple sleepwalking characters in multiple locales across France and Europe interact unwittingly. A character in Paris will lift a cup to his lips as another character at the conference in Munich will utter his next statement--each unaware of the other. The fate of the protagonists is interconnected with the fate of Europe. And all are delusional.

Being monolingual, and as a result of an American culturally-imposed disability-of-arrogance, I read this book in English translation over 40 years ago. I speak insufficient French.

But the rhythms of the prose as the interplay of locales and consciousnesses dance through historical times are still unforgettable. In French, it must be extraordinary. This remarkable prose is used to inform and describe events both tragic and shameful. Art and purpose are one. The heart is captured. And the soul is betrayed. Europe rejoices.

Who are we?

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

The attraction of reading the RTF trilogy for me comes from one of the clearest television memories I have (easily rivalling some of the scenes from Quatermas and the Pit). It comes from the acclaimed 1970 BBC dramatisation which, for thirteen weeks, had engaged millions of British viewers in Mathieu Delarue’s efforts to define the scope of freedom in a France that was stumbling into world war.

The scene dealt with Mathieu’s lonely night-time walk through a Paris that expected to be told at any moment that France was going to war in order to save Czechoslovakia from dismemberment. The philosophy professor crosses Pont-Neuf and his inner voice narrates his personal plight. The entirety of his world is a ‘permanent moment’ in which he exists like light gliding ...”over the surface of stones and water.” In this condition he is ungraspable by the substances he passes over, never to be absorbed by the world which is outside him. “Freedom is exile, and I am condemned to be free,” he grimly deduces from this intuition, and his attention moves to consider the condition of his own body, with his own hands appearing to him as parts of the external world from which is profoundly apart.

For a moment he plays with this idea by leaning his body across the bridge, saved from plunging into the Seine only by these hands grasping a ledge. Will he live or die? He has reasoned that he is in a position of powerlessness with regard to the external world, and his hands are a part of the world of ‘stones and water’ rather than his own consciousness. Yet he asserts the will to live. His hands take a firmer grip on the ledge and haul him back to safety, albeit of a meagre sort given that the world is about to plunge into warfare.

But this is a book thickly populated with scores of characters stumbling towards their own versions of reprieve. It is structured around free-flowing accounts of several days in September 1938 when France mobilised for the prospect of a war with Germany which it knew would lead to the slaughter of millions and which it could not hope to win. The character we were introduced to in The Age of Reason – Boris, Lola, Ivich, Daniel, Bruno, Marcelle, as well as Mathieu – appear in more fragmentary roles whilst a dozen or so others take their place in the narrative.

The scenes switch from villages to Marseille, Casablanca, a Mediterranean cruise ship, Parisian bars, a hospital in the processes of evacuating its patients, street scenes involving violence and confusion, and bedrooms offering the first, or possibly the last chance to make love, as well as fleeting visits to the councils where Chamberlain and Daladier and their lackeys consider the stance they have taken towards Mr Hitler’s ‘final territorial demand’. The switch takes place mid-paragraph, and often mid-sentence, with an action taking place in one space being topped off by a thought generated in another.

Perhaps you need to have the memory of those weeks in 1970 when we were all being brought up to speed in the subtleties of existential thought to push ahead with a book which is often difficult. For the 18 year old I then was it offered up many fragments of thoughts and intuitions about life which have been with me ever since. When others walk across Pont-Neuf they might see the view of the Isle-de-la-Cite on one side, or the quais to the west and the Eiffel Tower in the distance: I’ve always seen Mathieu Delarue hanging on by his finger-tips, wondering whether to live or die.

[Sara Abdulaziz · Rating 3 out of 5]

أظن بأن أحدًا ما كان ليجد عنوانًا أكثر ملائمةً للرواية مما اختاره لها سارتر، "وقف التنفيذ". تكمل هذه الرواية التي تعد الجزء الثاني من ثلاثية دروب الحرية بوصف حياوات الشخصيات الذين تم التعرف عليهم مسبقًا في الجزء الأول، بالإضافة إلى آخرين جدد، وفي حين أن الجزء الأول كان متعلقًا بعبث الحياة اليومية، يجيء هذا الجزء ليصف التغيرات التي ستطرأ على حياتهم في الليالي ال��ابقة لبدء الحرب العالمية الثانية، منذ صور قرار التعبئة في فرنسا، إذ يضفي أمر التجنيد على حياة كل منهم قيمة كان يجهلها، إلى السلام المزعوم الذي يلقي بهم مجددًا إلى عبثٍ ما عادوا يألفونه، وكل ما بين الأمر والسلام من وقتٍ لا يملك المرء أن يهدره في شيء. إنها حياةٌ، في حالة وقفٍ للتنفيذ.

