Existentialist Novels

[Letalis]

I love to read, and I've found a new passion for existentialist novels. I've read a few by Kafka and Camus, and I've got the rest on my wish-list. I already have Nietzsche's work. I've looked at Faulkner, though he can't be necessarily classified as existentialist, but do any recommend him?

Any other recommendations that moved you or spoke clarity to you?

 

[variant]

I love to read, and I've found a new passion for existentialist novels. I've read a few by Kafka and Camus, and I've got the rest on my wish-list. I already have Nietzsche's work. I've looked at Faulkner, though he can't be necessarily classified as existentialist, but do any recommend him?

Any other recommendations that moved you or spoke clarity to you?

"Demons" or "The Possessed" by Dostoyevsky

 

[Letalis]

Thanks for the recommendation. I will pick up a copy. I've also heard good things about Nausea by Sartre.

 

[Letalis]

So I was looking for my books, and lo and behold, someone comes up to me saying he's been going around the store for his own personal "survey" and asking people if they believed in God. He wanted to know if I believed in God. I told him I didn't and that I was a nihilist. He asked me if I was raised that way and what it was. I told him I had reached the conclusions on my own and that it was a philosophy. I told him I wasn't looking for a discussion about God and I just wanted to find my books. He told me he only asked because he cared about me, and I told him I wasn't looking to be converted, that I appreciated his concern, and I just turned away and kept looking for my books. I narked on him to one of the store employees and they asked him to leave.

Maybe god is trying to tell me something.

 

[Received]

(I'd try the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation of "Demons")

But the best that I've run across (and existentialism is secular salvation, a daily way of living and seeing for me) are:

Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground and (the magnificent) Brothers Karamazov
Camus' The Stranger and The Fall
Sartre's Nausea and (play) No Exit
Kafka's Metamorphosis and many of his short stories.
Hamsun's Hunger
Hesse's Steppenwolf
Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Nabokov's Despair (not an often-included pick, but all about identity and responsibility) and Invitation to a Beheading (post-Kafka greatness)
All the novels of Walker Percy (especially The Moviegoer)
Tolstoy's Death of Ivan Ilych (his biographical Confessions is also quite within the lines)
Miguel de Unamuno's Mist and novella Saint Manuel Bueno, Martyr

The poetry of Rilke has an existential taste to it.

Interestingly, most of these books are short, and some are around or within one hundred pages (Notes from Underground, The Stranger, The Fall, No Exit, The Metamorphosis, The Death of Ivan Ilych, Confessions, and Saint manuel Bueno, Martyr). If I had to choose five to start with, I'd take Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground and The Brothers Karamazov, Tolstoy's Death of Ivan Ilych, Camus' The Stranger, Percy's Moviegoer (the guy is a Kierkegaard buff, so it's all about despair and the struggle for meaning), and Hesse's Steppenwolf. That's just me.

 

[Received]

I wasn't crazy about Nausea, primarily because it wasn't too big of an aesthetic achievement. It was intended as a philosophical novel, obviously, but it draws too much attention to itself, enshrouded as a didactic collection of existentialist meanderings (mostly on the subject of contingency and the appropriate emotional-cognitive nausea it inspires). Which isn't to say it isn't good (it is), but just not as literary as the other titles listed above.

 

[Letalis]

Wow thanks! I've been reading Nausea and finishing up a few of Camus' novels, which I've enjoyed tremendously. I will hop over to the bookstore and pick up a few of your recommendations.

 

[Received]

Happy reading!

Btw, resist the urge (especially if you're at a Barnes & Noble and are tempted by the B&N editions, which are hugely cheaper) to take anything other than the Pevear/Volokhonsky translations of Dostoevsky.

You also might consider substituting something else for The Brothers Karamazov. It has a general existential feel to it (existentialism is one of the hardest philosophies to define given the rejection by all thinkers who hold this title of the title itself), in that it just, well, rocks, and covers all the best subjects under the sun insofar as they relate to human existence. I'm probably being a little biased when I recommend it as an existentialist novel, given that most of it doesn't have the same existential molarity as the others listed above most of the time. It's only the best book ever written.

They're all fine books to read, and reread (and reread). I also have a huge fondness for Camus. You should try his Lyrical and Critical Essays if you get a chance, and (of course) the immortal Myth of Sisyphus.

 

[Nooj]

Btw, resist the urge (especially if you're at a Barnes & Noble and are tempted by the B&N editions, which are hugely cheaper) to take anything other than the Pevear/Volokhonsky translations of Dostoevsky.

They also translated the wonderful Master and Margarita, which isn't existentialist but still awesome just the same. I seriously need to learn Russian...

 

[Letalis]

I have to say that I've come to prefer Camus to Sartre. Sartre portrays a very hopeless view of humanity, which I don't necessarily disagree with, but it takes a very negative tone. Camus, on the other hand, maintains a bit of that human sympathy and still manages to find reason to continue rebelling, so to speak, even if that rebellion is ultimately hopeless. It's not so much about the ends, but the actions which have a value to themselves. Sartre, on the other hand, seems to deplore both and really doesn't inspire any warmth whatsoever. He really only takes an attitude of disgust towards existence, and I don't really follow his line of reasoning about it.

 

[TheNihilodeterminist]

Whatever, by Michel Houllebecq, his debut novel, is a little gem. I think it is the book I enjoyed reading the most, last decade.

 

[Received]

Oh, and, uh, add Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra to the list. I don't know what I was smoking when I omitted it from the list, but it must've been potent.

 

[SamTP77]

I would also recommend Existentialism for Dummies. It is written by two American philosophers.

 

[ArnautDaniel]

Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet.

 

[Isambard]

A Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dick
Fight Club [novel]
Epic of Gilgamesh (probably first existential take heh)

 

[Received]

Loved A Scanner Darkly. Fight Club was good, but I was spoiled beforehand by the movie.

 

[Saving Hawaii]

I made the mistake of getting Sartre's Les Mots... I'm certain it's a great book, but my french isn't all that good.

(it was $2 though, I can't complain)

 

[SamTP77]

I hope to see Waiting for Godot sometime in the near future. I bought a book
it is based on the TV show LOST. It is titled Lost and Philosophy The Island Has Its Reasons edited by Sharon M. Kaye. Lost is shown in America on ABC 9 pm Eastern time and there are only 10 episodes left before the season shows the grand finale, I hope they end it well it should be good.

Take care,

Sam