The Last Chance

The Last Chance Synopsis

This is the first English translation of Sartre's unfinished fourth volume of "Roads to Freedom", exploring the interrelations of politics, responsibility; friendship and freedom - themes central to Sartrean existentialism. "Last Chance" brings to an English-speaking audience for the first time the unfinished fourth volume of Jean-Paul Sartre's hugely important "Roads to Freedom cycle". "Sartre's Roads to Freedom" is generally read and regarded as a trilogy, made up of "Age of Reason", "The Reprieve" and "Troubled Sleep". In fact, Sartre began a fourth volume and, although he never finished the work, two chapters, "Strange Friendship" and "Last Chance", were published in French by Gallimard after his death. Set in a German prisoner of war camp, these chapters continue the story of Roads to Freedom, exploring the interrelations of politics, responsibility, friendship and freedom - themes central to Sartrean existentialism. The Pleiade edition published by Gallimard included a previously unpublished interview with Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir's account of his plans for the unfinished fourth volume, and an introduction to the unfinished fragments by the editor, Michel Contat. All this material is translated and published here in this, the first English-language edition of a work that makes an enormous contribution to our understanding of Sartre's hugely influential "Roads to Freedom" cycle.

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