The Wall and Other Stories.

SARTRE, Jean-Paul.

Item Number: 122197

New York: New Directions, 1948.

Signed limited edition, one of only 25 copies. Octavo, original Japanese vellum spine over patterned boards, top edge gilt. Translated by Lloyd Alexander. In near fine condition. Rare and desirable.

One of Sartre’s greatest existentialist works of fiction, The Wall contains the only five short stories he ever wrote. Set during the Spanish Civil War, the title story crystallizes the famous philosopher’s existentialism. The Wall, the lead story in this collection, introduces three political prisoners on the night prior to their execution. Through the gaze of an impartial doctor―seemingly there for the men's solace―their mental descent is charted in exquisite, often harrowing detail. And as the morning draws inexorably closer, the men cross the psychological wall between life and death, long before the first shot rings out. This brilliant snapshot of life in anguish is the perfect introduction to a collection of stories where the neurosis of the modern world is mirrored in the lives of the people that inhabit it .