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Jean-Paul Sartre
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Nausea Paperback – May 23, 2007

by Jean-Paul Sartre (Author), Lloyd Alexander (Translator), Richard Howard (Introduction)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 220 ratings
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The classic Existentialist novel, with a new introduction by renowned poet, translator, and critic Richard Howard.

Winner of the 1964 Nobel Prize for Literature, Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher, critic, novelist, and dramatist, holds a position of singular eminence in the world of letters. Among readers and critics familiar with the whole of Sartre's work, it is generally recognized that his earliest novel, La Nausée (first published in 1938), is his finest and most significant. It is unquestionably a key novel of the twentieth century and a landmark in Existentialist fiction.

Nausea is the story of Antoine Roquentin, a French writer who is horrified at his own existence. In impressionistic, diary form he ruthlessly catalogues 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." Roquentin's efforts to come to terms with life, his philosophical and psychological struggles, give Sartre the opportunity to dramatize the tenets of his Existentialist creed.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    192 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    New Directions
  4. Publication date
    May 23, 2007
  5. Dimensions
    5.3 x 0.6 x 8 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0811217000
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0811217002
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"It is the most enjoyable book Sartre has ever written."
― The New Yorker

"The best-written and most interesting of Sartre's novels."
― Atlantic Monthly

"With Nausea Sartre has succeeded magnificently―and horribly―in extending the realm of the novel to the outermost reaches of naked self-examination."
― The New York Post

About the Author

Jean-Paul Sartre was a prolific philosopher, novelist, public intellectual, biographer, playwright and founder of the journal Les Temps Modernes. Born in Paris in 1905 and died in 1980, Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1964―and turned it down. His books include Nausea, Intimacy, The Flies, No Exit, Sartre’s War Diaries,Critique of Dialectical Reason, and the monumental treatise Being and Nothingness.

Richard Howard is the author of eleven books of poetry, including Untitled Subjects, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1970. He is the translator for more than 150 works from the French language. He received the American Book Award for his translation of Charles Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ New Directions; 1st edition (May 23, 2007)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0811217000
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0811217002
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.3 x 0.6 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 220 ratings

About the author

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Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre

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Novelist, playwright, and biographer Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-80) is widely considered one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century. His major works include "No Exit," "Nausea," "The Wall," "The Age of Reason," "Critique of Dialectical Reason," "Being and Nothingness," and "Roads to Freedom," an allegory of man's search for commitment, and not, as the man at the off-licence says, an everyday story of French country folk.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
220 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Myles H
5.0 out of 5 stars Wow
Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2021
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Can’t quite describe the book. On so many occasions I felt as if this book was written about me, like viewing my own life through these pages. I have never been so disturbed before. I felt violated and intruded upon the entire time I was reading this yet it was impossible to put down. I haven’t felt the same since reading it and I kind of regret telling one of my friends to read it because I don’t think my warning was clear enough. I don’t recommend this book to anyone under any sort of fragile state of mind, I thought this would help me through a depressive episode and keep my mind off things but now I feel like I’m stuck in a box I’m never getting out of. For having such a profound impact, this has to be by far the greatest book I’ve read but beware; it’s haunting.
3 people found this helpful
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Joe Hart
5.0 out of 5 stars Understood just enough to enjoy it
Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2011
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"Nausea","The Stranger" and "Jean Santeuil" are my 3 favorite books, have read the last 2 many times.

I understood scenes from Nausea and (like everything by Sartre) thought they were fascinating. But "viscous"? What is that to Sartre? Or to me? My favorite passage in the book is the narrator's trip through the portrait gallery and his reaction on exiting. Perfect. I also like Roquentin's obsessive fascination with the cheap tune. I got no philosophy out of this book, although I know some of the fundamentals of Existentialiam. "Existence precedes essence." I don't agree, on biological, hardly religious grounds.

Though I liked Nausea (can I make such a plebian statement as I "liked" it?), and have read it a couple times (and just ordered a copy for a friend, hence my renewed interest in it and these comments), I got more pleasure out of "Roads To Freedom" (which I read somewhere is actually a 4 part novel, not 3, and that the final book has never been translated into English), and of course all the wonderful plays. "Being and Nothingness" is completely meaningless to me, and I wouldn't dream of (trying) reading it. "Words" (Sartre's mini-bio) was interesting and revealing.

"The Stranger" if anyone is interested is written in such simple French that anyone with a cheap French/English dictionary and a little patience can easily read it. I did.
4 people found this helpful
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Barbara S. Reeves
4.0 out of 5 stars Nausea took me down a different street in my mind!
Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2012
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I just finished reading "Nausea" by Jean-Paul Sartre who was a leading philosopher of existentialism. In his novels and plays, as in Nausea, he portrays his characters adrift in a meaningless world. Existentialism claims that human beings have full responsibility for creating the meaning in their lives, and that we exist in a state of total freedom. But rather than a feeling of liberation, this freedom leads to a state of overwhelming indecision and anxiety.