أسلوب سارتر الروائي مبهر ويشدني كثيرًا، ولكنه اتبع في هذا الجزء أسلوبًا لم يناسبني، إذ اختار التنقل من شخصية إلى أخرى دونما فواصل، أو جملٍ انتقالية، بل إنه ينتقل من شخصية إلى أخرى دون أن يذكر اسم الشخصية حتى، فيختلط على المرء المُتحدِّث لكثرة الشخصيات وتضليل الأسلوب. وأجد بأنه على الرغم من أن هذا الأسلوب يظهر عبقرية سارتر ومقدراته الأدبية، إلا أنه كان منغصًا بالنسبة لي، ولم أجِد فيه لذة.

[Thomas Stroemquist · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aside from being a brilliant intellectual and philosopher, Sartre was an amazing writer. This is best shown (of the books I've read of course) in this second part of the "Roads to freedom" series. Sartre shifts the locations, characters and even narrators seamlessly throughout the text. But, instead of making the story incoherent and sketchy, the attention to details and great depictions of characters, actually makes the book flow very much like watching a movie.

The story is set in France, during a very intense time on the brink of world war II.

I realize that by reading this i will, if anything, finish the series backwards, but I do not think this will be such a bad thing.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I read towards the last page of The Reprieve, the timing has echoes of the present machinations in Europe. Europe is historically a bad neighbourhood. They can't smell their own bad breath.

Five stars.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent.

[leo · Rating 5 out of 5]

عندما أغلقت الكتاب شردت لبرهة من الوقت أحدق في غلافه وأفكر بمدى قسوة الحياة، أفقت من شرودي وحطت عينيّ على الساعة، كانت في تمام الحادية عشرة وخمسة وخمسين دقيقة صباحاً.
تمنيت أن يُنتزع الشر من البشر، أن يسحقه حذاء الإنسانية مرة وللأبد، أن تستيقظ روح السلام فينا، أن يحل فجأة كتعويذة سحرية على العالم.


هل كان على سارتر أن يكون موهوب لهذا الحد؟ حقيقة أنه استخدم هذا التكنيك المعقد لسرد قصة تتألف من العديد من الشخصيات وتصل إلى الخمسمئة صفحة! قرأت العديد من الكتب للعديد من الكتّاب الموهوبين بلا شك ومع ذلك لم أعرف كاتب يختار بجرأة أن يروي قصته بهذا الأسلوب الفريد.
وما يثير الدهشة والإعجاب أنه لم يفقد وتيرته، لم يفقد السيطرة على سيولة السرد.


الرواية كانت تعكس فلسفة سارتر الوجودية بشكل واضح.
الشخصيات كانت تعوم في حالة من القلق والضياع الوجودي.
"ما الجدوى؟" كان سؤال يطرق أفكار كل منهم، يطرقها بقسوة فاترة.



الحرية؟ أين تختبئ الحرية؟ في بعثرة شراشف السرير بعد الإستيقاظ من النوم؟ في رتابة روتين حياتنا الهادئ والممل؟ في الأغنية التي نستمع إليها قبل النوم؟ تحت طاولة تكتظ بالطعام البارد والمهمل مع الأصدقاء؟ في اللحظة الأخيرة من الطمأنينة؟ في آخر بريق من نور الأمان؟ في الوداع؟ في التخلي عن الأشياء؟ التخلي عن الأصدقاء؟ الأحباء؟ العائلة؟ في ابتسامة ثائر قبل ثانية من تطبيق حكم الإعدام؟ أين تختبئ الحرية؟ في الحرب؟ في السلم؟

كتاب عظيم، يتجاوز قدرتي على الوصف، أحتاج للشفاء من دهشتي قبل البدء بالجزء الثالث والأخير من السلسلة.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. Sartre has done a masterful job of capturing the looming sense of dread felt by his various characters as they try to go about their lives in as normal a way as possible in the days preceding the start of World War II. Some remarkable stuff in here, from the story of the fellow terrified of suffering disability and disfigurement on the battlefield, to the Jew who does not identify with the suffering of the German Jews because he sees himself as more French than Jewish. At times, this is a hard read, as the stories intertwine so tightly that Sartre sometimes will be telling the story from the point of view in one location and then flip to the POV of a different character in a completely different location mid-paragraph. That said, it did not dissuade me from pushing forward with this powerful work. Over all, a great novel that deserves a renaissance.

