In Sartre’s “Nausea,” readers encounter Antoine Roquentin, a historian overwhelmed by feelings of emptiness and absurdity. Everyday occurrences lose meaning, objects around him become unbearably dense and meaningless.
Sartre explores how human existence lacks purpose before individuals begin to make meaningful choices. Roquentin’s story highlights the struggle of coming to terms with existence’s randomness.
“Nausea” vividly portrays existential anxiety through one man’s personal crisis, making you feel every twist of Roquentin’s uncertain journey.
“The Stranger” centers around Meursault, a detached and seemingly indifferent man whose life remains unaffected even by his mother’s death or his own actions.
Camus portrays life’s absurdity through Meursault’s indifference and society’s perplexing reaction to his emotional detachment.
An unexpected act of violence turns Meursault from an indifferent observer into a condemned outcast, forcing him and the readers to face the gap between individual experience and societal expectations.
The novel deals directly with existential questions about life’s meaning and society’s power over individuals.
In “Crime and Punishment,” Dostoevsky takes readers inside the conflicted mind of Raskolnikov, a poor student who commits murder thinking he can rise above conventional morality. But guilt soon destroys his isolated theory about exceptional individuals.
Readers witness Raskolnikov’s tortured journey toward recognizing the limits of personal freedom and ultimate moral responsibility.
Through his suffering, the novel examines essential existential ideas like freedom, morality, and self-isolation, offering an unforgettable portrait of a man confronting his existence and conscience.
This classic, “Notes from Underground,” shows humanity through the eyes of an anonymous narrator who openly rejects rationality and societal conventions.
The underground man rejects social order and rational thinking, accepting loneliness as he sees society as fundamentally flawed. Dostoevsky reveals the existential struggle of someone trying to reclaim a sense of individuality, freedom, and authenticity in a rigid, modern world.
The novel vividly explores the tension between the individual’s freedom and the expectations imposed by social norms.
Kafka’s “The Trial” thrusts readers smack into the absurd situation of Josef K., arrested one morning but never told why. Ambiguity and confusion dominate, as Josef navigates a complicated court system intent on convicting him of an unknown crime.
Through this nightmarish situation emerges the book’s central existential theme: the individual’s meaningless struggle against absurdity and powerlessness.
Kafka brilliantly captures the sense of dread and helplessness characteristic of existential literature, reflecting humanity’s bewildering attempts to find meaning.
In “The Fall,” Camus confronts readers through a series of monologues by Jean-Baptiste Clamence, a former Parisian lawyer who now lives in Amsterdam recounting his life.
At first admired, Clamence faces moral failures that expose his hypocrisy, forcing readers to confront uncomfortable truths about self-deception. By exploring themes of judgment, guilt, and moral compromise, Camus leads readers deeper into existential questions.
“The Fall” is an intense examination of personal responsibility, presenting a mirror that demands honesty from each reader.
Hesse’s “Steppenwolf” follows Harry Haller, a man torn between his refined human side and wild wolf side. Unable to fit into society or accept life’s superficial pleasures, Harry struggles profoundly with loneliness and meaninglessness.
Through Harry’s existential crisis and encounters with mysterious figures, readers experience questions about freedom, identity, and individual purpose.
Hesse immerses readers directly into the protagonist’s internal world, portraying vividly how existential loneliness pushes one to search for answers far beyond convention.
“The Plague” portrays life in the sealed city of Oran, as citizens face an outbreak of bubonic plague. Camus uses the epidemic as a vivid metaphor for existential absurdity and human endurance. Characters confront the randomness and lack of logic behind human suffering.
Dr. Rieux and others grasp at finding purpose through acts of everyday heroism and empathy, highlighting existential choices that define personal meaning amid chaos.
The novel firmly roots itself in existential thought, showing human confrontation with inevitable mortality and struggle for meaning.
Kundera’s “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” revolves around Tomas and Tereza, whose relationship unfolds against an uncertain historical period. Kundera explores life’s transient nature, weighty existential choices, and questions of fate versus chance.
The novel considers whether existence and human actions hold lasting significance, or if they are ultimately inconsequential.
Through characters who grapple with commitments, morality, and identity, Kundera creates an exploration of human choice that reflects essential existential concerns.
“Demian” takes readers into Emil Sinclair’s adolescence. Sinclair encounters enigmatic friend Max Demian, who introduces deep ideas about identity, purpose, and self-realization.
Influenced heavily by Carl Jung’s psychology, Hesse illustrates Sinclair’s existential journey toward authenticity and individual truth. The characters’ exploration of opposing forces like good and evil, conformity and individuation, reflects powerful existential themes.
Sinclair’s quest to uncover personal truth amid opposing inner and outer forces remains at the heart of this book.
Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” introduces Gregor Samsa, whose sudden transformation into a monstrous insect symbolizes estrangement, isolation, and purposelessness.
Gregor struggles to understand or escape his condition, exposing existential themes about identity, human connection, and alienation. Kafka portrays vividly what happens when meaningful relationships disappear, and individuals become trapped by incomprehensible circumstances.
The story’s surreal tone intensifies these themes, leaving readers reflecting deeply about human existence, isolation, and unavoidable absurdity in everyday life.
Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” makes readers confront absurdity directly, as two men spend the play anticipating the arrival of someone named Godot.
The play highlights existential themes like uncertainty, routine, purpose, and meaninglessness, with Godot representing perhaps a meaningful revelation that never arrives.
This minimalist setting stages important questions about life’s uncertain purpose and humanity’s constant waiting for meaning that seems always just out of reach, demonstrating Beckett’s powerful ability to capture existential dread and confusion.
“Hunger” follows an unnamed writer living on the edge of starvation and isolation in Oslo. Hamsun depicts the protagonist’s descent into hallucination and despair because of hunger and poverty.
This downward spiral highlights existential fears about isolation, degradation, and essentially meaningless struggle. Forced into situations that reveal his inner psychology, the writer confronts both creative identity and personal limits.
Hamsun paints vividly what desperate existential emptiness feels like in a modern, indifferent metropolis.
In “No Longer Human,” Dazai explores isolation and despair through the character of Oba Yozo. Unable to understand other people’s emotions or actions, Yozo lives a disconnected existence marked by alienation and confusion.
These experiences prompt direct existential reflections on identity, authenticity, and isolation.
Dazai captures with extreme honesty how alienated a human can feel while surrounded by others, pushing readers into intense questions about what it means to remain human when alienation strips away one’s humanity.
Céline’s “Journey to the End of the Night” portrays Bardamu as he moves through various experiences—from World War I battles, colonial Africa, to American industrial society—only experiencing life’s absurd cruelty and emptiness.
With raw humor and brutal honesty, the novel presents life’s brutality as endless chaos and meaninglessness grasped desperately by humanity.
Bardamu remains cynical yet uncompromisingly honest, giving readers a profoundly existential journey highlighting the absurdity and cruelty inherent in life.