Sartre: A Philosophical Biography - Hardcover

'This exploration of Sartre's thought in the context of his life is both extensive and comprehensive: a major contribution to Sartre studies.' Thomas Busch, Villanova University

'No English-speaking philosopher has read [Sartre's] vast corpus with greater industry than Mr Flynn. His new biography scrutinises the works chronologically from start to finish. It includes Sartre's fiction and plays as well as the political or critical essays. Mr Flynn has done Sartrean initiates a large service.' The Economist

'In its range – it encompasses the totality of Sartre's entire non-fictional career, including the posthumously published works – Flynn's study is a tour de force.' Sarah Richmond, The Times Literary Supplement

'Flynn's study effectively reclaims the Sartrean legacy for this century and reminds us of the importance of the imagination in the toolkit of a revolutionary.' Sean Ledwith, Marx and Philosophy Review of Books

'His book belongs in the collection of any college or university with a philosophy program, and on the shelf (and in the hands) of any serious student of Sartre or twentieth-century philosophy.' Lance Byron Richey, American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) was one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century. Regarded as the father of existentialist philosophy, he was also a political critic, moralist, playwright, novelist, and author of biographies and short stories. Thomas R. Flynn provides the first book-length account of Sartre as a philosopher of the imaginary, mapping the intellectual development of his ideas throughout his life, and building a narrative that is not only philosophical but also attentive to the political and literary dimensions of his work. Exploring Sartre's existentialism, politics, ethics, and ontology, this book illuminates the defining ideas of Sartre's oeuvre: the literary and the philosophical, the imaginary and the conceptual, his descriptive phenomenology and his phenomenological concept of intentionality, and his conjunction of ethics and politics with an 'egoless' consciousness. It will appeal to all who are interested in Sartre's philosophy and its relation to his life.