Nausea (New Directions Paperbook)

By: Jean-Paul Sartre

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini

Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Sartre's greatest novel and existentialism's key text, now introduced by James Wood, and read by the inimitable Edoardo Ballerini.

Nausea is the story of Antoine Roquentin, a French writer who is horrified at his own existence. In impressionistic, diary form, he ruthlessly catalogs his every feeling and sensation. His thoughts culminate in a pervasive, overpowering feeling of nausea which “spreads at the 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.”

Winner of the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature (though he declined to accept it), Jean-Paul Sartre, philosopher, critic, novelist, and dramatist, holds a position of singular eminence in the world of French letters. La Nausée, his first and best novel, is a landmark in existential fiction and a key work of the 20th century.

©1938, 1964, 2000 Editions Gallimard, New Directions Publishing Corp.,James Wood, Richard Howard (P)2021 New Directions Publishing Corp.

Stunning and Inspiring

I want to listen to it again in my sleep so my consciousness can enjoy the pure genius of this book.

Amazing book

Professionally performed 🎭 amazing book of the Grand philosopher Jean Poul Sartre. Highly recommended to all who need to look into themselves and find their real meaning of existence ✨️. What is the past and what is the future on reference of Being....find out....

Brilliant beyond words

This was written in 1938. Life is funny. The fact that I just decided to read this now, at this moment in my life, proves how strangely we seem to find and connect with Art when we need it most.

The profundity of this work is impossible to ignore. It attempts to capture so much of life's absurdity, and miraculously it nearly succeeds in its efforts on every front. I was wowed by the beauty of it, as it flowed like the river of thought inside my own head, and yet, like a stream of consciousness poem brought vividly to fruition.

So many statements seemed to leap out at me from the ether, to say, let this define the now.

I am in awe of this work. It's placed itself prominently in the essential building blocks of what I consider the best novels ever written. I loved it so much I consumed the majority of it twice in rapid succession. An incomparable masterpiece of language. Art distilled to one of its most fundamental elements. The search for meaning, and lasting relevance, in a temporary existence.

Simply unbelievable how deep and true every page of this sings to me.

A dizzying, immersive experience

This is an exceptional audiobook. Edoardo Ballerini’s performance is perfect for Jean-Paul Sartre’s Nausea. His choice of tone and rhythm fits the protagonist’s long winded existential crisis very well. There were moments where I was so absorbed in the narration that it seemed as if my own conscious monologue was replaced with Ballerini’s voice, which also speaks to the mindfulness in Sartre’s writing process.

However, I would recommend familiarizing yourself with the main points of Sartre’s essay Existentialism Is A Humanism, before listening to this audiobook. This will help familiarize yourself with the concepts that Sartre is conveying through this novel as a medium, such as existential anguish and dread, but this is an enthralling experience regardless, and I think the writing stands on its own. This audiobook is truly an immersion into the protagonist’s “naseau.”

The self taught man and antoine are the same person

Post modern Fight Club? I think that makes the most sense here. Convince me wrong

Immediately restarted after 1st listening

Wonderfully performed reading of an instant favorite. Best three week existential crisis I've ever had.

Fantastic, highly recommend

I chose the story rating as a 4 star, only to show that some of this books is somewhat stale, if you enjoy narrative philosophy though, it will be a great listen.

Well Done But Unengaging

It was intriguing and enlightening, but I found myself slipping away from it at times my train of thought leaving it and it never pulled me back until I willed it to do so. I was never so much captivated by the book, more so that it occurred around me like a tour through an art gallery you never officially joined.

Sartre's Opus

The tone and tenor of this piece of existential discourse allows any critical reader, or any compassionate person, to feel revolted by merely existing.

Should have read this 10 years ago

I've never taken existentialism seriously, and I still think it's not really a philosophy. But after listening to Nausea, I realized that Sarte and his contemporary existentialists articulated something profound about the experience of being human. The feelings are real, the ideas resonate, and Nausea is an excellent want to see that.