Synopsis Portraits (Situations IV) brings together Sartre's most important writings on literature and artists in one of his most productive periods. It includes his preface to Sarraute's Portrait of a Man Unknown and his homages to Andre Gide, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Albert Camus. The Merleau-Ponty essay casts considerable light on the recent history of French philosophy, particularly with regard to dominant post-war political conceptions, and the lengthy studies of Sartre's close friend Paul Nizan and of the young Andre Gorz are no less revealing. This volume also contains Sartre's 'Reply to Albert Camus', which confirmed the break between the two writers on its publication in 1952.

Alongside these major writings are fascinating articles on Tintoretto and a number of contemporary painters, including Giacometti and Masson, and two highly readable accounts of Sartre's travels in Italy.