Les séquestrés d'Altona
Auteur: Jean-Paul Sartre
Nombre de pages: 223 pages
ISBN: 2070257703, 9782070257706
Edition: Gallimard
Date de publication: Gallimard
Description: Sartre summarizes the plot in the program notes of the play: "A family of big German industrialists, the von Gerlachs, live near Hamburg in an ugly old mansion in the middle of a park. When the curtain rises, the father, who has only six months to live, calls together his daughter Leni, his younger son Werner, and Werner's wife Johanna, in order to inform them of his last wishes. Johanna guesses that, after the father's death, her husband will be sacrificed, as always, to Franz, the elder son. The latter, who has been officially reported dead, has locked himself up, since his return from the front, and refuses to see anyone except his younger sister Leni. In order to save Werner, Johanna determines to investigate the mystery of Franz's seclusion. In doing so, she unwittingly serves her father-in-law's ends. Old von Gerlach makes use of her in order to obtain the interview with Franz which the latter has refused him for thirteen years..."
