I'd write this review in Spanish, but my computer won't use the accents and such. So here it is, in English. I liked this book in Spanish--it was very well written. It follows a similar plot to the English version, where Josefina and her sisters are not sure about what to do this Christmas because their mama died not long ago. They are just getting into the holiday spirit when Josefina and her sisters discover that the altar cloth that their mama made has been destroyed because of the flood. Josefina is determined to find Nina, the doll her mother made to be passed down from sister to sister. Josefina and her sisters end up enjoying Christmas--I'll not give away the ending. The book was even better to read in Spanish, where the traditions and songs seem to make more sense than they do in the English version. Jose Moreno doesn't lose any of the story that was written by Valerie Tripp, the book is a good, recommended read in both languages!

I would recommend "What is Literature?" to anyone interested in literature, philosophy, and existentialism. Sartre explores why we read, why writers write, and the situation of the writer after WWII. Also included are several essays, one on Les Temps Modernes, and another on African Disporia literature. Particularly interesting is how Sartre traces the situation of the writer for the last four hundred years and his theories of writing as "praxis".

It makes me laugh, all of the different translations of the title. A direct translation is "The Games are Done." I read this novel this year as a sophomore in French 4. My teacher, who majored in French literature, analyzed this novel with us, and each of her students came away with a better understanding of the book. Personally, I loved it. It made you think, but it wasn't so obviously philosophizing that it would turn off someone my age. Sartre's philosophies were woven into the story, and you come away with a feeling of enhanced "smartness." :o) Also, if you ever want to impress a Frenchman with what you've read, just say, "J'ai lu Les Jeux Sont Faits." I'd recommend this book to anyone.

Sartre book Les Jeux sont Faites(the plays are made)was an amazing book. Read itin Francais. Great read--

My French teacher had our class read this book in the eleventhgrade.It was the first book by Sartre I read and I was fascinated by Sartre, existentialism, and other great existentialist writers, Camus in particular. It has been a long time since that hign school classroom, so the details of the story are fuzzy in my mind. However, an 18 year search for a copy of this book will end the day it arrives in my mail box. Thank you, Amazon! Et merci beaucoup, M. Sartre!!

However one disagrees with Sartre's philosophy, his Marxism, and his anti-Americanism, it is difficult to argue against his personal involvement in what he believed in. Sartre was no pipe-smoking, arm-chair academic content to let others do his fighting. He was always there on the front-lines, perhaps bellicose in his utterings, but always visible. An issue he disagreed with never experienced-his-absence, and Sartre did not hesitate to also be a novelist-philosopher, and as such, he showed more moral courage than perhaps any 20th century philosopher. The equality of idea and action was perhaps an axiom for Sartre, and his life was definitely an empirical validation of such.

Definitely introspective to extremes, this novel, the second in his series "The Roads to Freedom", is the ultimate portrayal of life in France before the Munich Pact and the takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1938. As a reader, it is easy to get trapped in the stream of consciousness approach that Sartre takes in his novel. Each character is not to be found alone, but immersed in the quagmire of panic, and for some, exhiliration, at the prospect of wartime conflict. The characters define themselves by the instant, their attitudes caught in the flux, that flux impossible to arrest, but their choices completely free nonetheless. Their individuality is sometimes robbed by the gaze of the other, but captured again by choice. Ideology has a short time scale for them.

Sartre does not really shout at the reader through his characters. But their predicament is believable. Their anxiety sometimes familiar, but they also have a perhaps hidden optimism. They know it is themselves, and no other, that determines their future history. The (burden?) of choice is with them always, and they understand fully the power of consequences. But choice works for them as well as against. This makes the appreciation of these characters easy and familiar.

This is the sequel to "The Age of Reason", and I thought it was by far the better book.

It's the story of Munich 1938, when war seemed inevitable as the crisis over Hitler's territorial demands on Czechoslovakia reached its peak. Sartre examines the feelings of a wide range of people through a time period of just over a week, feelings ranging from fear of a repeat of the 1914-1918 War, to the excitement of others who looked forward to conflict as a means of finally giving a meaning to their lives.

