At the Existentialist Café
by Sarah Bakewell
Sartre, Beauvoir, Heidegger, Camus and Merleau-Ponty as people and thinkers, with their ideas about freedom explained clearly. The best introduction to existentialism.
Read it if…
you want existentialism with its personalities.
See the book →
Skip it if…
you want primary texts.
Try instead: Nature and Selected Essays →
Three things you will actually use
- Existence precedes essence.
- Freedom is the burden.
- Philosophy is lived.
Do this first
Read the chapter on the apricot cocktail.
Our verdict
Existentialism, with cocktails.
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