Jean-Paul Sartre, Huis clos [In Camera]

Benedict Paul O'Donohoe (University of Sussex)

Ed. by David Houston Jones, University of Exeter
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.07: French Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kate Averis (Universidad de Antioquia), Hugo Azerad (University of Cambridge), Patrick ffrench (King's College London), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Akane Kawakami (Birkbeck, University of London), Siobhán McIlvanney (King's College London), Sinan Richards (King's College London), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1945

Places

France (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

“Hell is other people.” Anyone who has ever heard of Sartre can tell you that he “said” that. This is a sorry epitaph for a philosopher, novelist and playwright who never “said” anything of the sort: one of his characters in one of his many plays “says” this, and with good reason. For his part, Sartre neither said it nor thought it. He was a clubbable and gregarious man as a writer, never more at ease than in a group of colleagues and disciples (la famille), and his entire, voluminous output in a wide range of genres is focused on exalting human freedom, exploring its ethical implications and moral consequences, and striving towards a pragmatic description of a societal organisation that would be both …

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3032 words

Citation: O'Donohoe, Benedict Paul. "Huis clos". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 September 2011 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11111, accessed 24 November 2024.]

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