The Conspiracy

Resumen del libro

A sardonic reflection on the idealisms and absurdities of intellectual youth.
The Conspiracy, winner of the Prix Interallie in 1938, was Paul Nizan's last novel and was hailed by Jean-Paul Sartre as his masterpiece. It is centered upon the figure of Bertrand Rosenthal, philosophy student at the Ecole Normale, would-be revolutionary and scion of a haut- bourgeois Jewish family. Seeking to prove his commitment to the cause of Revolution by moving from words to deeds, Rosenthal involves his little group of disciples in a conspiracy as fatuous as that devised by Conrad in The Secret Agent. Simultaneously, he plunges into a forbidden and ultimately tragic love affair. The intertwined plots move inexorably towards their twin destinations of betrayal and death.

This new edition makes available for the first time in English Walter Benjamin's political assessment of the book.