Either way, the dozen or so ‘freedom’ sections feel like plasters strapped onto the groaning seething mass of disgust, appalled descriptions of physical functions and an apparently never-ending series of ways for the characters to feel disgusted and revolted by each other. A silence fell, then Ivich said in a faltering voice: ‘You… you mean that your… motive for offering me the money is a selfish one?

Entering chapter 12 and the final 100 pages of the novel, a series of events force Delarue towards the culmination of his predicament.He declined the award of the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his work which, rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for truth, has exerted a far-reaching influence on our age. Subsequent novels in the Road to Freedom have little to do with this theme, but what Sartre did is lay bare the concerns of his central characters whilst World War II loomed casually on the horizon.

None of them have jobs (Mathieu has stopped work for the vacation) or children – they are completely free of timetables and responsibilities, utterly free to be as unhappy and negative as they please.

He first tries his wealthy friend Sarah, although bumps into the communist Brunet in the process (who later invites Mathieu to join the party, but he declines). Daniel Sereno is the extremely good looking gay friend of Mathieu, although they don’t appear to get on particularly well. This book asks more questions than it answers, creates more doubts than it clarifies, precisely, leaves one in the lurch.

Mathieu makes his rounds, asking those who might be able to help him out -- while always inclined to stop off for a few drinks -- and eventually trying to get the money by other means (a loan, a theft), and it is his trying to deal with setting up the abortion that is the main plotline of the novel. A long filament hung from her lips, she had to cough it away… She watched the dabs of mucus sliding slowly towards the drainpipe leaving glossy, viscous tracks behind them, like snails. They went back to her apartment, she took some more drugs (she snorts heroin) and in the morning was cold, still, with her eyes open.The Age of Reason is the first of the trilogy, a third-person narrative set in Paris in 1938 which focuses on two days in the life of Mathieu Delarue (French for ‘of the street’). When he does nothing of the sort but instead proudly brandishes the money for the abortion, Marcelle’s face falls, she is ashen, she says, ‘So that’s what you think of me’. It was amusing enough a hundred years ago, but today it is simply a name for a handful of eccentrics who are no danger to anybody, and have missed the train. Put like that, maybe Sartre and his philosophy have disappeared because they have been so thoroughly subsumed into our modern attitude. He meets Ivich to take her to a museum and show her the works of Gaugin (a French post-impressionist artist).

With its cast of highly memorable characters, Age of Reason delivers a philosophical novel that doesn’t bore as it’s so heavily entrenched in a very real and humane perspective. He has a huge amount of admiration for Mathieu, but still doesn’t fancy achieving any grand age of any sort. In the book, I must point out, Daniel often says one thing to his friends to make him appear moral, likeable, and supportive. Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review 's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers.

This does have a potential to backfire though because the idea of defining oneself can apply only to that which can be perceived, and there are times when we try to create a perception that does not work. The freedom part may be right (I disagree) but the immensely negative emotional interpretation Sartre gives it is entirely his own (and his own problem). Next morning Mathieu meets Ivich at the Dome cafe and they start drinking to get rid of their hangovers, when Boris appears completely dazed. Realising the game is up, he finally levels with her (although, frankly, surely Ivich should have figured this out by now, which kind of indicates the self-indulgent frame of mind she’s often in).