Name: Nausea
Rating: 3.89873417721519 (158 reviews)

Jean-Paul Sartre

The wall and other stories: "In these stories ... Sartre's characters and situations mirror the conflicts, complexities, neuroses and sensuality of the twentieth century. His intellectual underworld includes a modern Erostratus who is compelled to murder, a psychotic who communicates his hallucinations to his formerly-sane spouse, an unfaithful wife still bound to her impotent husband, a boy's metamorphosis into an anti-semitic fascist, and the astonishing tale of a political prisoner."--Publisher description.

The Wall and Other Stories : Two Volumes in One

Nausea

The diary of Antoine Roquentin follows his thoughts as he gradually sinks into a metaphysical crisis of despair, in this the first novel by the leader of French Existentialism

I was switching between two translations of this book which were different enough to make me wonder what it is Sartre was really trying to say and if what I was reading was true to his word. Nevertheless this book is full of beautiful  insights and relatable musings. There are times where I have felt what Roquentin feels; I picked up this book at a time when I felt as though I wasn’t existing in the way that I’m supposed to, there was so much that seemed meaningless and superfluous. This book helped me to accept these feelings as human and natural, sometimes that is the way that it is. Existence is surreal and nonsensical, ugly and, of course, nauseating. 

shivani karadia

Incredible piece of work. Brilliant. Every page will hit you, then hit you again.

Spencer T

Robert Baldick

In this novel, Antoine Roquentin, an introspective historian, records the disturbing shifts in his perceptions and his struggle to restore meaning to life in a continuing present and without lies. This is Sartre's first published novel and his first extended essay on existential philosophy.

Josephine C

Lucid, motionless, empty, the consciousness is situated between the walls; it perpetuates itself. Nobody inhabits it any more. A little while ago somebody still said me, said my consciousness. Who? Outside there were talking streets, with familiar colours and smells. There remain anonymous walls, and anonymous consciousness. This is what there is: walls, and between the walls, a small living and impersonal transparency. The consciousness exists like a tree, like a blade of grass. It dozes, it feels bored. Little ephemeral existences populate it like birds in branches. Populate it and disappear. Forgotten consciousness, forsaken between these walls, under the grey sky. And this is the meaning of its existence: it is that is is a consciousness of being superfluous. It dilutes itself, it scatters itself, it tries to lose itself on the brown wall, up the lamp-post, or over there in the evening mist. But it never forgets itself; it is a consciousness of being consciousness which forget itself. That is its lot.

Ghee

Louisa

Ren 

Nausea is far from lengthy and yet I needed more than 2 months to finish it. I'm glad I picked this book up, but I really don't think I will re-read this again. This book is too pervasive in nothingness, yet so engaging in its detail. At some point I am Roquentin— ambushed by the feeling of nausea, horrified by my own being, finding no relief in justifying my existence, befriending the constant loneliness and despondency. Not a fun read if you're experiencing existential crisis, but then again, maybe the nausea is a crucial turning point in life.

Mary Marshall

désirée

jess

You wont want to know how many fuck yes i have uttered from this single book. I have a relentless monologue for every few pages, I both agree and disagree on some parts. The eloquence semantics made the self-depersonalization felt so real, that one might dwell on it forever (initially I might've). However, I do think the knowledge of everything’s meaninglessness shouldn’t trap one in fear resultant from awareness of ones smallness, it should instead free the mind and allow it to realize that it doesn’t matter what you do – be that bad or good. Your actions, honourable or terrible, hold no greater significance than how they impact directly and absolutely on your own life. 

"When one sees life as truly random, one can, as Roquentin fears, 'do anything'. But it would be a mistake to imagine that this is then freedom, while those who do not see life's randomness are still stupidly unfree. He is 'free' only in the sense that he is really unfree; he is 'alive' only in the sense that he is really dead."

This book covers Sartre’s first novel and an exploration of his early thoughts on existentialism through the meandering existence of one man. In a sense, expressing existential ideas through fiction does, however, give them an immediacy that non-fiction cannot provide, as well as a sense of how theoretical ideas relate to the reality of everyday life. As Roquentin writes: 
“The true nature of the present revealed itself: it was that which exists, and all that was not present did not exist. The past did not exist.” 
In this form of temporal negation, Roquentin finds life to be a series of present moments without a past, and his memories do little to console him from his current nausea. Roquentin finds himself to be both, melting away from reality, and plunged back into the thick heavy abundance of existence. Everything was superfluous, including himself. And in the end, Roquentin’s purpose in writing the novel which presents the narrative is to understand and document the nausea that he suffers, detailing his small perceptions so as to ruminate on their deeper meanings, how he exists in relation to the world, and also, how he, and Sartre would want us to 'solve' the dilemma of the realization that 'existence is futile'. In the Afterword section, the writer further discuss the way Camus disagreed with this book, but congruently holding the same nuance of ways to 'escape from the meaningless of existence.' 

