L'âge de raison (English: The Age of Reason) is a 1945 novel by Jean-Paul Sartre. It is the first part of the trilogy Les Chemins de la liberté (English: The Roads to Freedom).
The novel, set in the bohemian Paris of the late 1930s, focuses on three days in the life of a philosophy teacher named Mathieu who is seeking money to pay for an abortion for his mistress, Marcelle. Sartre analyses the motives of various characters and their actions and takes into account the perceptions of others to give the reader a comprehensive picture of the main character.
