The Age of Reason by Jean-Paul Sartre

Published 1945 · 320 pages · 119,855 words · about 12 hours at an average pace · Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction

How hard is The Age of Reason to read?

The Age of Reason scores 69 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 68 out of 100
The novel employs a sophisticated, literary vocabulary with occasional philosophical terms (e.g., "coelenterata," "progenitively inclined," "metaphysical murder") and formal phrasing, typical of a translated work from its era. While not dense with archaic words or pervasive specialized jargon like "Moby-Dick," it is more demanding than accessible literary fiction, requiring a solid grasp of nuanced language.
Sentence structure: 75 out of 100
Sartre frequently uses long, multi-clause sentences, especially during internal monologues, to convey complex streams of thought and detailed psychological states. These sentences often feature extensive subordination and parenthetical remarks, demanding sustained reader attention to follow the intricate grammatical structures and philosophical arguments, placing it above '2666' but below 'In Search of Lost Time'.
Abstraction: 82 out of 100
As a foundational existentialist text, 'The Age of Reason' is deeply philosophical, using its narrative to explore abstract themes of freedom, responsibility, and the nature of human existence. Characters constantly engage in profound internal analysis and abstract debates, such as Mathieu's reflections on his 'age of reason' or Daniel's philosophical justifications for his actions, making the conceptual content highly prominent, akin to 'Waiting for Godot' but with a stronger narrative.
Information density: 83 out of 100
The text is exceptionally dense with psychological insight and philosophical reflection, where every event and interaction triggers extensive internal processing by the characters. Readers must navigate multiple layers of meaning—narrative, emotional, and conceptual—simultaneously, requiring intense focus to absorb the rich tapestry of ideas and internal monologues, making it denser than 'War and Peace' in conceptual load.
Narrative indirection: 70 out of 100
Readers must infer significant meaning from characters' internal monologues and reactions, particularly concerning their philosophical struggles with freedom and responsibility. While events are presented directly, the existential implications of Mathieu's inaction or Daniel's self-loathing require the reader to connect explicit thoughts to deeper, unstated motivations. This level of inference is higher than 'The Great Gatsby' (65) but less about unreliable narration than 'Lolita' (72).
Symbolic density: 60 out of 100
The text uses concrete images to illustrate philosophical concepts, such as Marcelle's pregnancy as a 'pustule' or 'strawberry of blood' symbolizing a threat to freedom, or Daniel's cats representing his internal struggle with cruelty and self-loathing. These images carry meaning beyond their literal events, but their symbolic function is often quite transparent in its philosophical intent. It is more symbolically resonant than 'To Kill a Mockingbird' (45) but less dense or allegorical than 'The Great Gatsby' (75).
Ironic distance: 50 out of 100
Sartre presents characters' internal worlds and self-deceptions directly, allowing readers to understand their flawed perspectives without a strong authorial ironic overlay. While characters like Jacques and Lola offer critiques of Mathieu's and Boris's 'freedom,' these are character-driven observations rather than a pervasive authorial stance. The narrative maintains a largely straightforward tone, unlike the deep, pervasive irony found in 'Lolita' (75) or 'Ulysses' (88).
Resolution withholding: 80 out of 100
The excerpt ends with significant personal and philosophical ambiguity, leaving major character conflicts and plot points completely open. Mathieu's immediate problem of securing money for Marcelle's abortion remains unsolved, and his existential dilemma regarding freedom and commitment is intensified rather than resolved. This resistance to closure is central to the novel's themes, creating a sense of ongoing struggle that is more pronounced than 'The Great Gatsby' (60) but not as extreme as 'Waiting for Godot' (95).
Structural complexity: 65 out of 100
The novel employs a consistent third-person limited perspective that shifts between main characters (Mathieu, Boris, Marcelle, Daniel) across chapters, providing multiple internal viewpoints on shared events. While the chronology is largely linear, this multi-perspectival structure requires readers to synthesize different subjective realities and character experiences. This is more complex than 'The Great Gatsby' (55) but lacks the formal experimentation or fragmented timelines of works like 'Flights' (88) or 'Ulysses' (98).

