A couple months ago I read Heart of Darkness for school and I absolutely loved it. Since then I've been looking for other existential or absurd books. I read The Stranger and I liked that, and also Sartre's Existentialism and Camu's Myth of Sisyphus. Ideally, I would prefer novels rather than essays, but if there are any other important essays that I should read let me know. Thanks a lot.
Both Sartre and Camus have novels and plays you can read. I'd suggest Camus' The Plague and Sartre's No Exit.
I love The Plague; I believe it is a *must* read.Originally Posted by Uberzensch
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"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
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Simone de Beauvoir's "All Men are Mortal" and "The Blood of Others".
'Waiting for Godot' by Samuel Beckett is not only existential in content but also in form.
The original play is in French, but it can be found in many other languages too.
"My warm hands have made the paper limp,
So that its feel reminds me of slept-in sheets: comfortable and safe"
"All these things I say... I say them because I want you to know, I don't ever want to regret afterwards that I didn't say enough, I would rather say too much." ~ Samuel Selvon
the trilogy novels of Jean Paul Sartre are a very good read.
The Age of Reason
The Reprieve
Iron in the Soul
i really liked the stranger when i read that, always wanted to read the plague, but never did. i liked sartre's novel (novella) Nausea. It describes the "encounter with the absurd" famously well, and is easy to read. It's along the lines of the ones you listed.
Still, you'll get more energy and inspiration out of Nietzsche. With him, there's no novels, but "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" is fiction (poetry), and absolutely brilliant. It's a little like a novel, but with chapter-long poems that don't rhyme in translation anyhow (maybe not in German, either, for all I know!).
And his essays are great too--if you're at all interested, just flip through them to see which one you'd prefer. And don't overlook the misleadingly-titled (in translation) "The Gay Science"--it's great to read for a few minutes at a time, and have enough to think about for hours. (And isn't about homosexuality at all, by the way).
It'd be a big stretch to say that Nietszche was addressing the absurd, but he's generally regarded as foundational to the existentialists. And, c'mon, it's time for you to read something a little more lively maybe! j/k :-)
Try If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italio Calvino. It's all about the subjectivity of meaning, fiction and life....and it's just a fun read in general.
http://www.italo-calvino.com/ifon.htm is a link to the first chapter
Hello Sillyman, Conrad is a favourite of mine so I'd suggest reading some more of him. Lord Jim and The Secret Agent are two fine novels and there are a number of short stories/novellas that are worth reading.
Edit: to preface my comments below that I really am not comfortable with tagging literature "existential" , its a dated, confining definition in my humble etc...
You have gotten SPOT ON recommendations above imho. (including more Conrad). To spin it back a bit, a commonly acknowledged precurser to existential literature would be Dostoevsky. I would suggest his shorter Notes From the Underground and the classic Crime and Punishment. Even further, one of the first "existential tragic heros" (ACCORDING TO SOME CRITICS WHO LIKE TO CLASSIFY SUCH THINGS) would be Hamlet , if you have the patience to get used to reading Shakepseare's Elizabethan english (which is a struggle depending how young you are or if you still expect to read enlightening literature without having to make an effort with your brain)
The Waiting For Godot suggestion is IMHO the pinnacle of 'existential' literature. (for some, myself included, it sits with a handful of works ever written)
Absurdist Literature is mostly represented by drama. The high priest of the 'Theater of the Absurd' would be Eugene Ionesco. His plays are all translated and make for entertaining reading. I am sure there are Abusurdist Novels I am forgetting, but its early and I am not adequately cafinated yet..All the above of course are my 2 cents..
Thanks for all the great suggestions and help. I have another question but I don't feel like starting another thread. I would really love to read all these books and plays but being a college student, money is a little tight. I'm just wondering if there are any good online stores that sell books pretty cheap - used or new, it doesn't matter to me.
Dostoyevsky's 'Notes from Underground' as previously mentioned.
Also:
Sartre's 'Nausea'
Kundera's 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being'
Don't bother reading Sartre's 'Being and Nothingness' unless you first understand Hegel and Heidegger...not an easy or short undertaking!
www.bookfinder.com
This site searches a bunch of new and used books online, allowing you to make price comparisons. I love it!
Used book stores are a great source, as are online used book stores, but then shipping gets the price up there too unless you can get a bundled order.
I think the term Existentialism has become a bit too cookie cutter as of recent years, there are many books with questioning themes that never seem to get the existential stamp of approval, oh well, you will have to venture out on your own.
A lot of good recommendation above; I have read a lot of Sartre and personally, I don’t care for him, nor do I like Kafka but they are still worth at least investigating. I also agree that Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, it’s a wonder! Some others, Dostoyevsky, any thing he writes, not just Notes From the Under Ground. Also, you can add Herman Hesse’s, Steppenwolf, Beneath the Wheel, Siddhartha, Narcius and Goldmund, and Damien to the list. Voltaire’s Candide and Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich also.
Philosophy wise; Add Kierkegaard, Spinoza, Rollo May, Robert Solomon, Gabriel Marcel and a slew of others including Nietzsche.
A little more modern, I liked Milan Kundera’s, “Immortality”.
I just finished Sartre's novel, 'The Age of Reason', and thought that it was great. 'Nausea' is also a good bet.
Previous posts have already covered most of the essential existentialist works, so I'd like to recommend others that are less obvious:
'Tropic of Cancer' by Henry Miller
'Journey to the End of the Night' or 'Death on the Installment Plan' by Louis-Ferdinand Celine
'The Thief's Journal' by Jean Genet
'On the Road' by Jack Kerouac, or anything by the Beat authors, often considered America's existentialists.
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