Sartre's technique is to skip swiftly from scene to scene, and location to location, doing so sometimes within a sentence. It takes concentration on the part of the reader to follow this, but I found it increased the pace of the story, and gave a sort of kaleidoscopic effect - conflicting and contrasting attitudes are exposed more easily, as are the differences between social classes, and even between nationalities.

The book is a damning indictment of appeasement, and of France and Britain's lack of courage in the face of the rise of fascism. But at the same time as condemning the appeasers, Sartre is sensitive enough to understand why people felt the way they did, and that includes the appeasers themselves - perhaps the appeasers too were trapped by the ambiguity of their own and their public's opinions, lacking the freedom to do what was right.

The add to the praise, the book's ending is great too.

The only thing I will comment (because I do not give away the book) is the writing style. If you are expecting "Age of Reason" part II, then you will not get what you were looking for...the writing style or mode is very different. The way the book is put together is there are many characters all in different parts of French territory in different walks of life, ages, sexes, etc. Often times when you are reading you will lose sight of where one character speaks or thinks and the next one. you will have to go line by line in the same paragraph, where a sentence ina paragraph represents a though of a different character and that character will not be identified...but you will know...but it becomes irrelevant who says or feels what because it is about the collective consciousness of french people in the midst of war...and this is the biggest success of the book is that this technique so succesful and masterfully implemented. It makes the book feel like events are happening so quickly and things are moving so fast which lends to the urgency of the situation in France. I feel like its a forrest fire...that starts with a brush and picks up momentum until its raging! There are new characters in this book and he has carried the old characters over. Please do yourself a favor and do not read the series out of order.

. A few stars are twinkling. I take a deep breath and think. What to do at 3 a.m.? I take down a book I had been intending to read: Chauvet Cave--the oldest paintings in the world. It was a great choice. I am astonished by the gorgeous cave paintings, the oldest found yet--they are some 30,000 years old. I am awed by the shapes and colors of animals: mammoths, rhinoceros, lions, horses, bears and one owl. Maybe just like the owl I am listening to right now.
When the cave was discovered in France in 1994, specialists were astonished by its location and the beauty of its art. Who would have guessed that people that long ago could be so sophisticated in their drawing. They used contours of the cave to dramatize the shapes of animals. The unknown master artist used perspective to show great herds of animals running and used shading on their bodies. There were a few hand prints outlined in red and the imprints of a pair of hands in the clay on the floor of the cave.

Even more astonishing were the huge footprints of cave bears and mixed in their tracks were paint pigments used on the walls. Imagine painting a masterpiece and having huge bears tracking through the paint. How distracting. In some places, the bears had incised the paintings on the cave walls with thier huge claws.
Cave bears are now extinct. They were larger than even the largest bears we know of today. Chauvet Cave was littered with many bear skulls and bones. If the bears had died while hibernating, that might explain part of it. But one bear skull had been deliberately set on a huge stone that had fallen from the ceiling as if an altar.
What had these early people been thinking to paint running herds of animals, bison, and ibex, all beautifully, poetically rendered, and solitary bears in a cave stunning in its beauty with calcite stone draperies and ochre colored walls. All of this remained in pristine condition for 30,000 years and then it was discovered by expert cavers not very long ago. The government of France is making sure that none of it is destroyed by eager tourists or even research teams who may inadvertantly destroy the evidence of early man and the animals they obviously admired.

The work is still being carried on and there is a lot to learn there.
I was thrilled to find the book, even though it is not a brand new book.

In December 1994, three speleologists were exploring in the Ardèche region of France when they discovered an underground system of caves that came to be known as the Chauvet Cave (named for one of the three). Because these individuals were highly aware of the potential for finding ice age cave art in this region and extremely responsible human beings, they behaved with the utmost propriety, taking care to preserve their find for scientific research. As a result, they have ensured the protection and continued existence of a treasure trove of paleolithic art. In DAWN OF ART: THE CHAUVET CAVE, Jean-Marie Chauvet, Eliette Brunel Deschamps and Christian Hillaire tell the story of the discovery that has rocked the art world.