All in all, life is pointless, but that is a liberating notion. And reading a book from post-war mid-20th century might haunt you of its whiteness and superiority of men (again, it sure did to me). Life is empty, but listening to bop/shitty music or obsessing over books in my cart is about to give me days of divine pleasure. And that doesn’t matter to the world, but it will make me happy and hurt no one else. I guess there will always be takeaways of anything, in everything.

What an absolutely disgusting book. It's absolutely awful. They way it's written so it can gaslight you into hating life, gaslighting you into doubting your existance, it's terrible. 

Which is why it deserver the 3.5 stars. I feel that Jean Paul has managed to add so much substance to this book, in like 200 pages, which is the biggest wow factor. 

But I just found myself bored. Found myself waiting for the next Nausea episode to hit. It really picks up towords the end. But really, the first half maybe even three quarters of the book was just boring, or not boring but not exactly captivating. 

But the area's when Roquentin issharing his philosiphical idea and debates really made this book

Safs 🧸

What an absolutely disgusting book. It's absolutely awful. They way it's written so it can gaslight you into hating life, gaslighting you into doubting your existance, it's terrible. 

Which is why it deserver the 3.5 stars. I feel that Jean Paul has managed to add so much substance to this book, in like 200 pages, which is the biggest wow factor. 

But I just found myself bored. Found myself waiting for the next Nausea episode to hit. It really picks up towords the end. But really, the first half maybe even three quarters of the book was just boring, or not boring but not exactly captivating. 

But the area's when Roquentin issharing his philosiphical idea and debates really made this book

Varol Aksoy

bu kitap bana anlamsızca tavanı izleyerek daldığım düşünceleri anımsatacak..

Bouke van der Bijl

This book is awful and you shouldn't read it, unless you want to have an existential crisis. Sartre sketches mundane daily life in such intricate detail that you start to realize the arbitrariness and meaninglessness of everything around you. From the way people talk and interact with each other, to your own wants and needs. The protagonist in this book is a lonely and miserable character that 'wakes up' (or 'gets woke' as the kids would say these days) and becomes hyper aware of his own existence and that of others around him. The book is written as a diary from him as he goes through a life crisis while trying to process this.

A must read if you have any interest in philosophy I think.

Nelson Zagalo

Devo começar por reconhecer que devia ter lido "A Náusea" há 20 anos, pois acredito que por essa altura teria sabido apreciar emocionalmente o seu fundamento. Hoje foi tarde demais, o que aqui se defende está já longe dos meus ideais, das minhas buscas. Compreendendo melhor hoje os seus fundamentos racionais, mas por isso mesmo tenho ainda mais objecções aos seus argumentos.
Por outro lado os problemas estéticos de um romance não advêm para mim das ideias ou conjecturas defendidas sobre a condição humana. A primeira metade da "A Náusea" é passada a descrever o universo do narrador (alter-ego de Sartre), e as suas perplexidades sobre o mesmo, de uma forma dita modernista Contudo essa descrição alonga-se e prolonga-se sem necessidade. O miolo está todo na segunda parte, e diria mesmo no último terço. É verdade que não poderíamos chegar lá sem passar pela leitura introdutória, mas falta a Sartre capacidades romancistas para nos envolver e conduzir. Se comparado com Albert Camus, as distâncias em termos de competências narrativas são por demais evidentes.

Meriem💫

Antoine delves into what it means to exist very very deep in this book it is sometimes too hard to read.

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.

Dinah De Vries

Very relatable for anyone who has ever had an existential crisis. The main character who experiences this 'nausea' is in that way relatable, although it isn't by any means a particularly cheerful read. Worth it though!

Sonia Flores

«Nada ha cambiado y sin embargo todo existe de otra manera»

Este es un libro terrible y hermoso, oscuro y enfermizo que puede adueñarse de ti si lo dejas, sobre todo si no eres estable emocionalmente, eres propenso a ceder ante la afirmación de que no haces nada más que existir. Sartre escribe bellísimo y describe con un detalle tan único su entorno que cautiva al lector de tal manera que no le permite parar. Me sucedió que, además, me dieron unas ganas impresionantes de ponerme a escribir.
Es un libro para leer con mucho cuidado. Para contemplar la preciosa manera de escribir de Sartre y entender un poco su filosofía, pero no para hacerlo parte de uno, porque es verdaderamente deprimente. Es una obra maestra, claro, pero aun así, deprimente. Intenso y hermoso y terrible. Sartre no es un autor con el cual pasar el rato y distraerse nada más, but this work is so breathtaking.

Juan Sebastián Escobar

Mi libro favorito. Es un libro de los que en realidad crean una atmósfera donde el lector es absorbido. Tal atmósfera en este libro es muy oscura, es un libro muy pesado y no se lo recomiendo a alguien que esté débil sentimentalmente. La primera vez que lo leí no estaba muy estable emocionalmente y este libro me golpeó un poco.

Nausea The Wall and Other Stories : Two Volumes in One

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