*SOLD*
 
The Diary of Antoine Roquentin [La Nausee, Nausea] 
Jean-Paul Sartre
London, 1949
 
First edition in English. An American edition more aptly titled, Nausea, was released in the same year using these British sheets. Another translation also titled, Nausea, would appear in the U.K. in 1962. Bookseller descriptions often imply or outright proclaim that edition is the first English translation, which it is not. Publisher’s cloth boards – slight spotting along textblock edges, first two leaves lightly foxed otherwise internally clean, spine a touch faded. Withal, Very Good in unclipped dust jacket – tiny snags at top corner of front panel and upper spine, slightly rubbed/stained near edges of rear panel, small erased pencil mark near price on front flap. Overall a Very Good, bright, and charismatic jacket.
 
The work follows the story of Antoine Roquentin, a loner young man who becomes increasingly nauseated by his own existence. ‘The basic element that underlies the novel and Sartre’s existentialism more generally is the matter of human freedom. At one part of the novel Roquentin says to himself, “I am free now. I do not have the slightest reason for living.” Roquentin suffers by being confronted with his total freedom. He suffers from life’s and the world’s contingency, its randomness and superfluity, aspects that are all linked to the crucial aspect and matter of freedom.’(Boppert)