Nausea Summary

An “Editors’ Note” states that the following diary was discovered among the belongings of Antoine Roquentin, who had moved to the fictional city of Bouville in order to finish his historical research on the Marquis de Rollebon after years of extensive travel. In a set of undated pages, Roquentin records the events of his day. After a strange incident in which Roquentin picked up a stone to throw it in the sea and then found himself unexplainably repulsed by it, Roquentin is trying to write down his observations in order to ground himself. As he writes, he reassures himself that he has nothing to worry about.

An unspecified amount of time later, Roquentin’s dated diary entries begin. He is now sure that he has a problem. He finds himself unable to recognize things that he sees frequently, and he has started to feel disgusted and overwhelmed by inanimate objects, a condition that he calls “Nausea.” As his loneliness worsens, Roquentin starts to miss his ex-lover, Anny. He tries to throw himself into his work on the Marquis de Rollebon, but he realizes that he doesn’t care about the Marquis as much as he used to. The only thing that comforts him is his favorite record, which he listens to at the Rendezvous des Cheminots.

Roquentin starts to pay more attention to the Self-Taught Man, a fellow patron of the library who he realizes is trying to read all the library’s books in alphabetical order. The Self-Taught Man asks Roquentin to show him pictures from his travels, which prompts Roquentin to think about adventure. Listening to the Self-Taught Man talk about the excitement of adventure, Roquentin starts to think that he himself has never had one, even after six years of travel. The thought bothers him more and more. Amid his growing dissatisfaction with his work on the Marquis, Roquentin tries to touch Françoise, the owner of the Rendezvous des Cheminots with whom he sometimes has casual sex. As he touches her genitals, however, he’s overcome with disgust and images of an overgrown garden.

Roquentin receives a short letter from Anny asking him to come visit her while she is in Paris in a few weeks. At first, Roquentin is not very excited to go, but as his Nausea worsens, he starts to look forward to the meeting hopefully. Roquentin finally gives up on writing about the Marquis de Rollebon, unable to get past his conviction that the book has become the only “justification” for his existence. Roquentin grows increasingly conscious of his own existence, and he starts to wonder what the point of his life is.

The Self-Taught Man invites Roquentin to lunch. Roquentin, relieved to have some human interaction, accepts. As the two of them talk, Roquentin learns that the Self-Taught Man is a humanist and a socialist, having fallen in love with humankind after being held prisoner in a German camp for two years during World War I. The Self-Taught Man presses Roquentin about humanism, and Roquentin uncomfortably deflects. Having encountered humanists many times in the past, Roquentin does not hold the same views as the Self-Taught Man, but he’s wary of offending him. When the Self-Taught Man tries to insist that Roquentin is a humanist at heart, Roquentin feels a wave of Nausea and runs from the restaurant as the other patrons stare at him.

Full of Nausea, Roquentin makes his way to the Bouville public park, where he has a revelation. He learns the secret of existence, and everything finally starts to make sense to him. Quickly, though, he becomes overwhelmed again as he realizes that the world seemingly exists for no reason at all. Like all else, Roquentin has done nothing to deserve or earn his own existence—he just exists. Feeling fed up with Bouville now that he’s given up his old reason for existing, the Marquis de Rollebon, Roquentin decides to move to Paris after he visits Anny.

Roquentin arrives at Anny’s hotel room in Paris, and she greets him with callous familiarity. Anny tells Roquentin that she has changed. Back when the two of them were together, she used to constantly pursue “perfect moments”: situations so remarkable it was as though they were taken from a play or a book. Like Roquentin’s sense of adventure, perfect moments were how Anny processed her awareness of the passage of time, which in her mind was what made life special and worth living. But now, she tells Roquentin, she can’t feel those moments anymore. She, too, has no more reason to be alive, and she lives in her memories of the past. Anny lives comfortably as a mistress, but she’s not happy. Roquentin tries to convince her to join him in his new life in Paris, but she flatly refuses, bidding him goodbye. The next day, Roquentin watches her leave Paris on a train with her lover.

Feeling lonelier than ever, Roquentin returns to Bouville for a few more days before he moves to Paris. At the library, the Self-Taught Man is caught inappropriately touching a young male student under a table in the reading room. Roquentin watches it happen, feeling sympathy for the Self-Taught Man, but when the Corsican guard of the reading room starts to beat the Self-Taught Man, Roquentin intervenes. The Self-Taught Man runs away immediately.

Later, Roquentin goes to the Rendezvous des Cheminots to say goodbye to Françoise. Madeline, the waitress, puts on his favorite record. As he listens to the music, Roquentin realizes that he can justify his own existence by writing a novel. Like the melody he hears, a novel can be a pure act of creation that doesn’t depend on the existence of other things, and writing one would allow Roquentin himself to live on even after he no longer exists. Roquentin resolves to write the novel, and night falls.