[Ugur Kaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sartre'nın dıştan yavan görünen ama içten, içe doğru genişleyen bir anlatı zenginliği var. Birinci kitapta Mathieu'nun yaşadıkları beni ziyadesiyle sarsmıştı ve çok özeldi. Şimdi bu kitap 40 kusur sayfada bile karakterlerin yaşadığı buhranı bir nazi endişesinden doğan öfkeyle ve korkuyla adeta akıla kazıyor.

[Naim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Falls far below expectation.

[Leila · Rating 4 out of 5]

اعتیادآور.
آن‌وقت فهمیدم که انسان نمی‌تواند به خودش برسد مگر با قضاوت یکی‌دیگر، نفرت یکی‌دیگر و همین طور با عشق یکی دیگر.

[Marcus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than the first book of this trilogy. This text is worth reading solely for the style Sartre uses to move between character's who are all experiencing the moments leading up to Hitler's "reclaiming" the Sudeten Germans from Czechoslovakia and the signing of the Munich Agreement on September 30, 1938. It's Europe right before it all went sour. Of course, all the readers know where the lives of Sartre's characters are leading, but the characters don't; and while you might think this makes all their machinations trite, Sartre deftly weaves together the story of many human lives revealing a fascinating picture of the European mind before WWII. If you could imagine reading this book not knowing anything about history you might believe that Sartre ended the book on a happy note, but of course the entire play (for this trilogy really is more like a play) is a monograph on absurdity. The inevitability of the horror that is coming to Europe sits in the reader's mind the entire trilogy and Sartre plays with this knowledge that he knows the reader to possess. When France's Daladier returns home from the Munich meeting at the end of the book, he sees the cheering Parisian crowds who believe war has been averted and says: "Ah, les cons!" (Ah, the fools! - historically I believe he actually did say this). Here is what Winston Churchill actually said about the Munich Agreement, which I think sums up the book rather well:
"We have suffered a total and unmitigated defeat...you will find that in a period of time which may be measured by years, but may be measured by months, Czechoslovakia will be engulfed in the Nazi régime. We are in the presence of a disaster of the first magnitude...we have sustained a defeat without a war, the consequences of which will travel far with us along our road...we have passed an awful milestone in our history, when the whole equilibrium of Europe has been deranged, and that the terrible words have for the time being been pronounced against the Western democracies: "Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting". And do not suppose that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigour, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time."
Perhaps it is my American upbringing and my study of history, but it seems that Sartre's characters are almost comically self interested and confused, given the severity of the situation they faced. Perhaps Sartre was intentionally pushing his readership's buttons, as it were. At the time the book takes place they could not know what would happen, but Sartre's readers did know and they were sitting in Cafe's in Paris just after the war reading the stories of these foolish people. I can't imagine the sick feeling that must have crept into their stomachs at the turn of each page.

[Mostafa Alipour · Rating 5 out of 5]

آلمان که بعد از الحاق اتریش به خودش هنوز به زمین های اروپا چشم داره روی سودتس (استانی در چکسلواکی) دست گذاشته و احتمال شروع جنگ جهانی دوم روز به روز افزایش پیدا می‌کنه تا اینکه با کنفرانس مونیخ در سال ۱۹۳۸ و پیمان انگلیس، فرانسه، ایتالیا و آلمان سودتس به آلمان ملحق میشه و جنگ یکسال به تعلیق درمیاد.

داستان از یک هفته قبل از کنفرانس مونیخ شروع میشه و سارتر در قالب داستانی با شخصیت های متعدد که موازی هم در حال روایت هست تشویش زندگی مردمی که منتظر شروع جنگ هستند رو به خوبی نشون میده.
مردمی که در انتها برای صلح و بازگشت به زندگی عادی خوشحال هستند ولی این صلح پایدار نخواهد بود.

