Jean-Paul Sartre`s first published novel, ” Nausea” is both an extended essay on existentialist ideals, & a profound fictional exploration of a man struggling to restore a sense of meaning to his life. This ” Penguin Modern Classics” edition is translated from the French by Robert Baldick with an introduction by James Wood. ” Nausea” is both the story of the troubled life of an introspective historian, Antoine Roquentin, & an exposition of one of the most influential & significant philosophical attitudes of modern times
- existentialism. The book chronicles his struggle with the realisation that he is an entirely free agent in a world devoid of meaning; a world in which he must find his own purpose & then take total responsibility for his choices. A seminal work of contemporary literary philosophy, ” Nausea” evokes & examines the dizzying angst that can come from simply trying to live. Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) was an iconoclastic French philosopher, novelist, playwright &, widely regarded as the central figure in post-war European culture & political thinking. Sartre famously refused the Nobel Prize for literature in 1964 on the grounds that `a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution`. His most well-known works, all of which are published by Penguin, include ” The Age of Reason”, ” Nausea” & ” Iron in the Soul”. If you enjoyed ” Nausea”, you might like Albert Camus` ” The Outsider”, also available in ” Penguin Modern Classics”. ” One of the very few successful members of the genre ” Philosophical Novel”...a young man`s tour de force”. (Iris Murdoch).