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Existentialism and Excess: The Life and Times of Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre is an undisputed giant of twentieth-century philosophy. His intellectual writings popularizing existentialism combined with his creative and artistic flair have made him a legend of French thought. His tumultuous personal life - so inextricably bound up with his philosophical thinking - is a fascinating tale of love and lust, drug abuse, high profile fallings-out and political and cultural rebellion.
This substantial and meticulously researched biography is accessible, fast-paced, often amusing and at times deeply moving. Existentialism and Excess covers all the main events of Sartre's remarkable seventy-five-year life from his early years as a precocious brat devouring his grandfather's library, through his time as a brilliant student in Paris, his wilderness years as a provincial teacher-writer experimenting with mescaline, his World War II adventures as a POW and member of the resistance, his post-war politicization, his immense amphetamine fueled feats of writing productivity, his harem of women, his many travels and his final decline into blindness and old age.
Along the way there are countless intriguing anecdotes, some amusing, some tragic, some his loathing of crustaceans and his belief that he was being pursued by a giant lobster, his escape from a POW camp, the bombing of his apartment, his influence on the May 1968 uprising and his many love affairs. Cox deftly moves from these episodes to discussing his intellectual development, his famous feuds with Aron, Camus, and Merleau-Ponty, his encounters with other giant figures of his Roosevelt, Hemingway, Heidegger, John Huston, Mao, Castro, Che Guevara, Khrushchev and Tito, and, above all, his long, complex and creative relationship with Simone de Beauvoir.
Existentialism and Excess also gives serious consideration to Sartre's ideas and many philosophical works, novels, stories, plays and biographies, revealing their intimate connection with his personal life.
Cox has written an entertaining, thought-provoking and compulsive book, much like the man himself.
This substantial and meticulously researched biography is accessible, fast-paced, often amusing and at times deeply moving. Existentialism and Excess covers all the main events of Sartre's remarkable seventy-five-year life from his early years as a precocious brat devouring his grandfather's library, through his time as a brilliant student in Paris, his wilderness years as a provincial teacher-writer experimenting with mescaline, his World War II adventures as a POW and member of the resistance, his post-war politicization, his immense amphetamine fueled feats of writing productivity, his harem of women, his many travels and his final decline into blindness and old age.
Along the way there are countless intriguing anecdotes, some amusing, some tragic, some his loathing of crustaceans and his belief that he was being pursued by a giant lobster, his escape from a POW camp, the bombing of his apartment, his influence on the May 1968 uprising and his many love affairs. Cox deftly moves from these episodes to discussing his intellectual development, his famous feuds with Aron, Camus, and Merleau-Ponty, his encounters with other giant figures of his Roosevelt, Hemingway, Heidegger, John Huston, Mao, Castro, Che Guevara, Khrushchev and Tito, and, above all, his long, complex and creative relationship with Simone de Beauvoir.
Existentialism and Excess also gives serious consideration to Sartre's ideas and many philosophical works, novels, stories, plays and biographies, revealing their intimate connection with his personal life.
Cox has written an entertaining, thought-provoking and compulsive book, much like the man himself.
352 pages, Paperback
First published August 11, 2016
17 people are currently reading
155 people want to read
About the author
Gary Cox
55 books40 followersGary Cox is a British philosopher and biographer and the author of several books on Jean-Paul Sartre, existentialism, general philosophy, ethics and philosophy of sport.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
March 12, 2018
This was a really great overview of Sartre's life. It wasn't hugely in depth but was fast paced and explained his various philosophies very well. A pleasure to read!
July 4, 2020
A good (but not great) biography.
I could ‘put it down’ but didn’t want to.
I read some of Sartre’s plays and novels when I was in high school and in my early 20’s.
I love’d Dirty Hands, Nausea, and No Exit.
But in retrospect, I did not completely appreciate their full meaning and import because I lacked sufficient understanding of their philosophical, historical and political context.
This book provided just enough of that context to bring his work to life. And it did so without being tedious or overly detailed.
So why 4/5 stars?
A great biography makes you care deeply about the person and their work. This is not a great biography by that standard. But is is a very good one. And is therefore worth reading if you’re so inclined.
I could ‘put it down’ but didn’t want to.
I read some of Sartre’s plays and novels when I was in high school and in my early 20’s.
I love’d Dirty Hands, Nausea, and No Exit.
But in retrospect, I did not completely appreciate their full meaning and import because I lacked sufficient understanding of their philosophical, historical and political context.
This book provided just enough of that context to bring his work to life. And it did so without being tedious or overly detailed.
So why 4/5 stars?
A great biography makes you care deeply about the person and their work. This is not a great biography by that standard. But is is a very good one. And is therefore worth reading if you’re so inclined.
October 13, 2018
Extremely superficial, perhaps good for a beginning philosophy student, but this sort of reminds me of a cursory tourist guide which is designed for people with short attention spans, and if your attention span is short, philosophy is not for you. Skip this book.
