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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Nausea, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Existence vs. Essence
Time
Love and Sexuality
Art and Legacy
Summary
Analysis
A brief note explains that the text of Nausea is transcribed verbatim from the files of Antoine Roquentin. It goes on to estimates that the undated pages at the beginning of the novel were written around January of 1932. Antoine Roquentin had moved to the town of Bouville to complete his research after a period of travel. The note is signed, “The Editors.”
The Editors’ Note presents Roquentin’s journal with some background context, framing Roquentin (a fictional creation of Sartre’s) as not only the narrator of Nausea, but also as its author. The fact the editors have published Roquentin’s journal suggests that Roquentin must have achieved some kind of importance or notoriety after Nausea’s events.
Themes
