The Family Idiot 2: Gustave Flaubert 1821-1857

The Family Idiot

by Jean-Paul Sartre, Carol Cosman (translator)

Seen by many as the culmination of Sartre's thought and project, and viewed by Sartre himself as an attempt to answer the question, "What, at this point in time, can we know about a man?" this monumental work continues to perplex its fascinated critics and admirers, who have argued about its precise nature. However, as reviews of the first volume in this translation agreed, whatever The Family Idiot may be called—"a dialectic" (Fredric Jameson, New York Times Book Review ); "biography, philosophy, or politics? Surely . . . all of these together" (Renee Winegarten, Commentary ); "a new form of fiction?" (Victor Brombert, Times Literary Supplement ); or simply, "mad, of course" (Julian Barnes, London Review of Books )—its prominent place in intellectual history is indisputable.

Volume 2, consisting of the first book of part 2 of the original French work, takes the reader through Flaubert's adolescence well into his evolution as an artist. Sartre's approach to his complex subject, whether jaunty or ponderous, psychoanalytical or political, is captured in all of its rich variety of Carol Cosman's translation.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

444 pages, cloth

First published January 1, 1971

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

[Deniz · Rating 5 out of 5]

İkinci ciltte delilik, normallik ve semptomlar arasında gidip geliyoruz.

(Bu arada gerçekten ikinci kitabı da bitirdiğim için kendimi tebrik etmek istiyorum valla. Ben bu gazla üçüncü kitabı da bitiririm bence :p)

Genç Flaubert'imiz kendisini bilinçli şekilde sanatçıya dönüştürmeye çalışırken karanlık ve tutarsız bir düşsel evren kurmaktadır. Bu evren, kötücül bir dünya görüşü üzerine kuruludur.

Hakikat, Tanrı, iyi-kötü gibi kavramlara ilişkin görüşleri birbirini tutmaz. Bu da anlatı zamanı içinde, yani bir hikâye kurarak bütünleşebilir. Flaubert gerçek fikirler üretmez, imgeler yaratır. Anlamı bu imgelerde arar.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sartre here is running up against the limits between existentialism and psychoanalysis in an effort to make one total discourse that traverses light and dark.

I'm in this now. It's completely whacked but still pretty great...parts anyway.