Тошнота. Стена

by Jean-Paul Sartre, Жан-Поль Сартр

"Тошнота"
...Это роман об одиночестве, липком, гадком, удушающем, тошнотворном. Однажды оно постучится в дверь, чтобы зайти на чашечку кофе, затем его визиты станут более частыми, потом оно приедет погостить на недельку-другую, а после уже появится на пороге дома с чемоданом и переедет насовсем. Оно заполнит собой мысли, сердце и все окружающие предметы, оно будет сжигать изнутри, подтачивать корни, как это делают черви, обволакивать нежной пеленой тумана и бессмысленностью бытия. Оно не пощадит даже воспоминания:

"Мои воспоминания - словно золотые в кошельке, подаренном дьяволом: откроешь его, а там сухие листья"

Рассказы.
Рассказы Сартра сбивают с ног своим психологизмом, своей силой, мощью, своей красотой слова и неописуемыми эмоциями.

Genres: Philosophy, Fiction, Literature, Short Stories, Classics, France, French Literature

399 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th-century French philosophy and Marxism. Sartre was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology). His work has influenced sociology, critical theory, post-colonial theory, and literary studies. He was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature despite attempting to refuse it, saying that he always declined official honors and that "a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution."
Sartre held an open relationship with prominent feminist and fellow existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir. Together, Sartre and de Beauvoir challenged the cultural and social assumptions and expectations of their upbringings, which they considered bourgeois, in both lifestyles and thought. The conflict between oppressive, spiritually destructive conformity (mauvaise foi, literally, 'bad faith') and an "authentic" way of "being" became the dominant theme of Sartre's early work, a theme embodied in his principal philosophical work Being and Nothingness (L'Être et le Néant, 1943). Sartre's introduction to his philosophy is his work Existentialism Is a Humanism (L'existentialisme est un humanisme, 1946), originally presented as a lecture.

Reviews

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wenn es "Die Wand" als Einzelausgabe gäbe, hätte diese Erzählung ihrer zeitlosen Gültigkeit und der gelungenen Gestaltung wegen fünf Sterne bekommen. Natürlich auch, weil hier schlaglichtartig die ganze Theorie des Absurden aufleuchtet. Wirklich "schlagend" gestaltet! Dagegen fallen die anderen Texte deutlich ab. Freilich ist ein Geschmacksurteil nur ein abgeschmacktes Urteil und trifft Romane, Erzählungen usw., die einem halt gefallen, aber nichts sagen, oder die einem gerade deswegen auch nicht gefallen. Literarische Kritik, wenn sie denn einen gebührenden Stoff findet, wäre die Entwicklung des im Gelesenen enthaltenen Kerns an Gedanken und Weltreflexionen zu einer eigenen, möglichst verändernden Weltsicht. Und eben das will mir beim frühen Sartre nicht gelingen. Das Anti-Bürgerliche im "Ekel" ist wie das Anti-Kleinbürgerliche in "Intimität" irgendwie abgedroschen und bleibt für mich dem Geist der damaligen Zeit verhaftet. Sicher ist es eine Leistung auch von Sartre, dass wir heute diesen Ekel nachempfinden oder sogar selbst erleben können, um dann auch zu wissen, was wir fühlen. Ich öffne Facebook und klicke möglichst schnell den ganzen Mist weg, graule mich, wenn der "Bing" eine neue Whatsapp von Kollegen und also die dämlichen Videos anzeigt, die sie nicht für sich behalten können, und ekle mich vor mir selbst, wenn ich am Ende doch irgend so einem Hirn, das ich nicht beleidigen will (warum eigentlich nicht?), ein paar Sätze zu der Frage zukommen lasse, ob Corona vielleicht nicht doch bloß eine etwas andere Grippe ist. Insofern ist "Der Ekel" geradezu metaphorisch geworden, man weiß - wie beim "Untergang des Abendlands" - was drin steht und muss das Buch nicht mehr lesen. Das Übel besteht also darin, dass - was damals Schock und Skandal war - heute kaum noch ein müdes Lächeln hervor bringt. (Der "Autodidakt" ist in seiner Bildungsborniertheit witzig, aber nichts Besonderes mehr, selbst dann nicht, wenn man ihm als "Typ" immer noch begegnet.) So hat Sartre gesiegt und ist in diesem Sieg untergegangen, indem er in das Denken der Intellektuellen wie der (hippen) Bohème dieser Welt eingegangen ist, ohne dabei (mit diesen Texten!) provokant zu bleiben. Hinzu kommt, dass ich die frühen Texte mit dem Wissen um seine spätere Philosophie, auch die späteren Dramen usw. lese, und sie schon von daher ihren ursprünglichen Neuigkeitswert eingebüßt haben. Kurz: "Der Ekel" sagte mir im Ganzen nicht zu. Vom Ideellen abgesehen bleibt die literarisch-sprachliche Gestaltung trotzdem ein Vergnügen. Sie rechtfertigt die drei Punkte und eine Empfehlung der Texte an all jene, die entweder Sartre noch nicht kennen, oder - jugendlichen Alters wegen ;-) - seine Provokationen noch mit Überschwang aufnehmen können. Ich bin wohl schon zu alt dafür und finde im Übrigen, dass sich Gesellschaftskritik nicht an der Ablehnung des Spießigen der bürgerlich- kapitalistischen Gesellschaft erschöpfen sollte. Auch das ist ein Moment, der Sartres Denken in diesen Texten in die Zwischenkriegszeit verweist. Ich finde, sie könnten dort (als literarische Denkmale) auch bleiben. ;-)