• در ابتدای مطالعه کتاب شاید تعدد شخصیت ها و سوییچ های پی در پی بین اونها آزار دهنده و گیج کننده باشه ولی احتمالا بعد از گذشت حدود ۵۰ صفحه با فضای داستان کنار میاید و روان پیش میرید.
• این کتاب جلد دوم سه گانه راه های آزادی هست و ادامه کاملا مستقل کتاب سن عقل.

[Narges Shegeft · Rating 2 out of 5]

«آخرین مهلت»
(راه‌های آزادی)

متاسفانه یکی از بی‌کشش‌ترین و آبکی‌ترین داستان‌های سارتر بود. مطالبی که نویسنده قصد گفتنشون رو داشت، با این که جالب توجه بودن و حتی باهاشون موافق هم بودم، اما خیلی خام بین داستان جا گرفته بودن. روند داستان هم مصنوعی و پلاستیکی بود.

شایدم تکنیکی که سارتر در نوشتار این کتاب استفاده کرده بود برای من جذابیت کمی داشت.

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نقل قول مورد علاقه‌م:


- ماتیو: راستی که زندگی یک دوزخ است.
- ایرن: یک دوزخ شیرین.
- ماتیو: نه، دوزخ تاریکی است. دوستی‌ها و عشق‌ها بر پایه تردید و دورویی و خواسته‌ها و منافع شخصی استوار است. همه‌ی ما در این دوزخ دست و پا می‌زنیم.
- ایرن: اما ما آزاد هستیم.
- ماتیو: آزاد … در درون ما تضاد‌های خوفناک دست و پا میزند؛ حرص، طمع، کینه، دشمنی، شقاوت، دورویی. با این حال چگونه میتوانیم آزاد باشیم؟
- ایرن: همین عشق است که ما را سرگرم میکند.

[Manny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm trying to imagine what it would have been like to have been a left-leaning French intellectual in 1939. You're used to defending Stalin on the grounds that he's at least against Hitler. Then he suddenly goes and forms an alliance with him.

Sartre does his best to convey how this felt, as does de Beauvoir in the second volume of her memoirs. But I still can't really grasp it. Oh well.

[One Flew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Satre was trying a method called simultaneous description with this book. Which basically consisted of making the book far more difficult to read than necessary. The constant jumping from one character to another, and one situation to the next, made it near on unreadable.

I enjoyed 'The Age of Reason' much more. Satre's usual brilliance shines through in places, but i found it a chore to read.

[Amirreza Esfehani · Rating 1 out of 5]

نتونستم ارتباط بگیرم

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting in the change of people and situations in the narrative. This stream of consciousness writing is in the beginning disconcerting but did grow on me. The plot revolves around The Munich peace of 1938 and the delay of war for another year. Switching back between all the characters from the first novel and some new ones. The change mobilization brings to many of the characters is the theme and the impact it has on them. I look forward to the final book of the trilogy.

[Moshtagh hosein · Rating 2 out of 5]

کپی واضح سارتر از جان دس‌پاسس و کتاب مدار ۴۲.
البته برای شرح ان دوره مدل دیگری هم‌ نمیشد نوشت .

[Xander · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a huge - I emphasize it: HUGE - disappointment The Reprieve (1946) is... A terrible experience - but, by now, I know Jean-Paul Sartre is hit-or-miss. In The Age of Reason (1946) - part one of a planned tetrology called The Ways of Freedom - Sartre used the lives of handful of people to explore his extentialist philosophy in practice. He described the lives of these people during two days in the hot summer of 1938. Each chapter or distinct part within a chapter centres around one person and the reader gets to know the inner thoughts, moods, experiences and decisions of the person involved. All stories are interwoven into one great narrative which centres around Mathieu Delarue, a 35 year old philosophy teacher at a Lycée, living a bohemian life out of resentment towards the bourgeois lifestyle, and who tries to come up with 4000 francs to pay for the abortion of his long time girlfriend Marcelle.

But how different is The Reprieve! Gone are the personal stories, the existentialist perceptions of the characters involved, the narratives within a narrative. Sartre throws all this out in order to cover a more historical story: the week in september 1938 when Hitler was on the verge of invading Czechoslovakia, dragging France - and with this Europe - into another World War, and British PM Chamberlain flew to Munich to try to come up with some sort of peaceful solution. Theoretically, this is a majestic setting for a novel, especially when it is tied to existentialist themes, emphasizing the pluarity of perspectives involved.

