The Chips Are Down - Jean Paul Sartre

This is a very rare find. The only English translation of Sartre's Les jeux sont faits scanned an converted to PDF. Personally hunted down, bought and scanned by yours truely. An excellent addition to the collection for Sartre fans.



The Chips Are Down (French: Les jeux sont faits) is a screenplay written by Jean-Paul Sartre in 1943 and published in 1947. The original title translates literally as "the plays are made", an idiomatic French expression used mainly in casino gambling meaning "the bets have been placed", as well as the French translation of alea iacta est. An English translation (no longer in print) was made from the French by Louise Varèse in 1948, and published as The Chips Are Down.



The story is set in Paris, in a setting vaguely suggestive of German-occupied northern France (or perhaps Vichy France) during World War II. The plot concerns two characters, Pierre Dumaine and Ève Charlier. They are predestined to be soulmates, but this destiny is prevented by their premature violent deaths, and they do not meet until passing into the afterlife.