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

In less than 200 pages he can change the way you look at the world, and in less than 50 pages he can make you understand how truely meaningless life is. People can choose to see the horrible depression in his writing, or they can choose to open their eyes and stop taking themselves so seriously... I prefer the latter.

[Alex :P · Rating 4 out of 5]

mega existencialni love it 🤌🤌

[Sarah Cupitt]

Public holidays are dangerous for readers. Anyway, in short (not really), Nausea is a philosophical novel by the existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, published in 1938. It is Sartre's first novel and, in his opinion, one of his best works. Antoine Roquentin protagonist of the novel, is a former adventurer who has been living in Bouville for three years. Since humans are “condemned to be free,” we have the terrible burden, but also the incredible opportunity, to create our own meaning.

Sartre thought that we often live in denial of life’s meaninglessness. Antoine experiences a familiar human anguish when he realises life’s impermanence. Absent a religious framework to hold on to, he finds himself in free fall. While he thought that life was without an innate meaning, Satre believed that humans can, and must, create their own meaning through their choices and actions over time.

Notes:
- Fictional (note to self)
- Nausea plunges you into the anxious mind of Antoine Roquentin, a 30-year-old historian drifting through the fictional town of Bouville. Struggling to make sense of his work and surroundings, Roquentin begins experiencing literal bouts of nausea at life’s utter absurdity. (mood)
- While Nausea was written in the 1930s, it describes feelings of alienation, listlessness, and depression still familiar to many of us today. Building on these emotions, French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre uses his story to outline the core ideas of existentialism – a school of thought that emphasizes freedom, choice, and creating one’s own meaning.
- He becomes intensely bored with his research subject and has trouble looking in the mirror. He also feels a strange sense of dread emanating from the physical objects around him. For instance, when he picks up a pebble on the beach, he feels sick to his stomach.
- Antoine finds that he really hasn’t had any adventures. Everything that ever happened to him seems like random, uncontrollable happenstance. Only in hindsight can he twist some of these experiences into meaningful stories. The next day, he is deeply depressed about the arbitrariness and emptiness of life.
- He thinks his words don’t have any meaning anymore. Sitting at his desk, he stabs his hand with a knife, watching the blood trickle onto the pages of his diary. His diary entry for the next day reads simply, “Nothing. Existed.”
- The day after, he shares his realisation with his diary. He believes that the nausea isn’t coming from outside of him – it is him. It’s part of him.

Analysis notes:
- Antoine begins to grapple with the meaninglessness of existence, feeling repulsed by the objects and people around him. Sartre’s spare, observational prose establishes a bleak mood that reflects Antoine’s growing alienation from the world. (Sartre explained that he had experimented with the hallucinogenic mescaline shortly before writing the novel. It caused in him effects similar to the nausea Antoine describes.)
- He begins to develop a morbid obsession with death, struggling to accept its arbitrariness and inevitability. His morbid thoughts disturb him so much that he even dabbles in self-harm, perhaps in an attempt to feel what it all means. (it's giving bell jar vibes)
- Antoine finally wakes up to the core tenet of existentialism and recognizes the emptiness of life as an opportunity.
- After she shuts the door on him and their story, Antoine decides to seize his new, radical freedom. His decision to write a novel is an unsubtle metaphor: he’s beginning to write his own story. It also reflects Sartre’s own attempt to create meaning through writing. Just like Antoine, Sartre abandoned work on a historical project to start writing Nausea. (so writing a novel to justify one's existence more or less)

[Thomas Fackler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh...Satre would have understood.

