Rating: 
Summary: A Great Place to Begin Reading Existentialist Fiction
Review: I say that because in these four plays one can really get the flavor of Existentialist writing and thought. Each play has its own themes nuances, and each is easily short enough to read through and digest in one sitting. DO NOT barrel your way through it! Take the time to think about each play and how you might feel if in the same situation. Two thumbs up.
Rating:
Summary: Orestes Please
Review: I think everyone who has read this collection for the most part agrees that No Exit is one of the greatest plays written. What seems to receive little attention in the reviews on Amazon is the play the Flies. Sartre's reworking of the greek tragedy lives up to the original. I would suggest to future readers that they read the Orestia et al. and then approach the reworking. Sartre adds to one of the oldest story in the western cannon, and that addition is valuable.
Rating: 
Summary: Hell Is Not "Other" People - It's Us, People!
Review: I think most people miss the point of No Exit. It's not that it would be unpleasant to be stuck in a room with a couple of obnoxious people, it's that we make our own hell by seeing other people only in terms of our own desires. But my favorite is The Flies, a hilarious sendup of Oedipus at Colonus filtered through Nietzsche. This play is more relevant than ever, now that so many are parading their miseries on television. Only now, rather than reveling in guilt, they find the meaning of their lives in how greatly they were wronged.
Rating:
Summary: Great reading...
Review: I think reading is a very personal experience and it is hard to predict what each individual might get out of any book, if anything. I think out of this play (No Exit) we all can get something. The symbolisms of Hell and the expectations of what shall happen and the way we all sometimes try to avoid reality and take responsibility for our own mistakes by justifications is very well depicted in this play. Entrapment... I do not want to say more about the play, because I could never do justice to Sartre, but I recommend this to all who like reading for example Kafka.
Rating:
Summary: Much Impressed
Review: I was a bit skeptical going into this one. The premise of the book is fairly simple: three strangers are locked into a single room with minimal furniture and expected to stay there with one another for all eternity. That's it. No violent overthrow of government, no breaking into an elaborate computer mainframe. So why bother reading? C'mon Sartre, show us some plot.
The amazing thing was, I completely enjoyed this play. I gave it a chance and read it through and was not at all disappointed. Think of it: three strangers walk into a room containing three couches, a mantle, an odd mantle decoration, and a door that won't open, and try to make sense of the whole setup.
The female/male ratio is 2 to 1, leaving Garcin to hold his own against Inez, a trouble-making bisexual, and Estelle, a woman who doesn't believe she can function without the support of a man. They realize that the room is their torture chamber, of sorts, in a long corridor of Hell, and their punishment is to be carried out through--are you ready?--annoying one another.
For fear of giving away the plot, or lack thereof, I'll leave you with this: the book is a must-read, if only to discover for yourself the awesome ability of human beings to torture one another using only their personalities. :o)
Rating:
Summary: Much Impressed
Review: I was a bit skeptical going into this one. The premise of the book is fairly simple: three strangers are locked into a single room with minimal furniture and expected to stay there with one another for all eternity. That's it. No violent overthrow of government, no breaking into an elaborate computer mainframe. So why bother reading? C'mon Sartre, show us some plot.
The amazing thing was, I completely enjoyed this play. I gave it a chance and read it through and was not at all disappointed. Think of it: three strangers walk into a room containing three couches, a mantle, an odd mantle decoration, and a door that won't open, and try to make sense of the whole setup.
The female/male ratio is 2 to 1, leaving Garcin to hold his own against Inez, a trouble-making bisexual, and Estelle, a woman who doesn't believe she can function without the support of a man. They realize that the room is their torture chamber, of sorts, in a long corridor of Hell, and their punishment is to be carried out through--are you ready?--annoying one another.
For fear of giving away the plot, or lack thereof, I'll leave you with this: the book is a must-read, if only to discover for yourself the awesome ability of human beings to torture one another using only their personalities. :o)
Rating:
Summary: A good book!
Review: In my opinion, Sartre's best works. Your knowledge on theatre is seriously limited without reading No Exit. Sartre's writing style is definitely engaging and the dialogues keep you going till the very last page, which often leaves you thinking deeply. I really enjoyed reading 'The Flies' because of the imaginitive and conclusive characters. It WILL set you thinking!!
Rating: 
Summary: .
Review: In reponse to a review below -- I have an IQ of about 130, andI think No Exit s**ks. I should also add that I like Jean-Paul Sartrequite a bit. Nausea was rewarding and The Age of Reason was incredible. But No Exit is a painfully overrated, silly little play. I found it interesting simply because it was by Sartre. But the interesting premise aside, No Exit is just simply not very profound, and generally poorly done. Seeing it performed might increase my appreciation somewhat, but then again, it might not. The whole play is based around a single philosophical idea -- "Other people are hell" (or create hell for the individual.) It is a flimsy and not particularly interesting idea, which is poorly expounded on in the play itself. I gained almost nothing at all from reading No Exit. The Flies was better, but far from great. I haven't read the other two.
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Summary: "Hell is other people."
Review: In these four plays, Sartre translates some of his ideas into drama, documenting man's reaction to religious or political authority, his struggle to change the status quo, and the absurdity of the self-imposed differences in our social strata. In "No Exit," Sartre envisions hell not as a fiery, desolate abyss, but as a comfortably furnished hotel room in which three people with clashing personalities must live together for eternity, each one alternately being worked over by the other two. In "The Flies," Sartre employs Greek mythology in a remonstrance of religious supplication. After years living in exile, Orestes returns to his hometown of Argos to avenge the murder of his father Agamemnon, the former king; in doing so and standing up to Zeus, he frees the townspeople from the enslavement of remorse, which is the tool of the gods. In the almost noir-ish "Dirty Hands," a young man named Hugo, a sheltered and pampered intellectual, joins a socialist radical political faction with the idea of helping his fellow man. Unwilling to compromise his personal idealism, he finds that his comrades are willing to compromise it for him to serve the party's agenda. And in "The Respectful Prostitute," the title character is pressured to bear false witness in a criminal trial so that a racist murderer can escape justice. The plays are expressionistic and maybe a little too obvious in making their points, but they are plotted and structured well and feature some very vividly drawn characters. I'm not yet familiar with Sartre's work, but I felt this book was a good introduction.
Rating:
Summary: THE FLIES!!!
Review: Is strangely Sartres most optimistic work, I think, and its a beautiful adaption of the Orestes myth. This is the play you read on new years morning 2000 if youre still tripping and got punched in the eye by your friend.
Its about letting go of guilt, and why we like to keep guilt with us, why its so comfortable to have blame with us. Orestes takes the sins of Argos away with him, not like Christ, but by committing the WORST sin, that of matricide.
Other than Mourning Becomes Electra, does anyone know of any other adaptations of Orestes?? If so, send a note to amelekite@onebox.com
thankx
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