The Words (book)  

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"J’avais deux raisons de respecter mon instituteur : il me voulait du bien, il avait l’haleine forte. Les grandes personnes doivent être laides, ridées, incommodes ; quand elles me prenaient dans leurs bras, il ne me déplaisait pas d’avoir un léger dégoût à surmonter : c’était la preuve que la vertu n’était pas facile. Il y avait des joies simples, triviales : courir, sauter, manger des gâteaux, embrasser la peau douce et parfumée de ma mère ; mais j’attachais plus de prix aux plaisirs studieux et mêlés que j’éprouvais dans la compagnie des hommes mûrs : la répulsion qu’ils m’inspiraient faisait partie de leur prestige : je confondais le dégoût avec l’esprit de sérieux. J’étais snob. Quand M. Barrault se penchait sur moi, son souffle m’infligeait des gênes exquises, je respirais avec zèle l’odeur ingrate de ses vertus."

English translation:

"I had two reasons for respecting my teacher: he had my welfare at heart, and he had a strong breath. Grown-ups should be ugly, wrinkled and unpleasant. When they took me in their arms, I didn't mind having to overcome a slight disgust. This was proof that, virtue was not easy. There were simple, petty joys: running, jumping, eating cakes, kissing my mother's soft, sweet-smelling skin. But I attached a higher value to the mixed, bookish pleasure that I took in the company of middle-aged men. The repulsion which they made me feel was part of their prestige; I confused disgust with seriousness. [...] When M. Barrault bent over me, his breath made me exquisitely uncomfortable. I zealously inhaled the repellent odor of his virtues."--The Words (1964) by Jean-Paul Sartre

Dutch translation by Pierre H. Dubois:

"Ik had twee redenen om respect voor mijn onderwijzer te voelen; ten eerste had hij het goed met mij voor en ten tweede rook zijn adem onfris. Grote mensen behoren lelijk, gerimpeld en lastig te zijn. Wanner ze mij optilden, vond ik het niet niet onprettig om een lichte afkeer te moeten overwinnen; dat was het bewijs dat de deugd [the eight edition of the Dubois translation has jeugd instead of deugd] niet gemakzuchtig is. Er bestonden eenvoudige, triviale genoegens, zoals hardlopen, springen, taartjes eten of de zachte en geurige huid van mijn moeder zoenen. Maar ik hechtte meer waarde aan de leerzame en niet onverdeelde genoegens die ik beleefde aan het gezelschap van rijpe mannen: de afkeer die zij mij inboezemden hoorde bij hun prestige. I haalde afkeer en ernst door elkaar. Ik was aanstellerig. Als meneer Barrault zich over mij heen boog, bezorgde zijn adem mij een heerlijk onbehagen, met ijver snoof ik de dorre geur van zijn kwaliteiten in."

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Les Mots (1964, English: The Words) is an autobiography by Jean-Paul Sartre. The story covers Sartre's youth from 4 to 12 years and is divided in two parts: « Reading » and « Writing».

Structure and presentation

The text is divided into two near-equal parts entitled 'Reading' (Lire) and 'Writing' (Écrire). However, according to Philippe Lejeune, these two parts are only a façade and are not relevant to the chronological progression of the work. He considers the text to instead be divided into five parts which he calls 'acts':

  • The first act presents in chronological order the 'prehistory' of the child by giving his family origin.
  • The second act evokes the different roles Sartre acted out in his seclusion to an imaginary world, enabled by his family.
  • The third act tells of his conscious realization of his imposture, his contingency, his fear of death and his ugliness.
  • The fourth act presents the development of a new imposture, in which Sartre took up multiple different postures of writing.
  • The fifth act relates Sartre's delusion, which he considers the source of his dynamism, and contains the announcement of a second book which he did not complete before his death.

The first title which Sartre thought of was Jean sans terre.

Reception

The book, consisting of Sartre distancing himself from writing and making his farewells to literature was very successful for the author and was hailed nearly unanimously as a "literary success". In November of the same year, 1964, he refused the Nobel Prize for Literature awarded for his work, described as "rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for truth, [it] has exerted a far-reaching influence on our age."



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