Sarah Bakewell
British writer of biography and intellectual history; author of How to Live: A Life of Montaigne, At the Existentialist Cafe and Humanly Possible.
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Where they publish
sarahbakewell.blogspot.co.ukBlog Her older Blogger blog, still linked from her site.
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Link verified 5 Sept 2026.
Recommends rcmnd
What they recommendrcmnd 7 things — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
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Being and Time Recommends
Then, once you've read an overview and feel equipped and ready for it, it's really worth plunging into either Being and Time itself, Heidegger's greatest and richest work, or to a compilation.
fivebooks.com 2013-06-02
Heidegger: An Introduction Loved
Richard's Polt's Heidegger: An Introduction is one of the best I've come across. It's a fantastically clear and concise exploration of Heidegger's philosophy, concentrating on his first great work, Being and Time, though he also covers the later writings of Heidegger.
fivebooks.com 2013-06-02
The Existentialist Reader Recommends
So this is just a fantastic compilation of existentialist arrows that you might want to follow into different thinkers.
fivebooks.com 2013-06-02
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Man's Search for Meaning Recommends
I chose this book because it's an incredibly powerful and moving example of what existentialist thought can actually be for in real life, what good it can do, how it can help people.
fivebooks.com 2013-06-02
Nausea Recommends
I chose Nausea for several reasons. One is that it's the first existentialist book that I ever read. It's what first made me curious to learn more, and that's exactly what the book does. It's readable, it's powerful, it's sometimes a bit ridiculous, but it's intense.
fivebooks.com 2013-06-02
Notes from the Underground Recommends
Another writer often mentioned is Dostoyevsky: a great way of getting into the real miserabilist side of existentialism is to read his Notes from the Underground. It absolutely captures the anguish of being an isolated individual and a misfit, wondering about your place in the world and being contrary, fighting against the normal human life that you're supposed to fit into.
fivebooks.com 2013-06-02
Existentialism: A Reconstruction Loved
This is a fabulous, clear introduction to existentialist thought. It's also very philosophically rigorous.
fivebooks.com 2013-06-02