The Last Words of Jean-Paul Sartre

Shortly before his death last April, Jean-Paul Sartre gave an extended interview–really, a full-scale review of his intellectual career to a young friend, Benny Levy. This interview appeared in Le Nouvel Observateur on March 10, 17, and 24, 1980, and is reprinted here in English translation by permission of that journal. (It cannot be reprinted without permission.)

For several years toward the end of his life, Sartre could no longer read because of failing eyesight, and Levy served as a mixture of apprentice, secretary, and collaborator, meeting with Sartre four times a week. They were to collaborate on a major work on ethical problems.

Sartre reviews here a host of problems, from his attitudes toward hope and de...