[Alex K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Nausea" was a chore to get through, the writing is tedious and confused with a lot of philosophical insights randomly interspersed into a stream-of-consciousness type of description. The parts with dialogue were best, but overall I came away not really knowing what I'd just read (maybe this also says something about me as a reader and relative amateur in reading philosophical writings?)
The short stories, on the other hand, were excellent. From the account of the final days of three men condemned to death for political reasons in "The Wall," to the anguish of a woman in love with a madman in "The Room," the paranoias and madness of an almost-mass murderer in "Erostratus," the triumph of a woman finally choosing her own unhappiness in spite of the different opinions of others because IT'S HERS in "Intimacy," and last but definitely not least "The Childhood of a Leader" - I can't describe it better than just that title without giving too much away. Each of these was beautiful and disturbing in its own way, with a very black humor and no political correctness whatsoever. Skip "Nausea" and just read the rest of this book.

[Jeremy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting at first, but once the idea has been understood, Sartre drowns you in a language devoid of pleasure.

[Simona Balková · Rating 3 out of 5]

THE WALL:
Short story collection
In 5 shorts stories, Sartre managed to awaken some type of emotions in me. And that's what a good book is supposed to do (in my opinion). It made me think about my own existence. It brought fear but also ease. 3/5

1. The Wall:
Made me feel serious fear and awakened thoughs about death. It was just as if I, myself, was standing against a wall waiting for a bullet from a person who is supposed to put an end to my life. It was absurd. Unimaginable sort of, but I also felt the sweat of the main characters, felt the time slipping away. I seriously reevaluated my priorities. Whether things matter to me or not. I was invested in the "plot", so I consider it a good job from the author.

2. The Room:
Wasn't so interesting in comparison to the first one. When I want to hear existentialist thoughts, I want them to be said / written rather quickly. It's too tiring to read about the uselessness of existence while the plot is being dragged and dragged. But again, this story treated a different topic, shared insanity. So maybe a longer plot was needed.

3. Erostratus: at this point of the book, I was already getting tired from the existentionalism so there was kind of a prejudice from my side, starting to read this story. But this one hit me like a truck on a highway. Made me feel the strongest emotions. It was rather fast-paced, so I assume this did the trick. The hatred of the main character towards humanity was palpable. And his cowardice near the end made me laugh in a miserable kind of way. Big words and plans from a killer, but then when in the situation, he panicked and acted like a scaredy-cat. I reflected on the acts of suicide attack terrorist. I imagined how they feel or whether they even feel something before they push the button which leads to their own death.

4. Intimacy:
This one kind of bored me. The main character couldn't decide what to do with her own life (relationship-wise), so it seemed to me she let her friend speak for her and was heavily influenced by the ideas of her environment. This was like a soap opera to me. Just stop blaming it on the existentialism and try to decide for yourself. But.. hard to explain to the main character. She annoyed me.

5. The Childhood of a Leader:
The beginning amazed me. A boy (Lucien) who I imagined being around 3/4 years old was going through a heavy existential crisis which, as a parent, would make want to put him into the caring hands of professionals, if I noticed such strange behaviour. The thought process of a child interested me, but when it moved forward, I started to get a bit angry with the character again. The older he was getting, the more it made me realise that he was just pitying himself and I kind of wanted to take him by his shoulders and shake, as a wake up call. I understand a great part of the existentialist thoughts were produced as a result of war and general instability, but for me, it doesn't seem like an excuse for pitying yourself your whole life. Lucien developed a strong sense of antisemitism which gave him an identity which he was holding onto. And this was just.. a sad sight. Hated the character, wouldn't want to interact with him.

NAUSEA: 3/5

I have a very complicated relationship with this book. At first, I hated it, because I started reading it in french and my language level unfortunately isn't sufficient. The topic was too hard to understand.

Then I started to like it (while reading it in Czech) because I cared about Roquentin as a character. He mattered to me. I cared about his whereabouts, his passions, thoughts etc. I desperately wanted to know what will happen to this man.

Then again hated it. The contemplations of Roquentin made me sick and bored me to death. I was livid. Why isn't he doing something useful and for pages and pages of the "diary" asking all these stupid questions which only lead to nowhere? I wanted to choke him with my bare hands. On each page, I audibly sighed, when he repeated the same musings.
I was pissed of, wanting to throw the book out of my window.

Nonetheless, I continued. I had to finish it.

But then when he met up with his old love Anny, I started to be interested again. He finally showed signs of empathy and "normal" human emotions. Love and maybe a bit of fear. I kind of wanted them to be together. I wished that Roquentin could lead a normal life and not think like a pretentious 16 y.o. for a moment.

Then he wrote about leaving Bouville, which reminded me of myself leaving Lille. The pain and the strangeness. The city which forgets you. I felt sadness and it felt real.

