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Nausea (French: La Nausée) is a philosophical novel by the existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, published in 1938. It is Sartre's first novel.The novel takes place in 'Bouville' (homophone of Boue-ville, literally, 'Mud town') a town similar to Le Havre, and it concerns a dejected historian, who becomes convinced that inanimate objects and situations encroach on his ability to define himself, on his intellectual and spiritual freedom, evoking in the protagonist a sense of nausea. French writer Simone de Beauvoir, Sartre's lifelong partner, argues that La Nausée grants consciousness a remarkable independence and gives reality the full weight of its sense.The novel has been translated into English at least twice, by Lloyd Alexander as The Diary of Antoine Roquentin (John Lehmann Limited, 1959) and by Robert Baldick as Nausea (Penguin Books, 1963).