November 4, 2016
A guy that wrote a lot of continental philosophy because of alcohol, cigarettes (a lot), speed, sleeping pills, among other substances. It was a pretty good biography of Sartre.
September 1, 2025
quite lovely retelling of the many years Mr. Sartre was thinking, writing and breathing (yes, in this particular order)
this was pretty short but all vital points were there which makes it easily digestible for philosophy beginners I would say.
the ironic tone made this such a pleasant experience, while I don’t think it would have much value to someone who’s read all of Sartre and additional Literature, for the average person I can only recommend!
this was pretty short but all vital points were there which makes it easily digestible for philosophy beginners I would say.
the ironic tone made this such a pleasant experience, while I don’t think it would have much value to someone who’s read all of Sartre and additional Literature, for the average person I can only recommend!
March 22, 2023
“Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself.” It was phrases like this that stirred a whole generation of French intellectuals. Sartre's star may have waned significantly since the 1950s and 1960s, but his legacy remains indisputable, complex, and contested. He was a champion of individual freedom who sided with the most awful totalitarian regimes of the 20th century. He was the epitome of the hyper-social cafeteria intellectual who quarreled ceaselessly with almost every other eminent thinker in France. Reflecting and revealing all these contradictions, Gary Cox has provided a fun and fast-paced biography that is hard to put down. It (mostly) avoids the pitfalls of hagiography, on the one hand, and muckraking, on the other hand. At its best, it serves a good, factual, and fast-paced introduction to Sartre. It mostly succeed in summarizing his whole life in less than 300 pages. However, this must come with the caveat that, for more advanced readers, the book offers nothing new (although it may serve as a handy reference source for quotes and events). The book borrows most of its juicy details and biographical facts from prior, better books.
There is no shame in standing on the shoulders of giants. Cox has great skills in rearranging and (re)presenting old facts in a compelling way. He has opted for a rather enjoyable, rapid-fire approach to storytelling. However, speed is not always good (which is a fact that Sartre himself did not appreciate during his pill-popping period). Indeed, the author often proceeds so quickly that many of the intimate details, sounds, and sights of each scene and character get lost. In that regard, I feel that At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails does a much better job at painting a picture of the sensibilities, desires, inner conflicts, and personal relationships of the existentialist authors. Stylistically, Cox writes like a journalist with a real passion with Sartre but little patience for any deeper analysis or commentary. His editorial comments are consistently banal and uninspired. His attempts at normative judgement, although infrequent, are frequently shockingly bad. We are told, for example, that Camus was not as good of an existentialist writer as Sartre. (But no evidence is given to support this claim.) We are also told that Fidel Castro's initial efforts at lifting people out of poverty were rather impressive. (No mention is made of the torture, oppression, and concentration camps.) To be fair, Cox does grill Sartre for his continued apologia for Maoist China and the U.S.S.R., but only when it becomes absolutely impossible to see in them anything but self-deception. By failing to dig deeper, the book gives us little new insight into the roots of the perverse paroxysms of Sartre's revolutionary politics. Overall, the analytical dimension of the book is very weak. It even ends with a whimper. However, none of this matters much for an average reader who is looking for a fun book on Sartre. So, although it bothered me, I cannot imagine that it will (or should) bother most people.
So, I have to give the book two ratings, calibrated to one's level of expertise in Sartre:
1) For beginners and casual readers, this is a good introduction. 4/5 stars.
2) For intermediate and advanced readers, this book is too quick and superficial. 3/5 stars.
Pick your poison, I suppose. After all, we are always responsible for our choices.
PS. Straussians: I have made the job (too) easy for you. Sorry.
There is no shame in standing on the shoulders of giants. Cox has great skills in rearranging and (re)presenting old facts in a compelling way. He has opted for a rather enjoyable, rapid-fire approach to storytelling. However, speed is not always good (which is a fact that Sartre himself did not appreciate during his pill-popping period). Indeed, the author often proceeds so quickly that many of the intimate details, sounds, and sights of each scene and character get lost. In that regard, I feel that At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails does a much better job at painting a picture of the sensibilities, desires, inner conflicts, and personal relationships of the existentialist authors. Stylistically, Cox writes like a journalist with a real passion with Sartre but little patience for any deeper analysis or commentary. His editorial comments are consistently banal and uninspired. His attempts at normative judgement, although infrequent, are frequently shockingly bad. We are told, for example, that Camus was not as good of an existentialist writer as Sartre. (But no evidence is given to support this claim.) We are also told that Fidel Castro's initial efforts at lifting people out of poverty were rather impressive. (No mention is made of the torture, oppression, and concentration camps.) To be fair, Cox does grill Sartre for his continued apologia for Maoist China and the U.S.S.R., but only when it becomes absolutely impossible to see in them anything but self-deception. By failing to dig deeper, the book gives us little new insight into the roots of the perverse paroxysms of Sartre's revolutionary politics. Overall, the analytical dimension of the book is very weak. It even ends with a whimper. However, none of this matters much for an average reader who is looking for a fun book on Sartre. So, although it bothered me, I cannot imagine that it will (or should) bother most people.