The Chauvet Cave paintings were executed sometime during the Aurignacian Period. Radiocarbon dating indicates the wall art is probably about 30,000 years old, making it twice as old as Lascaux. CHAUVET CAVE (the book) includes over 100 pages of stunning photographs of this fabulous art. Literally hundreds of Aurochs, Bison, Mastodons, Horses, Lions, Bears and other animals have been depicted.

The Chauvet Cave paintings are extremely well executed, leading many archeologists and art historians to completely reformulate extant theories concerning the evolution of human art. It would seem our forebears were not clumsy louts who drew stick-like versions of organic life. The wall art at Chauvet shows perspective, modeling, color, line, form, and other visual aspects associated with post-Renaissance representational and abstract art. In my estimation, the Chauvet wall paintings -executed in charcoal, ochers, and other material - are comparable to the chalk drawings of Leonardo da Vinci and Picasso.

The caves seem to have been the dwelling place of Cave Bears and perhaps humans, at different times. Bones of cave bears litter the floor of the cave and many cave bears have been drawn on the walls. In one chamber, a bear skull rests on an alter-like rock formation. Whether the skull was laid there for magical or religious or secular purposes related to art, or simply tossed there by a child is not known.

Scientists are attempting to determine the order of events in the Chauvet cave by studying the formation of overlying levels of sediment and accretions of calcite material on the walls, ceilings, and floors. Some of the wall paintings have been scratched by bear or lion claws indicating animal activity after the pictures were drawn. In other instances, paintings overlay earlier damaged surfaces. Several different artists apparently worked in the cave chambers over an extended period. The most beautiful paintings on the horse panel and elsewhere seem to have been executed by a master and/or his "school" of apprentices.

In the most distant chamber, lies the "sorcerer's chamber" where a creature with a bison head and human-like form has been painted in conjunction with a 'Lion Panel'. The authors apparently are referring to the 'sorcerers' of Trois-Freres in the Ariege and Gabillou in the Dordogne. My favorite work is the 'Great Lion Panel', a wondrous mural showing a group of grazing bison followed by a pack of lions. The lion heads and shoulders are massive, modeled, and menacing. The authors CHAUVET CAVE appear to have been most captivated by the 'Horse Panel' which is also incredibly beautiful.

As is usually the case, Abrams has done a stellar job depicting beautiful works of art. Since very few of us will ever be allowed to visit the Chauvet Cave, this book may be the next best thing to being there.

I found out about the Chauvet cave and this book in the gift shop of another French cave with cave paintings (Font du Gaume). The idea of being within arm's reach of cave paintings was fairly overwhelming. Then to see the book on Chauvet and the paintings found there! What an amazing day!

Looking through this book is a constant joy. The paintings were made by a true artist. They are magnificent. If you have an interest in cave paintings, this is the book for you. It is an excellent record of what has been found in the cave to date.

I do wish for more expository text but that will come with more study of the paintings, handprints, footprints and other artifacts found in the cave.

Until then, I will have to be content to look at beautiful photographs of some of the most amazing art work ever seen.

I read this book in its portuguese version when I was stil living in Brazil (my home land); french, when I started learning it as well as spanish . Despite all "nuances" of each language the book keeps its majesty. Everytime I read it I think it was not written for children. In Le Petit Prince, St. Exupery made life wonderful, beyond comprehension.

When I first read this book when I was a senior in high school and read it for my French class, I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy this book. I'd heard so much about it. After reading it I can say that I love this book so much, no wonder Le Petit Prince is on some French currency! I've read this book in English and French, and I'd have to say that the French is sooo much better if you know French. It's not all that difficult to understand if you are at a beginning level. This is a great book and is worth every penny in both languages!

I do not read a lot of books. I have only read what was assigned to me throughout school and the occasional NY Times bestseller. A friend of mine gave me this book as a gift one day, she said I would enjoy it. She was right - I loved it. I didn't read it right away, but when I did I couldn't put it down. I am not an emotional person, or at least I never thought of myself as one, but this book made me look at myself and it broke my heart. I related with the character of the pilot and I felt as though the Little Prince was talking to me. The book helped me realize that I had forgotten a lot of things since childhood, like the meaning of friendship. The book also reminded me of what love really is. It made me realize what "grown-ups" really are, children who lost their innocence. The greatest thing about the book is that it is universal. It's message is simple: "love has no prejuducies, never dies and always forgives." It is a children's story but it is something all adults should read. There are few books that can do what this "children's story" can do. It will make you laugh, break your heart and make you think about what really is important in your life.