How The Age of Reason is regarded

The Age of Reason holds a literary regard score of 81 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

Prizes

Where The Age of Reason sits in Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism

Placed by a full reading of the text (245 passages), not from reputation. Each verdict quotes the passage that earned it. On the axis from myth to irony, The Age of Reason scores 80 out of 100. A second mythos, comedy, pulls at it with a weight of 0.15. About the map of stories.

Mode: Ironic
‘I have led a toothless life,’ he thought. ‘A toothless life. I have never bitten into anything. I was waiting.’
Symbol: Literal & Descriptive
Table and chairs are all inert, afloat in a motionless light. He alone is erect, he alone alive in the oppressively blue light. Nothing will help me, nothing will happen.
Mythos: Irony and Satire iv (irony iv)
Various well-bred moralities had already discreetly offered him their services: disillusioned epicureanism, smiling tolerance, resignation, common sense, stoicism — all the aids whereby a man may savour, minute by minute, like a connoisseur, the failure of a life.
Genre: Novel + Anatomy
‘I should myself have thought,’ said Jacques, ‘that freedom consisted in frankly confronting situations into which one had deliberately entered, and accepting all one’s responsibilities.’

Where the story of The Age of Reason takes place

  • Paris, summer 1938, the main setting
  • Paris, late June 1938 (about 48 hours, Montparnasse and Montmartre)

7 things that are true of The Age of Reason, with the passage for each

  1. Mathieu needs four thousand francs, and a doctor demands it in cash.

    ‘I’m terribly sorry,’ said Sarah’s voice: ‘but he wants four thousand francs, cash down.'

  2. Daniel puts his three cats in a basket to drown them but cannot do it.

    A man who liked his cats and could not chuck them in the river.

  3. Brunet offers Mathieu a place in the Communist Party and Mathieu refuses.

    ‘Yes,’ said Mathieu in desperation. ‘Yes, Brunet. I refuse.’

  4. Mathieu stabs his own palm with Boris's knife at the Sumatra to match Ivich.

    He jabbed the knife into his palm, and felt almost nothing.

  5. Mathieu opens Lola's suitcase, finds thousand-franc notes, and drops them back.

    Fingers opened and the bank-notes fluttered down into the suitcase.

  6. Ivich's telegram announces her failure in four words.

    ‘Ploughed. So what? Ivich.’

  7. Daniel confesses to Mathieu that he is homosexual and plans to marry Marcelle.

    ‘Mathieu, I am a homosexual,’ he said.

Scenes in The Age of Reason that Frye would name

24 sightings of Frye's terms in the text. The strongest:

Anagnorisis, untitled
‘And now it is finished, I am utterly immured in my own self!’ Mathieu recognises that his supposed freedom is a shell he has built around himself.
Sparagmos, untitled
The flesh was laid open from the ball of the thumb to the root of the little finger, and the blood was oozing slowly Ivich's self-mutilation and Mathieu's stabbed hand: a ritual wounding in a cabaret.
Anagnorisis, untitled
‘I couldn’t take the money: my freedom is a myth. A myth — Brunet was right.’ A pivotal self-recognition after the theft that never happened.
Hamartia, untitled
He swayed slightly, and then said in a clear voice: ‘Well, it’s true... I no longer love you.’ The fatal word that Mathieu does not mean, but says, ending his bond with Marcelle.
Anagnorisis, untitled
He saw the black smear on the brown material, and suddenly he felt that he was one person and no more. One only. A coward. Daniel discovers who he is after failing to drown the cats.
Demonic imagery, untitled
It was thus that he imagined Hell: a vision that penetrated everything, and saw to the very end of the world Daniel's hell-vision with the caged cats.

Books that share these scenes with The Age of Reason

About the author

Jean-Paul Sartre