Jean Paul Sartre

“Erostratus” (Érostrate) is a short story by Jean-Paul Sartre, published in 1939 in the book Le Mur. It tells the story of a solitary and resentful man who observes humanity with a mixture of superiority and revulsion. Obsessed with the pursuit of infamous glory and inspired by the figure of Erostratus—who in antiquity set fire to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus for the sole purpose of passing into posterity—he acquires a revolver and begins to plan a crime that will grant him the fame he believes he needs in order to transcend his own insignificance.