Sartre in 90 Minutes (Philosophers in 90 Minutes)

In Sartre in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern offers a concise, expert account of Sartre's life and ideas, and explains their influence on man's struggle to understand his existence in the world. The book also includes selections from Sartre's writings; a brief list of suggested reading for those who wish to push further; and chronologies that place Sartre within his own age and in the broader scheme of philosophy.

Probably the easiest introduction to existentialism you'll ever find, Sartre in 90 Minutes manages to produce an intellectually credible--and slyly humorous--summary of Jean Paul Sartre's life and work in just over 70 pages. Paul Strathern ably shifts from descriptions of the open relationship between Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir to analyses of the contributions of Heidegger and Kierkegaard to Sartre's belief that life is what you make it. The jokes tend to be cynical and snarky in tone; after the publication of Being and Nothingness, for example, "word soon began to spread from the few who actually read the book to those who wished to talk about it as if they had." The philosophical exegesis, however, is spot on, the equivalent of a very good college lecture by an instructor who genuinely wants to make sure students understand the material. If you're at all interested in Sartre and existentialism, pick this book up for a quick, painless introduction.