The whole feel of this novel is that of isolation, abandonment and ultimately you feel sorry for Roquentin, who personifies lonliness, verging upon the suicidal.

I have to disagree with some of the other reviewers, the dialogue is insipid, prosaic and not particularly thought provoking. Indeed some of the scenes when Roquentin describes his thoughts in a typical 'stream of consciousness' manner remind me of a time when I was unemployed and analysed everything, searching for reason and meaning in my life.

If you reads this book you will recognise some of the feelings of lonliness and isolation that at times we all succumb to.

I'm not going to let myself fall in to the trap of believing that I have somehow missed the point of this book, or that I lack the intellect to understand it. It's like Opera, it's a matter of temperament and taste. No all opera's are good, some are sublime (Carmen) others facile and langiud (Cossi Fan Tutti). This book falls in to the latter category. Read it for yourself and be truthfull with what you find. Think to yourself "If this was not by Satre would I feel differently about the book"? QED


(Pessimistic) food for your thoughts   August 30, 2001
 9 out of 10 found this review helpful

Although sometimes hopelessly pessimistic, I still found this to be a very interesting read. It is the story of Antoine in 1930's France, or rather it is a snap-shot of his life. It made me think about existence and how we each try to give our lives meaning while faced with the reality that we are in fact superfluous. Each character seems to represent a different outlook so it makes for some truly dazzling dialogue. Sartre has a way of writing which is sometimes so beautiful and eloquent. I would definitely recommend this book. I think it is a book that I will always remember.


It'll change your perspective in one reading...   January 2, 2001
 11 out of 12 found this review helpful

Granted Sartre leaves one feeling empty and worthless in one sense, but he also gives the reader the ability to view the world in it's true form: a soup of superfluous existences. If ever you asked yourself what the world is beneath the materialist skin, Nausea answers the question perfectly.


A classic of twentieth century literary fiction   August 9, 2000
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

'Nausea' was first published in 1938. I read it for the first time in the early seventies, at which time it still seemed absolutely contemporary (far more alive in fact than many more recent books). It remains one of my touchstones, one of the few books from that period of my reading which I still reread.

'Nausea' is one of the defining texts of existentialism, which, if now unfashionable, still looks like the most seriously intended and influential philosophy of the second half of the twentieth century: it is also a fine novel, which anticipates many of the trends of postwar fiction. It should be on anybody's list of the most significant fiction published in the last century.

Much fiction written between 1900 and 1945 seems almost unreadable now because the world has changed so much: but as with the stories of Kafka, this is not the case with 'Nausea'. Certainly the way in which it deals with the most serious questions without descending into pedantry or obscurity is a model for the philosophical novelist, and makes much contemporary fiction appear trivial and underachieving by comparison.

If you have read and enjoyed this book and want to explore further in French fiction of the 30s and early 40s, I would suggest trying Drieu la Rochelle's 'Will o'the Wisp' ('Le feu follet', 1931), Saint-Exupery's 'Night Flight' ('Vol de nuit', 1931), Celine's 'Journey to the End of the Night' ('Voyage au bout de la nuit', 1932) , Queneau's 'The Bark Tree' ('Le Chiendent', 1933) and Camus's 'The Outsider' ('L'etranger', 1942), all of which are in the same league as 'Nausea', though only the Camus has been as influential in the English-speaking world. None of Sartre's other fiction is as achieved as 'Nausea', though the early short stories are interesting.


existentialist philosophy expounded through the everyday   May 1, 2000
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Nausea is a philosophical novel. It's the diary of a historian who lives on his own in a hotel room, leaving it only to sit in cafes and the public library, where he has a passing, indifferent acquaintance with another loner. The circumstances are banal, and it's through the eyes of this solitary in these everyday circumstances that Sartre dissects people, their pride, their illusions and their blindness in a very convincing way, developing to a discussion of existence itself.

I couldn't stress enough how important I consider this work to be - I have come to value everything else I have read in terms of it, and they always suffer in comparison. It is quite shockingly complete, compact and profound. Not only is this a great work of literature, a sensitive insight into human loneliness and a beautiful coherent whole, but it is also the work of a logician; from basic realities and simple observation, Sartre guides us step by logical step towards some truly unexpected, disturbing conclusions.

To me Nausea is a testament to what a man can achieve with a pen and paper.