Name: The Thief's Journal
Price: 24.89 EUR
Availability: InStock
Author: Jean-Paul Sartre
ISBN: 9780802128270

Type

Physical Book

Author

Introduction by

Preface by

Publisher

Year

2018

Language

English

Pages

272

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

20.8 x 13.7 x 2.0 cm

Weight

0.27 kg.

ISBN13

9780802128270

Synopsis "The Thief's Journal "

First published in France in 1949, The Thief's Journal is Jean Genet's iconic work of autobiographical fiction. This new edition brings his legendary genius to future generations of readers, with an introduction by Genet's great admirer, Patti Smith. From a prison cell, the journal's narrator recounts his travels across Europe in the 1930s--as a vagabond, pickpocket, and occasional prostitute--in pursuit of spiritual fulfilment through erotic trysts and evil deeds. Worshipping his own holy trinity of homosexuality, theft, and betrayal, he conducts every burglary, and each sexual encounter, with the elaborate, reverent ritual of a religious ceremony. Dressed in rags and stealing for his survival, he must evade the authorities for as long as possible. A sensuous and philosophical reverie on freedom within confinement, the heroism of the outlaw, and deception as the ultimate act of devotion, The Thief's Journal exemplifies the exquisitely lyrical combination of fact and fiction that made Genet a major figure in world literature.

Patti Smith

(Introduction by)

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Patti Smith (Chicago, 1946) is a writer, singer, and visual artist. She gained significant recognition in the 1970s with the spread of her poetry and rock music. She has released twelve albums, including Horses, considered one of the top hundred of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. Smith held her first drawing exhibition at the Gotham Book Mart in 1973, was represented by the Robert Miller Gallery for three decades, and her retrospective exhibitions have taken place at the Andy Warhol Museum, the Cartier Foundation, and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Among her books, it is worth highlighting the story of her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe: Just Kids (Lumen, 2010), awarded the National Book Award, Witt, Babel, Woolgathering (Lumen, 2014), The Coral Sea (Lumen, 2012), Auguries of Innocence (Lumen, 2019), M Train (Lumen, 2016), Devotion (Lumen, 2018), Year of the Monkey (Lumen, 2020), and Book of Days (Lumen, 2023). In 2005, the French Minister of Culture awarded her the title of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, the highest honor given to an artist by the French Republic. She was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. Smith married musician Fred Sonic Smith in Detroit in 1980. They had a son, Jackson, and a daughter, Jesse. The author, who in 2020 received the Pen America Literary Service Award, resides in New York.

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Jean-Paul Sartre

(Preface by)

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Jean-Paul Sartre (Paris, June 21, 1905 – April 15, 1980) was a French philosopher, novelist, playwright, and political activist, considered the main representative of existentialism and a key figure in twentieth-century thought. He studied at the École Normale Supérieure, where he met Simone de Beauvoir, his lifelong intellectual and romantic partner.

His most influential philosophical work, Being and Nothingness (1943), develops an ontology based on the radical freedom of human beings, proposing that “existence precedes essence,” meaning we are not predetermined and must construct ourselves through our choices. In literature, he stood out with Nausea (1938) and the play No Exit (1944), where he addressed the absurdity of existence and human relationships.

Sartre was also a committed political activist: he participated in the French Resistance during World War II, supported decolonization movements, and was critical of capitalism and totalitarianism. In 1964, he declined the Nobel Prize in Literature, believing that a writer should not be institutionalized.

He died in 1980, leaving a philosophical and literary legacy that continues to influence ethics, politics, and existential theory.

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