Overall, I liked Roquentin as a character. I was thinking about erasing some parts of the book to make it shorter, but then I realised that in these parts lays the true meaning. It was probably supposed to highlight the lack of meaning of our lives and that we HAVE to do something if we don't want to rot away. Our days aren't limitless.
Made me realize how I, myself don't do much with my life and how stupid of me it is to waste it.

With that said, I would recommend only reading some parts, to people who aren't interested in the philosophy of existentialism.

[Zubr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Conscience entre les murs.

U Sartra si musíte dát pozor, kdy ho čtete.

Antoin Roquentin prožíval Nevolnost ve chvílích, kdy si uvědomil, jak neodvratitelně a přespočetně existuje, jak je si to vlastní a přitom zbytečné. Musíte si dát pozor, abyste s Antoinem neprožívali Nevolnost třeba ve chvíli, kdy posloucháte Obří broskev a za okny je tichá tma už měsíc paralyzovaného města a naproti přes ulici je ve výklencích světla jako mimikra přítomen život.
Taky Sartra nesmíte číst, když ženy na břehu rybníka hovoří o svých partnerských vztazích.

Můžete ale Sartra číst v podvečer, kdy se zmámení sluncem vracíte domů a procházíte pod rozkvetlým stromem. Když nevíte, jak se ten strom jmenuje, ale je vám to jedno, protože mu vaše duše dá tisíc jmen mnohem lepších, než jaká mu dali botanici, protože vaše jména nemají písmena a hlásky a tak jsou opravdová. A nebe je modré. A nebe je růžové. A nebe je jako burák. A vůbec z toho nemáte Nevolnost (nauseu), i když jste sami a lidé se vás bojí. Protože jste sami a možná máte mor, nebo tetování, nebo koronu. Tu sluneční. Vždycky u sebe.

Sartre nemá koronu, ale napsal knihu (několik) a má umění. Každý trpíme nějakou chorobou, která nás nakonec možná zachrání.

[Patrick Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

"They are a little like dead people for me, a little like the heroes of a novel; they have washed themselves of the sin of existing."

The sin of Raskolnikov, of Crime and Punishment, is a murder, after which existential dread and guilt haunt him endlessly. The sin of Antoine Roquentin, of Nausea, is purely his existence, and the search for any means of accepting, or transcending, all which modern existence entails. There are several passages of Nausea, and several of the other stories included in this edition, which uniquely capture the inner dialogues of our consciousness and our environment in an unparalleled fashion. It is timeless. The frequency and depth of the occasional revulsion of being varies for everyone, but it is universal, and it is illustrated to perfection throughout Nausea. Ancillary characters of Anny and the Self-Taught Man also contribute to some very strong conversations, some of the most engaging passages of the book.

Other stories in this edition include The Wall, Intimacy, Erostratus, and The Birth of a Leader, and all are well-worth reading, particularly The Birth of a Leader. It is a fascinating contrast to Nausea, following a protagonist's lifetime leading to their own, distinctly less favorable discovery of meaning.

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jean Paul Sartre, on his birthday June 21
There is no literature without Sartre.
At minimum, one must read the novel Nausea, the play No Exit, the short story The Wall, and his magnificent work of literary scholarship Saint Genet: Actor and Martyr.
Beyond this there are some few small items, which may reasonably occupy one throughout a lifetime. And whatever time you may spend in his company, it will reward you as time well spent.

[Angie Byrd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nausea has great commentary on the disorientation that comes along with lucid existence. The story used to illustrate this notion is nothing special. However, many of the main characters thoughts throughout the novel were illuminating.

[Julia Vdw · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book where nothing really happens, you follow a man through his every day life for a period of life and get a glimpse into his tumultuous state of mind. Nausea highlights the absurdity and meaningless of life in a beautiful but sad way

[Meriem Ait Bbih · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[Robinsky_ · Rating 1 out of 5]

keine lust dem buch noch ne 20. chance zu geben wie können sich Leute ernsthaft satre antun philosophie in Romanform so weird

[Spudsters · Rating 5 out of 5]

sartre effectively and efficiently captures the bulbous "fleshy" feeling of existence without meaning. these are easy, casual reads, for when one wants to reassess and observe or simply feel seen

[Jo Obomanu · Rating 2 out of 5]

confusing asf

[Tabby Chick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to take a picture of every page

[Matt Person]

Best with a glass of wine

[eds · Rating 5 out of 5]

what. the. Freak!

[Micael · Rating 4 out of 5]

real freaky

[Fabia Scali-Warner · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Wall is perfectly chilling.
With Nausea, you either love it or hate it.

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of short stories (which is mostly dominated by the longer Nausea) is a good introduction to Sartre's philosophically tinged fiction. I am a bit of a sucker for existentialist writings -- I find that they independently reflect many of my thoughts, views on life, and epiphanies. As much as we all enjoy the comfort of hearing our own thoughts and feelings echo throughout this massively complex cave of life, I found his writings to be often banal with occasional strokes of insight.

Let me go a bit further.

I feel that Nausea is a bit over-dramatized. I it is perfectly fine to draw out the existential crisis, but unfortunately it was played out in the same ways over and over again. The main character repeatedly is slapped in the face by reality and the absurdity of being given life without asking for it, but unfortunately he does not use this revelation toward personal growth.

I posit that the most important thing to do with existential epiphanies is to recognize: "okay, that's the way it is... now what?". In my view, there are heaps of benefits that accompany this recognition and one is given an unbounded freedom. My issue is that Sartre's main character tends to err toward the side of the depressed perspective of meaninglessness. At the end of Nausea there is a brief reconciliation giving a fraction of hope and growth, but this is largely left unexplored.

Nausea was filled with meaningful and insightful scenes and quotes more often than his other short stories, but I felt that the short stories were better from a narrative and storytelling standpoint. The content of the short stories covers a wide range. I particularly found the tracing of the growth of a child who later explores homosexuality, surrealists, and becomes "self-realized" as an antisemite to be a twisted take on becoming an individual.

I definitely recommend this book those existentially inclined readers looking to read a fictional shout-out to some of the main themes and ideas found in otherwise dense philosophical texts.

[Margaryta Kostyuk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Вам, певно, траплявся цей шаблон оцінки літературного смаку людини, згідно з яким той, хто читає Сартра, типу за замовчуванням класний :) Будь-які шаблони - це все рамки й упередження, але в даному випадку не можу не визнати, що якесь зерно істини в тому є.

Я прочитала коли б не найвідоміше Сартрове - "Нудоту" - і лише зайвий раз переконалася, що це література з розряду, що я називаю "для обраних". Щоб зрозуміти, треба ловити якусь його хвилю абощо. Мені не вдалося. Як на мій смак, гіпернатуралістично. Це ніби опис того, як сприймає себе, інших і все довкола людина, у якої сильно загострились усі її відчуття.

У будь-якому разі, я не могла позбутися думки про те, що читала збірку коротеньких його творів років з три тому і тоді знайшла все ж для себе щось цінне. Тому до "Нудоти" додалися ще "Інтимне" і "Герострат". Ось останнього я, мабуть, навіть рекомендувала би до ознайомлення, незважаючи на те, що він не менш специфічний. Матимете кілька депресивних, але з тим усе ж вартих роздумів і уваги ідей.

Резюме. Літературні експерименти - корисні. Так, це знаходиться далеко поза рамками того, що ми звикли вважати звичайним, класичним. Але світ Сартра такий же, як і ваш. Просто він навиворіт.

В одному слові -

Млосно.

[Werehare · Rating 3 out of 5]

6,5/10

Il voto è comprensivo di tutti i racconti, ed è "Il muro" ad alzare la media degli altri che sarebbe stata di almeno un punto più bassa. Il finale si intuisce qualche paragrafo prima, ma resta ottimo.
"La nausea" è più una riflessione che una storia - cosa che di per sé non è negativa, basta saperlo prima di aprire il volume - e ha il problema di piegare talvolta trama e personaggi al proprio messaggio: Annie ad esempio ha un comportamento assurdo che suona troppo artefatto, pensato apposta per veicolare un'idea.

[Oksana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Якщо сказати чесно - ледь змусила себе дочитати цю книгу! Не люблю залишати щось незавершеним. Просто сіра розповідь про життя чоловіка, який не знає навіщо живе і що йому робити, щоб втекти від "тошноти" . Час від часу в книзі з'являлись цікаві думки, але, на мій погляд, занадто рідко і воно точно не варте того, щоб читати всю книгу, якщо ви не знаходитесь з автором на одній хвилі.
Скажу чесно, - я би не радила читати, але в кожного свій смак. В будь-якому випадку я поставила книзі 2 зірки, хоч і не впевнена, що вона на те варта.

[Hilary]

i am having an existential crisis. maybe this will (not) help. we'll see...

[hima saki · Rating 4 out of 5]

خیلی عالی بود بینهایت قشنگ دایق انتظار برای مرگ رو توصیف کره بود

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can you say. At least Nausea needs to be read every few years, over and over. That is what I think I will say. Every time it adds something.

[Neil Aronson · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting... can't say I agree with all the philosophical propositions put forth but interesting nonetheless