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Sartre's greatest novel — and existentialism's key text — now introduced by James Wood.
Nausea is the story of Antoine Roquentin, a French writer who is horrified at his own existence. In impressionistic, diary form he ruthlessly catalogs his every feeling and sensation. His thoughts culminate in a pervasive, overpowering feeling of nausea which “spreads at the bottom of the viscous puddle, at the bottom of our time — the time of purple suspenders and broken chair seats; it is made of wide, soft instants, spreading at the edge, like an oil stain.”
Winner of the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature (though he declined to accept it), Jean-Paul Sartre — philosopher, critic, novelist, and dramatist — holds a position of singular eminence in the world of French letters. La Nausée, his first and best novel, is a landmark in Existential fiction and a key work of the twentieth century.
Anonymous
Posted July 24, 2003
An amazing work of art that transforms the very heart of life. Sartre brilliantly paints a picture of man taken to his simplest form, of a man conscious of his existence and searching for his very essence, only to find the horrific and obscure truth of life; that being that we exist, nothing else, at the culmination of his journey. Yes, in this moment I exist; I breathe in and out, transformed upon the expulsion of that very breath. Still, I exist, even though I am never truly myself again, that which I was now different and lost in the past: a being irrelevant in the ever-changing present. We struggle, desire, to be more, but still, we, like the trees, the rocks, and everything else, exist, living within this absurdity, this nothingness that envelops all. In fact, I am this nothingness but, at the same time, I am everything, for nothing exists without the qualifcation of its existence. I am everything and nothing, yet both at the same time, paradoxically speaking. This, is the truth of Sartre, and, 'Some of these days/ You'll miss me honey,' for now, I shall never be the same. Pure brilliance!
5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
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Posted January 3, 2003
The Café Philosopher¿s first and finest work that points to or surmises his existential ideas in his later works. Nausea is indeed a "beautiful and hard as steel" philosophical novel that makes "people ashamed of their existence" or at least lures people to question "it." Nausea is a book "above existence... an adventure." It is Sartre¿s realization, masking himself behind his character Antoine Roquentin, that existence suddenly unveils itself as Nausea ¿ a frightful, obscene and naked disorderliness (127). Comparing or paralleling Sartre¿s "absurdity" of existence with Schopenhauer¿s "vanity" of existence is strikingly similar. Schopenhauer says, "The vanity of existence is revealed in the whole form existence assumes: in the infiniteness of time and space contrasted with the finiteness of the individual in both; in the fleeting present as the sole form in which actuality exists; in the contingency and relativity of all things; in continual becoming without being; in continual desire without satisfaction; in the continual frustration of striving of which life consists... That which has been no longer is; it as little exists as does that which has never been. But everything that is in the next moment has been. Thus, the most significant present has over the most significant past the advantage of actuality, which means that the former bears to the latter the relation of something to nothing... We suddenly exist, after having for countless millennia not existed..."
4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 17, 2006
After reading this novel for a philosophy class, and having to write a paper on the ideas expressed throughout, it is evident that Sartre's intentions were to incorporate his ideas through the counts of a fictional 'diary'. The novel seemed to have a consistent drag of emotions and expressions that really never stopped through the whole book. It was easy to get lost in translation of the text and documentarys of the charachter 'Roquentin'. The overwhelming expressions of the charachters emotions and feelings left me distraught and exhausted, while at the same time leaving me unfulfilled with the ending. Overall, brilliant writing on Sartre's part, but don't be looking for a feel good ending while reading Sartre's 'Nausea'.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted March 28, 2013
The rating is for the book itself. This is not a "new translation" so don't waste your money if you have an earlier New Directions Edition of this book.
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Posted January 18, 2013
hate it
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Posted March 26, 2010
I Also Recommend:
I haven't had the opportunity to read this book yet, despite the fact I ordered it, and received it in December. I let my brother barrow it since i was still reading another book. I never got my book back! He loved this book SO much that he would not part with it and bought me a new copy. He is currently rereading the book for the 3rd time. This is impressive for a book I bought on a whim and knew next to nothing about.
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Posted July 15, 2007
Nausea is the coolest Book ever!
0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted January 27, 2004
This book is a sad and depressing account of human existance. I strongly dissagree with Sartre's philosophy however if you like the idea of living in a world without meaning this book is for you.
0 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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Posted June 17, 2009
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Overview
Sartre's greatest novel — and existentialism's key text — now introduced by James Wood.
Nausea is the story of Antoine Roquentin, a French writer who is horrified at his own existence. In impressionistic, diary form he ruthlessly catalogs his every feeling and sensation. His thoughts culminate in a pervasive, overpowering feeling of nausea which “spreads at the bottom of the viscous puddle, at the bottom of our time — the time of purple suspenders and broken chair seats; it is ...