Iron in the Soul (Roads to Freedom 3)

by Jean-Paul Sartre

Other authorsDavid Caute (Introduction), Gerard Hopkins (Translator)

Paperback, 1965

Status

Available

Call number

813

Publication

Penguin Books (1965), Paperback, 368 pages

Description

June 1940 was a summer of defeat for France's soldiers, deserted by their officers, utterly demoralized, awaiting the Armistice. Day by day, hour by hour, Iron in the Soulunfolds what men thought, felt and did as France fell. Men who shrugged, men who ran, men who fought, and tragic men like Mathieu, who had dedicated his life to finding personal freedom, now overwhelmed by remorse and bitterness, who must learn to kill. Iron in the Soul, the third volume of Satre's Roads to FreedomTrilogy, is a harrowing depiction of war and what it means to lose.

User reviews

LibraryThing member uh8myzen

It has been a number of years since I read this series, so i will have to be rather general about it even though it has stuck with me all these years. I am a fan of Sartre's and his existentialist contemporaries, but this series was an amazing display of Sartre's skill as a fiction writer. While I

am generally more fond of Camus' fiction, every book in the "The Roads to Freedom" trilogy stands out as my favorite fictional work by that group. Make no mistake, this trilogy is a masterpiece of existentialist fiction."The Roads to Freedom" series (originally meant to be a tetralogy) was a fictional representation of new direction in Sartre's vision of existentialism which was far more participatory. Using the back-drop of the Nazi occupation, Sartre's characters move from a prewar existence of complete apathy toward their life and others into individuals who are empowered by the will to resist any impediments to their freedom.This book is my favourite of the three, and was the first that I read of the series.

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LibraryThing member dbsovereign

Preferred the first two books in the trilogy (_Age of Reason_ and _The Reprieve_), but this book is still well worth reading. Sartre makes us look at the genesis of choice as we face existential moments in our lives. A war book, a philosophical book, and a book about courage.

LibraryThing member DanielSTJ

This is the final volume of Sartre's "Roads to Freedom" trilogy. I didn't particularly care for it. The events, actions, and characters seemed a little stretched beyond their means for the sake of the story and I felt that it was not the most realistic, nor interesting, of story segments to read.

Overall, I did not think it was that impressive.

2 stars.

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