What went wrong? Well, already from the first sentence we can read how Sartre attacked this target from a whole new angle. He now includes many more characters, switches the perspetive and narrative in one or two sentences at a time, and connects seemingly unconnected persons, locations and events. The result is a totally different book, in all possible ways of being different. And it's not simply 'different' - it is barely readable. Being more than 1/3 in the book, I still couldn't make out what I was reading, which story connects to which character, and vice versa.

No, I feel no impulse to reading on: I am not just disappointed (after finding The Age of Reason kind of majestic), I am unable to understand and follow this book. A shame... but I guess disappointments like these makes you appreciate the rewarding books even more, so I'll rather stick with my memories of The Age of Reason I guess.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

راه های آزادی بخشی از یک "سه گانه" است؛ بخش اول "سن عقل"، به افکار ماتیو، یک معلم فلسفه، درباره ی آزادی می پردازد. بخش دوم "تعلیق" به مساله ی قرارداد معروف مونیخ میان استالین و هیتلر، جمع سوسیالیسم و آزادی با فاشیسم، و هموار شدن تهاجم به آزادی می پردازد، و بخش سوم "راه های آزادی" پس از جنگ نوشته شده، و به رهایی و رسیدن به آزادی می پردازد.
این کتاب توسط مصطفی رحیمی به فارسی برگردانده شده و در 1351 منتشر شده است.

سارتر در این سه اثر خود بیشتر به "پدیدارشناسی" که ایده ی "ادموند هوسرل" آلمانی ست، پرداخته. او پس از آشنایی با "پدیدارشناسی" هوسرل، در سفری به آلمان و اقامت بلند مدت در آنجا، در این زمینه به مطالعه پرداخت.

در مورد ژان پل سارتر، مطلبی جداگانه نوشته ام؛
http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_...

[Eni Gajanova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Žan-Pol Sartr „Odlaganje”
Drugi deo trilogije „Putevi slobode”

„Posleratno vreme bilo je početak. Početak mira. Živelo se u njemu bez žurbe, kao što se živi jedno jutro. Džez je bio jedan početak, i bioskop, koji sam toliko voleo, bio je početak. I nadrealizam...I ta budućnost je sad ovde, kraj mojih nogu mrtva...Bila je to lažna budućnost...Vreme između dva rata. Samo dvadeset godina!...Osećao se tužan i lak: bio je go, sve su mu pokrali. Nemam više ničega svog, čak ni svoje prošlosti.”

Odabrala sam deo koji po mom mišljenju najbolje opisuje temu kojom se ova knjiga bavi. Radnja se odvija nekoliko dana uoči Minhenskog sporazuma 30. septembra 1938. godine, za koji se smatra da je omogućuo Nemcima da okupiraju Čehoslovačku. Ovo je knjiga koja se bavi prikazom velikih istorijskih događaja, ali kroz oči i živote ”običnih” ljudi koji su verovali da će nakon Prvog svetskog rata postojati samo mir, napredak, budućnost i nada da je bolji svet moguć a onda im je neko pokrao živote strahotama koje će uslediti. Boli savremenost ove knjige i saznanje da se ništa nije promenilo. Od rata i cele savremene geopolitičke situacije do uplašenih roditelja čija deca stradaju od velikog kašlja.

Rat sve obesmišljava. Da li treba nastaviti sa radničkom borbom i sindikalizmom dok je rat za petama? Očevi gledaju svoju decu i zamišljaju kako ih se neće ni sećati jer ko zna kad će se vratiti a možda se i ne vrate. Mladi koji brinu o svojoj mladosti koja će biti izbrisana.

Izdvojila bih razmišljanja jednog pastira Luja-Dugonje koji biva mobilizovan. „Ništa u svemu tome ne razumem. Zaključio je: to je zato što ne umem da čitam... Ljudi čitaju novine, znaju zašto ide se u rat. On je potuno sam i sasvim mali, ne zna ništa, ne razume ništa, to je isto kao da će da umre.” Samo ne zna da nije sam. Malo ko od nas običnih smrtinka može da shvati smisao ove ultimativne ljudske destrukcije.
„Ko, ko hoće rat? Ako se uzmu pojedini ljudi, oni nisu ratoborni, oni misle samo kako će da jedu, da steknu novac i da prave decu... A rat je ipak tu.”

