Two Plays: The Flies (Les Mouches) & In Camera (Huis Clos) by Jean-Paul Sartre [U.K. FIRST EDITION] 8th Impression ❧ 1969

Two Plays by Jean-Paul Sartre [The Flies (Les Mouches) & In Camera (Huis Clos)] 

FIRST EDITION / 8th IMPRESSION [1969] HAMISH HAMILTON [London]

Vintage hardcover with dust jacket in Very Good condition.

Dust jacket is in good shape w/ some soiling [mostly to edges] and a clipped front panel.  A few tiny edge tears.  Now housed in a protective mylar jacket.

Book itself is excellent; near pristine cloth boards.  Tight binding.  Reads like new w/ just some minor fraying to top of text block.  

With the production of Huis Clos and Les Mouches Jean-Paul Sartre emerged from the comparative obscurity of a young professor of philosophy, whose first two books were known only to a few admirers, to become the most discussed of contemporary French writers whose effect on the thought of Europe and America was immediately felt. His influence is easily understood, for his work is concerned with the greatest problem raised by the events of the last few years – how far each human being is responsible for his life and how far he has the freedom to shape it. Sartre’s passionate belief in the liberty of every individual, implying responsibility towards himself and others, is the theme of these two plays.
In The Flies he has created a new interpretation of the story of Orestes and Electra, the unhappy doomed children of King Agamemnon who was murdered by his wife and her lover on his return from the Trojan wars. Sartre sees Orestes as the only person in the drama who is fully conscious of his freedom and who, through his acceptance of full responsibility for his actions, can free his guilt-stricken people from the Furies of the jealous gods.
In Camera is the play which has aroused the most violent discussion. Three characters in hell are forced to recognise the real nature of their lives through their interaction in this strangely unconventional world of the damned to which they are reluctant to admit they belong.