Customer Reviews
Translation needs a lot of work - By: , 26 Mar 2006 
The play "No Exit" is fantastic... a kind of psychological thriller about how people can get inside other people's heads & 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, & ultimately quite confusing. I found myself guessing at what Sartre was really trying to say.
Good edition of Sartre's arguably best plays - By: Dagfinn Hobaek, 15 Apr 2003 
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 wasin fact a rather good dramatist, & since his philosophy is quite tangiblein all four plays, this collection should serve as a nice general introduction. I give this edition five stars for translation & for not coming apart after numerous re-readings (unlike so many of its brethren).
Sartre implicates us all... - By: , 11 May 1999 
These four plays by Sartre are all very differentin style if not tone, but they all cut to the bone of meaningin delivering their sobering messages. The best play is also the most famous, No Exit, filled with brilliant language & dramatic fire. The situations & questions posed within aspeak directly to our age. Next, The Respectful Prostitute, which shows how funny existentialists can be, & how gut-wrenching comedy can be both funny & chilling. The Flies is a wonderfully inventive play that one can picture just by reading, with its harsh words, thoughin 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 & a great introduction to Sartre, & existentialism.
not bad, for existentialism - By: , 11 Mar 1999 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 stuckin a room w/ me to be hell, I guess it is at least partially valid, though I personally would go crazy just as easily stuckin the room alone. I used The Flies for my Senior term paperin 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, & repentence. I think my favorite of the bunch was the Respectful Prostitute, because it brought to light contrasts between what we expect of people & 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 trappedin a situationin which they must givein & compromise their beliefs/ standards, or suffer the consequences imposed by thosein authority.The characters choices, & their reasons, are quite interesting. This summary merely touches on the ideasin the plays; you must read them to understand the thoughts & ideas of Sartre's philosophy.
Hell is other people - By: , 14 Oct 1998 No Exit is a great play. The people are not incredibly evil or anything, they are just like us, with the same hopes & desires. They also make the same mistakes. One does wonder that if hell is other people, what is heaven?
