Abstract: This text by a young Sartre can and must be surprising: laden with references to ancient mythology, cast in a neoclassical mold, it is nevertheless clear that it is a major work. While it illuminates the singularities of a Sartrean style that will remain in search of itself to the end, it above all else puts in place, with an unprecedented force and clarity, that confrontational relationship with itself, that central role of contradiction, which will play a major part in the development of his thought and writing.
