Nausea Author:Jean-Paul Satre Fiction Fifteenth Printing (copyright 1964) — Jean-Paul Satre, philosopher, critic, novelist and dramatist, holds a position of singular eminence in the world of French letters. Among readers and critics familiar with the whole of Sartre's work, it is generally recognized that his earliest novel, La Nausee (first published in 1938) , is his fin... more »est 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 about the work and people around him. His thoughts culminate in a pervasive, over-powering feeling of nausea which "spreads at eh 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 his life, his philosophical and psychological struggles, give Satre the opportunity to dramatize the tentes of his Existentialist creed.
The introduction for this edition of Nausea by Hayden Carruth gives background on Satre's life and major books, a summary of the principal themes of Existentialist philosophy, and a critical analysis of the novel itself.« less