Our Lady of the Flowers

The shattering novel of underground life the New York Times called "a cry of rapture and horror... the purest lyrical genius."
Jean Genet's debut novel Our Lady of the Flowers, which is often considered to be his masterpiece, was written entirely in the solitude of a prison cell. A semi- autobiographical account of one man's journey through the Paris demi-monde, dubbed "the epic of masturbation" by no less a figure than Jean-Paul Sartre, the novel's exceptional value lies in its exquisite ambiguity.

Sartre was born in Paris, France. He had a doctorate in philosophy.