Meursault leads a bachelor life until he commits a random act of violence. His lack of emotion and failure to show remorse serve to increase his guilt in the eyes of the law. This novel explores the predicament of the individual who refuses to pretend and is prepared to face the indifference of the universe, courageously and alone.

The townspeople of Oran are in the grip of a deadly plague. Each person responds in their own way to the disease: some resign themselves to fate, some seek blame, and a few resist the terror. This title is in part an allegory of France's suffering under the Nazi occupation, and a story of bravery against the precariousness of human existence.

Antoine Roquentin, an introspective historian, records the disturbing shifts in his perceptions and his struggle to restore meaning to life in a continuing present and without lies.

This monumental book, regarded by many as Sartre's greatest achievement, is one of the most influential philosophical works of the 20th century. In it Sartre set out his fundamental views on philosophy and laid the foundations of existentialism.

Offers a portrayal of a man who has glimpsed the hollowness of his existence. But beyond depicting one man's disillusionment, this novel exposes the universal human condition and its absurdities - and our innocence that, once lost, can never be recaptured.

'Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it's awful.' This line was adopted by Jean Anouilh, to characterize the first production of Waiting For Godot at the Theatre de Babylone, in 1953. Anybody acquinted with Beckett's masterly black comedy would not question the recognition of this twentieth-century literature classic.

Presents a terrifying tale of Joseph K, a respectable functionary in a bank, who is suddenly arrested and must defend his innocence against a charge about which he can get no information. This book is a vision of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the mad agendas of twentieth-century totalitarian regimes.

An essay on the nature of human revolt, this book makes a critique of communism, how it had gone wrong behind the Iron Curtain, and the resulting totalitarian regimes. It also questions two events held sacred by the left wing, the French Revolution of 1789 and the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Presenting the apology and confession of a minor mid-19th-century Russian official, this title offers a half-desperate, half-mocking political critique and an account of man's breakaway from society and descent 'underground'.

Mathieu Delarue, a philosophy teacher, has so far managed to contain sex and personal freedom in separate compartments. But now he is in trouble, trying to raise 4,000 francs to procure a safe abortion for his mistress, Marcelle. Beyond all this, filtering an uneasy light on his predicament, rises the threat of the coming of the Second World War.

'The Metamorphosis' is one of the most remarkable stories ever written. Kafka's surrealistic approach shocks us into a new apppreciation of a basic truth: when we have outlived our usefulness there are no longer any certainties.

Describes how the ancient Persian prophet Zarathustra descends from his solitude in the mountains to tell the world that God is dead and that the Superman, the human embodiment of divinity, is his successor. This title argues that the meaning of existence is not to be found in religious pieties or meek submission, but in a powerful life force.

A prominent Viennese psychiatrist before the war, Viktor Frankl was uniquely able to observe the way that both he and others in Auschwitz coped with the experience. He noticed that it was the men who comforted others and who gave away their last piece of bread who survived the longest.

This text is a revised edition of Dostoyevsky's classic tale. Rasholnikov, a destitute and desperate former student, wanders through the slums of St Petersburg and commits a random murder without remorse or regret. As he embarks on a dangerous cat and mouse game, he is pursued by his conscience.

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook ...

This is a new translation of five stories, including 'The Room', 'Erostratus', 'The Childhood of a Leader' and 'Intimacy', from a master of Existentialism.

When brutal landowner Fyodor Karamazov is murdered, the lives of his sons are changed irrevocably: Mitya is placed under suspicion, Ivan's mental tortures drive him to breakdown, Alyosha tries to heal the family's rifts, and there is always the shadow of their bastard half-brother, Smerdyakov.

A knowledge of Heidegger's Sein und Zeit is essential for anyone who wishes to understand a great deal of recent continental work in theology as well as philosophy. Yet until this translation first appeared in 1962, this fundamental work of one of the most influential European thinkers of the century remained inaccessible to English readers. In fact the difficulty of Heidegger's thought was ...