So, I have to give the book two ratings, calibrated to one's level of expertise in Sartre:
1) For beginners and casual readers, this is a good introduction. 4/5 stars.
2) For intermediate and advanced readers, this book is too quick and superficial. 3/5 stars.
Pick your poison, I suppose. After all, we are always responsible for our choices.
PS. Straussians: I have made the job (too) easy for you. Sorry.
April 8, 2017
Couldn't face any more of this.Gave up half-way through and still didn't understand what existentialism is.
June 23, 2020
Jean-Paul seems like a real rascal! I sincerely appreciate what he has done for France, Marxism, Free speech, and Philosophy! What a nightmare being his friend or disagreeing with him must have been.
February 12, 2024
This probably would have been better at twice the length, with much more analysis - something the author is certainly capable of (I have a copy of his Sartre Dictionary). As it stands, it cracks on at such a pace you're left with an impression of the shape of Sartre's life and the chronology of his works (and relationships), but remarkably little of his opinions and ideas.
Is this an unfair criticism in what is, after all, a biography? Perhaps, but this is a biography of one of the greatest intellectuals of the 20th century - so surely a greater focus on his inner life and his key ideas is warranted? The chronological approach means much of this is lost by the end - his most productive period decades in the past, and it's significance (beyond his celebrity) kinda left unclear.
Also strangely missing is much on de Beauvoir, who features far less than I was expecting. Why was someone as gifted and intelligent so in love with this strange, ugly, selfish, unfaithful man? What influence did she have on him, and vice versa? From this book, it's impossible to say. It looks like I need a biography of her next.
Is this an unfair criticism in what is, after all, a biography? Perhaps, but this is a biography of one of the greatest intellectuals of the 20th century - so surely a greater focus on his inner life and his key ideas is warranted? The chronological approach means much of this is lost by the end - his most productive period decades in the past, and it's significance (beyond his celebrity) kinda left unclear.
Also strangely missing is much on de Beauvoir, who features far less than I was expecting. Why was someone as gifted and intelligent so in love with this strange, ugly, selfish, unfaithful man? What influence did she have on him, and vice versa? From this book, it's impossible to say. It looks like I need a biography of her next.
July 27, 2025
A lively, accessible portrait of Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism and Excess captures the contradictions of a man who defined 20th-century existentialism while living a life of intellectual intensity, radical freedom, and personal chaos. Gary Cox brings Sartre’s philosophy to life in clear, engaging prose while exploring his relationships, political stances, and the excesses that made him both fascinating and flawed. Perfect for readers curious about Sartre’s ideas and why his rebellious spirit continues to resonate, this biography blends philosophical clarity with the messy humanity of its subject, making Sartre feel as alive and urgent as ever.
August 31, 2023
Great insight into Sartre… he has met alot of interesting women… and had really interesting and questionable relationships with some women too… specifically his adopted daughter who was also in his harem… and the woman who smoked a cigarette out of her nether regions -> 🌋
But all in all really interesting to understand sartre and his pov on alot of things while j knowing facts about him too, especially after reading how to be you where i received some light towards how De Beauvoir felt and perceived Sartre and her relationship w him. Might try find a biography on De Beauvoir soon
But all in all really interesting to understand sartre and his pov on alot of things while j knowing facts about him too, especially after reading how to be you where i received some light towards how De Beauvoir felt and perceived Sartre and her relationship w him. Might try find a biography on De Beauvoir soon
October 28, 2022
A beautifully written and wonderfully informative book, providing some excellent insights into the controversial life and works of the father of existentialism. Gary Cox's way of presenting the materials is at once thoughtful, sympathetic, clear-eyed and at times highly amusing, and above all - accessible and informative. All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable read!
July 14, 2020
Gary Cox covered so much in this book, from Sartre’s personal life, to beliefs, work, politics and what was going on in the world at the time. Highly recommend this as an eye opener to both Sartre and also De Beauvoir.
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October 28, 2019Weird.
March 5, 2023
I enjoy reading sartre and find him stimulating. But man he lived a crazy life. Glad for that perspective from the writer here.
September 10, 2023
What a character! Great biography
November 30, 2023
A very good, enjoyable and easy to read introduction to the life and philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre. It is also a sufficient introduction to the 20th-century French political and intellectual scene.
January 10, 2024
Fantastic for a clean personal bio free of overly complicated philosophical theory. This biography did exactly what it should do - reveal the man.
January 11, 2017
Very readable document of the life, loves and literature of Jean Paul Sartre. Brings to life the realities and absurdities of the man and his adventures. I've only read Satre's novel, Nausea, but I feel I learned a lot about his thinking and the background to his work.
June 3, 2019
My first philosophy book in a long time, and first French philosopher book ever. Very interesting read. Really got me interested in more French philosophers!
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December 15, 2017194 C8775 2016
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews