Nausea

Description

Antoine Roquentin, an isolated former adventurer, keeps a diary in Bouville while researching the life of the eighteenth-century Marquis de Rollebon. His historical project gives shape to his days, but familiar people and objects increasingly provoke a disturbing revulsion he calls the Nausea. Ordinary matter seems strange and excessive, social encounters offer little comfort, and the stories through which he has understood his past begin to lose their authority. As Roquentin’s detachment deepens, his research and his own identity become equally uncertain. The diary form places the reader inside his changing perceptions, turning daily observations into a philosophical confrontation with existence. The novel’s tension lies not in external danger but in whether meaning can survive his recognition of a world that simply exists without explanation.

Themes