Existentialist Literature★Representative Works & Reading Difficulty ★ (First 12)

4. Representative Works & Reading Difficulty ★ (First 12)

Work Author Year Tags
Absurdity / Freedom / Engagement		 Difficulty One-line Note
The Stranger (L’Étranger) Albert Camus 1942 ◎ / ○ / △ ★★☆☆☆ Plain style entry to “the absurd.”
The Plague (La Peste) Albert Camus 1947 ○ / ○ / ◎ ★★★☆☆ Community ethics and chosen resistance.
Nausea (La Nausée) Jean-Paul Sartre 1938 ○ / ◎ / △ ★★★★☆ Raw encounter with existence itself.
The Roads to Freedom (trilogy) Jean-Paul Sartre 1945–49 △ / ◎ / ○ ★★★★★ Long-form dive into choice and responsibility.
The Metamorphosis (Die Verwandlung) Franz Kafka 1915 ◎ / △ / △ ★★☆☆☆ “One morning, a bug”—the primal absurd scene.
The Trial (Der Prozess) Franz Kafka 1925 ◎ / △ / ○ ★★★☆☆ Guilt without cause; the labyrinth of systems.
The Second Sex (Le Deuxième Sexe) Simone de Beauvoir 1949 △ / ○ / ◎ ★★★★☆ Classic essay linking existentialism and gender.
The Woman in the Dunes (砂の女) Kōbō Abe 1962 ◎ / △ / ○ ★★★☆☆ Closed world where “choice” flips its meaning.
A Personal Matter (個人的な体験) Kenzaburō Ōe 1964 △ / ○ / ○ ★★★☆☆ Re-choosing life amid birth and responsibility.
Kafka on the Shore (海辺のカフカ) Haruki Murakami 2002 ○ / ○ / △ ★★★☆☆ Unconscious realms intersect with choice.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (ねじまき鳥クロニクル) Haruki Murakami 1994–95 △ / ○ / ○ ★★★★☆ Private quest gradually connects to history.
The Myth of Sisyphus (Le Mythe de Sisyphe) Albert Camus 1942 ◎ / — / — ★★★☆☆ Core essay: “live with the absurd.”

Legend: ◎ = high, ○ = medium, △ = low. Difficulty is a composite of prose clarity, prior philosophy needed, length, and metaphor density.

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