In German philosopher Karl Jaspers' view, one's being is most clearly revealed in extreme situations or states of mind such as despair or suffering - occasions when the individual is confronted with the temporary nature of his or her own existence.

When I read these lines in "Nausea": "Now when I say 'I,' it seems hollow to me. I can't manage to feel myself very well, I am so forgotten. The only real thing left in me is existence," I was instantly transported back to my first year of imprisonment. I had lost everything. I thought my life was over and that I would never be free again. I was suffering agonizing physical pain from gun-shot wounds, I had tried to kill myself, and I felt the spiritual pain of believing that even God had forsaken me. I could do nothing but breathe; breathe in, breathe out, inhale, exhale. There was a strange comfort in that, knowing all I had to do was breathe. I know it sounds crazy, but the feeling of having nothing left to lose was oddly comforting.

That's what reading "Nausea" was like for me. It took me down a different street in my mind, and it allowed me to peer around the corner and see what I could not have seen any other way.

David Allan Reeves
Author of "Running Away From Me"
9 people found this helpful
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Dave Willis-lorenz
5.0 out of 5 stars Not an essay!
Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2007
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Picking up this book, I was expecting a philosophical essay, since that's what I've become accustomed to reading from famous philosophers. As I began to read "Nausea", however, it was soon clear that this was a work of fiction, but based around his own philosophical ideas: "philosofiction". This is the first thing from Sartre that I have read, but it won't be the last.

His writing style is really incredible. The solitary figure he creates is wonderfully sick, innocent, sinister, amiable, a truly three-dimensional character. Sartre's imagery is clear, yet subtle in its sickness. I actually began to feel naseous myself a few times reading it; it's just one of those books that has a sort of ineffable feeling pervading from it.

I definitely recommend reading it, if not for the philosophy, then definitely for an extremely well-written novel.
7 people found this helpful
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Razor
5.0 out of 5 stars This is my favorite novel to date
Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2014
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That being said, I think a lot of people have a tendency to either overthink or not get this novel at all. My opinion is that it serves as a critique of the Cartesian cogito to prove existence. Like Sartre later concludes in Being and Nothingness, things do not exist against themselves in nouminal realities, and continually doubting the existence of a thing does not leave one with a genuine conclusion that they exist (because you inherently doubt your own conclusion). I think this is pretty well illustrated in the climax (which is to me, anyway), the scene at the park.

The book is of course multifaceted, but I always felt like that was the major thing the book was trying to accomplish.
5 people found this helpful
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WAZ
3.0 out of 5 stars the ending chapter involving the jazz song is beautiful. If you're interested in existentialism
Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2015
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Much of the writing is just one long, unending meditation (or should I say self-absorbed) interpretation of existence. However, the ending chapter involving the jazz song is beautiful. If you're interested in existentialism, check out Camus or Kierkegaard, and if you're curious about Sartre, check out No Exit (great play).
5 people found this helpful
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Manuel
5.0 out of 5 stars Its if he is writing about my life and daily thoughts.
Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2013
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Antoine Roquentine has help me understanding the meaning of existencialism. Jean Paul Sartre has give me another reason why admiration is the only word for him. His life as a philosopher, human being and now as a Writer is outstanding. I would def recommend this book for any human being who wants another perspective of what life or existence means. Also why it shouldn't be take as something simple.
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Paul Heinowski
5.0 out of 5 stars Needs careful and unhurried reading
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 16, 2023
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This novel is the precursor and heart of Sartre's philosophical works. It illustrates how we depend on our definitions of things, and the illusion that they have definite beginnings and ends. It says in one compact book what he lays out at length in his entire body of work.
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hoomy
5.0 out of 5 stars Existentialism.
Reviewed in Canada on April 14, 2016
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A important novel on Existentialism.
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pamazonflaw
5.0 out of 5 stars Gutes Buch
Reviewed in Germany on September 6, 2016
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Ja; Ist Gutes Buch, Ganz Sicher, Dass Möchte Man So Sagen, Denn Jean Paul Sartre Ist Ein Wahrer Meister Seiner Zunft.
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Ben S
5.0 out of 5 stars If you only read one book in your life ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 17, 2015
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Not sure what can be said about this book, and there's certainly nothing I can add to what has already been written about this towering 20th Century masterpiece.

Buy it, read it, stick it on the shelf, think about it, read it again, buy more copies, read them. We are alone in a hostile, Godless and meaningless universe, so you might as well just read Sartre.
8 people found this helpful
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martyna
5.0 out of 5 stars Great
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 3, 2019
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Great, thank you! All arrived and I am very happy with my purchase
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