- Jeff

Is an American Girl book. It tells the story of how they lived back in 1824.I liked it so much that I'll give it 5 stars. Josefina's mom had died and tia Dolores changes Josefinas life. Josefina learns that even though someone or something is not with you or dies you should move on and meet new people and try new things. The book was exciting when Josefina faces her fear of a maen goat named Florecita. I thought it was well written. Other kids will enjoy it because it is a book that goes baack in timeto 1824 and what they did back then and how they lived.

Josefina is the newest American Girl! Another great character to a wonderful series. Josefina is a 9 year old Hispanic girl from 1824 New Mexico. Her Tia Delores comes (Tia means aunt in Spanish) and brings the most wonderful thing to the Montoya rancho. A piano! But the girls just suffered an awful loss, their mothers death. Can Tia Delores bring happiness to the house? Josefina must also overcome her fear of the mean, old goat who destroys one of her most favorite things.

This is the first in the American Girls series about Josefina Montoya, a nine-year-old girl living in the New Mexico of 1824. In this book, Josefina and her sisters wait for their grandfather to return from his annual trip to Mexico City. Each girl hopes that he will bring her her heart's desire. However, what Josefina desires is more complicated than what her sisters' desire: she wants her sisters to be at peace and her newly widowed father to be happy again. Can her grandfather bring such gifts? You must read to find out!

The final chapter is a fascinating and highly informative look into life in New Mexico in 1824. All the way through, Jean-Paul Tibbles beautiful illustrations help to make this a wonderful book.

This book is every bit as wonderful as the other American Girls books, and its look at Mexico is quite refreshing. My daughter has only recently begun to read about Josefina, and she loves the stories. I must admit that I love them too. In particular, I liked the fact that the family's religious faith is incorporated into the story. We both highly recommend this book to you.

"Huis Clos" is one of the few books that actually illustrates a version of hell. Most people wouldn't think to write about such a touchy subject. Likewise, most people accept the typical hell full of fire and torture chambers as what it will be like. Few contemplate the possibility that it might be different, as well as refuse to think about what else it could be. This book made me think about it a little more than I imagined. What if having to be around the same two people for eternity really is hell? What if hell was based on the individual? My personal hell would be eternity on a stair-master. And the only music would be Michael Bolton...karaoke-style.

In Huit-Clos, Jean-Paul Sartre makes an analysis of human-behaviour. The scene takes place in a cell where three people are faced with each other. The reader is immediatly impregnated of different personalities and understands the fears of each one to stay eternaly together because, like Jean-Paul Sartre concludes: "The hell is others."

I am french, and Huis Clos is one of the most importants books i read when i was a teenager, looking for truth about adult behavior... It's really intellectual, but not artificial, and makes you think a lot about what is going on between people, and what you learned growing up.

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.

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.

I have just picked up Sartre's No Exit and Three Other Plays and already I am fascinated. I had heard that his play, "The Respectful Prostitute" was a strong criticism of American racism and wanted to check it out. Skipping to the very end of the book and reading this play first, I came away with feelings of anger, and praise. Anger because I am an African-American and was hurt by its realism, but I also praise the work for its scathing, although subtle and multi-layered (sophisticated) critique of American racism. Textually, the work was extremely easy to read. Embedded in this "easy" text however is some of the most thought provoking material ranging from classical notions solitude and isolation to gender issues that should keep the feminist talking for years to come. For me, the most interesting and thought provoking portion of the text deals with the homoeroticism (not to be confused with "homosexualism") that has always been the singular preoccupation in the white male mind with respect to the black male body. The dramatic utilization and subtle working of this topic would have made Freud proud, and Dr. Francis Welsing say, "I told you so!" A must read for anyone interested in portrayals of American racism in the French imagination or just excellent dramatic work.