Jedno anksiozno, ali kvalitetno i važno čitanje za promišljanje.
Ova knjiga možda u nekim delovima nije savršena, ali celokupan utisak zaslužuje najvišu ocenu.

[William Munter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unique book containing a blend of narratives of different people in different circumstances awaiting news about whether the Allies would declare war against Germany in 1938. This book made me consider how rather trivial, everyday problems can be put into perspective when a catastrophic event like the outbreak of war beckons. Sartre’s characters are interesting and humorous in the opacity of their thoughts, whilst the historical context is similarly humorous as one knows the illusory nature of the reprieve, since war would eventually break out in 1939.

[The Immersion Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outside the world, outside the past, outside myself: freedom is exile, and I am condemned to be free.

He did it again. Such rich language! Such unique style! Such poignant literary choices!

In this second installment in The Roads To Freedom, we stand at the brink of war alongside Mathieu, Daniel, Ivich, Boris, Lola and our other comrades from The Age of Reason. And we meet an abundance of new characters as well. Through the entire novel, Sartre spans the time of one week. Yet within that week we find eternity in which beginning and end and all points of self-discovery between exist eternally.

In The Reprieve, Sartre applies a different narrative structure than in The Age of Reason. He cleverly dances between multitudes of different characters and their storylines. But each pivot happens without any warning to the reader; sometimes mid-sentence. Pronouns used when reading about Mathieu and Gomez suddenly shift to Maud and Pierre and one must catch the change by the subtle shift in setting or other indicators to avoid prolonged confusion. At first, I found the narrative difficult to follow but, if nothing else, it forced me to stay alert and hang on every sentence; for which I am grateful.

Why do this? As I jorneyed deeper into the novel, I realized that this tactic illustrates ideas central to Sartre's understanding of these times - the essence of the individual and collective as well as eternity when faced with destruction. All of Europe stands at the brink of world war and, while his stories focus on individual experiences in this shared dilemma, the narrative combines these experiences into a single stream of humanity as if humanity itself were an organism. I imagine one could graph the pivots and find further significance in Sartre's choices of when to change, to whom to shift, and for how long.

Within these shifts, one also also notices the comparisons and contrasts between the characters. As familes escort their drafted soldiers to trains, we also witness nurses transporting the sick and infirm to trains; as if Sartre mirrors the soldier's journey to the war with their foreshadowed journey from the war all in the same moment. We contrast the ignorant innocence of Gros Louis and the educated naivety of Philippe; who both end up beaten like soldier's returning from battle. The innocence and its loss existing simultaneously within the whole of humanity and time.

The narrative not only embodies both humanity and the individual simultaneously, but also represents the essence of war in the way it encompasses all these unique episodes into a conglomeration of humanity. As individuals compile into humanity, violent activities compile into war.

War: everyone is free, and yet the die is cast. It is there, it is everywhere, it is the totality of all my thoughts, of all Hitler's words, of all Gomez's acts; but no one is there to add it up. It exists solely for God. But God does not exist. And yet the war exists.

What is war? What is humanity? Essences of totality collected in violent activities and unique individuals. When tangled confusingly in these snares, one understandably contemplates the essence of these contrasting concepts.

The war takes and embraces everything, war preserves every thought and every gesture, and no one can see it, not even Hitler. No one. He repeated: No one - and suddenly he caught a sight of it. It was a strange entity, and one indeed beyond the reach of thought.

Mathieu discusses the inability to see War while his counterpart, Daniel, discusses the need for something to see his Self in order to know himself.

'I am seen, therefore I am.' I need no longer bear the responsibility of my turbid and disintegrating self: he who sees me causes me to be; I am as he sees me.

In these contemplations, Daniel and Mathieu become quite opposite but the contrast illustrates how the wholistic essence of war and humanity cannot be known in the same way we can see and know individuality. But they both exist.

Whether individual or conceptual essence, all existence encapsulates into a single momentous experience in time; no longer linear but eternal. The reader does not come to this from character lectures or traditional fictional devices, but from the real-world artistic choices of an author composing words on bound papers in the reader's hands.