First published in Great Britain in 1968, this is an authoritative introduction to the life of one of the greatest intellectual figures of the twentieth century. Prompted by the belief that none of the parts of Sartre's work is fully intelligible apart from the whole , this ambitious volume attempts to provide a synoptic view of Sartre's oeuvre in its entirety. The editor, Robert Denoon Cumming, has organised the work around certain concepts which are central to Sartrian thought, notably Consciousness in its relation to Being, to 'the Other', to Art, Literature, History and Society.

The reader can see for himself how Sartre's aesthetic and highly individual existentialism of La Nausee is systematically transformed into the neo-Marxist sociological theory of his Critique de la Raison dialectique. By a skilful process of editing, Professor Cumming has provided an authoritative introduction to the life of one of the greatest intellectual figures of modern times.