Le Parole by Jean-Paul Sartre

An autobiographical meditation in which the narrator recalls his early childhood and the decisive role of books and reading in shaping his sense of self: he recounts parental absence and the nanny’s influence, confesses how words became a means of escape and self-invention, traces the shift from voracious reading to deliberate writing, and reflects on the paradox of literary creation as both refuge and theatrical vanity that fashions a public identity while concealing motives and solitude.