Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Translation needs a lot of work March 26, 2006
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
The play "No Exit" is fantastic... a kind of psychological thriller about how people can get inside other people's heads and torment them through their weaknesses. A strange portrayal of hell that is truly hellish. However the translation from French to English is really poor. I believe it is "transliterated"; translated almost word for word, which overlooks the meaning or expression of certain phrases. For ex., "That's so, isn't it?", from the French," C'est ca, n'est pas?" Is that correct English? Shouldn't it be.. "Isn't it so?" or maybe, "Is that so"? Another ex., "We use to go"...", instead of we USED to go. It is "translated" like that all the way through the play. I found it very distracting, at best, and ultimately quite confusing. I found myself guessing at what Sartre was really trying to say.
 Good edition of Sartre's arguably best plays April 15, 2003
10 out of 15 found this review helpful
For those of you (myself included) whose French abilities are not nearly adequate for enjoying such demanding, guilt-ridden dramas as 'Huis Clos'/'No Exit' in Sartre's original language, I strongly recommend this translation. Although I am personally at odds with certain aspects of Sartre's particular brand of Existentialism, I have to admit that he was in fact a rather good dramatist, and since his philosophy is quite tangible in all four plays, this collection should serve as a nice general introduction. I give this edition five stars for translation and for not coming apart after numerous re-readings (unlike so many of its brethren).
 Sartre implicates us all... May 11, 1999
13 out of 16 found this review helpful
These four plays by Sartre are all very different in style if not tone, but they all cut to the bone of meaning in delivering their sobering messages. The best play is also the most famous, No Exit, filled with brilliant language and dramatic fire. The situations and questions posed within aspeak directly to our age. Next, The Respectful Prostitute, which shows how funny existentialists can be, and how gut-wrenching comedy can be both funny and chilling. The Flies is a wonderfully inventive play that one can picture just by reading, with its harsh words, though in the guise of classical language, never missing a stab at the characters--or the audience. The weakest play, Dirty Hands, is still a compelling but rather cliched drama which is a little too ponderous for theatre, but dead on with its analysis of the human condition. Overall, a very worthwhile collection and a great introduction to Sartre, and existentialism.
not bad, for existentialism March 11, 1999
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
I like existentialist writings, because they are almost always thought provoking, but I seldom agree w/ the thoughts or ideas presented. No Exit is of course the famous one. Since I know someone who considers being stuck in a room w/ me to be hell, I guess it is at least partially valid, though I personally would go crazy just as easily stuck in the room alone. I used The Flies for my Senior term paper in high school, comparing it to the classic Oedipus story [it was a contrast of style]. The Flies is Sartre's version of Mourning Becomes Electra. This play explores ideas of guilt, authority, and repentence. I think my favorite of the bunch was the Respectful Prostitute, because it brought to light contrasts between what we expect of people and who they actually are [the prostitute is more honest than the respectable people she finds her self around.] All the plays have the theme of a character trapped in a situation in which they must give in and compromise their beliefs/ standards, or suffer the consequences imposed by those in authority.The characters choices, and their reasons, are quite interesting. This summary merely touches on the ideas in the plays; you must read them to understand the thoughts and ideas of Sartre's philosophy.
Hell is other people October 14, 1998
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
No Exit is a great play. The people are not incredibly evil or anything, they are just like us, with the same hopes and desires. They also make the same mistakes. One does wonder that if hell is other people, what is heaven?
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