Camus and Sartre
The Story of a Friendship and the Quarrel That Ended It
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by Ronald Aronson
University of Chicago Press
Due/Published
May 2005, 302 pages,
paper
ISBN
0226000249
New in paper (S05) Until now it has been impossible to read the full story of the relationship between Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre. Their dramatic rupture at the height of the Cold War, like that conflict itself, demanded those caught in its wake to take sides rather than to appreciate its tragic complexity. Now, using newly available sources, Ronald Aronson offers an account of this most famous friendship and its end. Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre first met in 1943, during the German occupation of France. The two became fast friends. Intellectual as well as political allies, they grew famous overnight after Paris was liberated. East-West tensions began to strain their friendship as they evolved in opposing directions. They continued to spend time with each other while beginning to disagree over philosophy, the responsibilities of intellectuals, and what sorts of political changes were necessary or possible. As each man adopted the mantle of public spokesperson for his side, they moved inexorably towards a historic showdown. Sartre embraced violence as a path to change and Camus sharply opposed it, leading to a bitter and very public falling out in 1952. They never spoke again. In a remarkably balanced account, Aronson chronicles this story while demonstrating how Camus and Sartre developed first in connection with and then against each other, each keeping the other in his sights long after their break. Camus and Sartre combines biography and intellectual history, philosophical and political passion. Contents Acknowledgments
Prologue
1. First Encounters
2. Occupation, Resistance, Liberation
3. Postwar Commitments
4. Camus's Turning-Point
5. Sartre's Turning-Point
6. Violence and Communism
7. The Explosion
8. Arranging Many Things, Performing Real Acts
9. Recovering Their Voices
10. No Exit
Epilogue
Notes
Index |
