I did start to read it many years ago but gave up as I felt, well, nauseous.

The comment "..leftist intellectuals, most of whom are probably as disoriented and out of touch with realty.. " is an understatement, then as now.
But as for Aristotle's rule for good fiction -
represents things as they might be and ought to be,
I am not convinced. Camus is regarded as belonging to the same school as Sartre but I much enjoyed Camus' The Outsider.

Also consider Orwell's 1984 much quoted here. The scene is barely 'might be' and by no means 'ought to be' yet it is one of the greatest stories.. Orwell's thinking is so different from Rand's yet It should be read alongside Atlas compared and contrasted.

CircuitGuy says Nausea may be the worst story imaginable, I reckon 1984 qualifies for that, but the book is compelling, and a warning to be taken seriously.

Hello dbhalling,
What I have read of Sartre is full of contradictions. He seemed unsure of his own self control and restraint and to attribute the same weakness to all. He feared that becoming aware of one's freedom led to anxiety and acting in "bad faith". He had existential beliefs and supported Marxism, but not communism... He served in the French army in 1939, was a German prisoner in 1940, yet later was repatriated and joined the French resistance... He believed "existence precedes essence" that we routinely re- create ourselves by virtue of our behavior and experience, but that we alone are responsible for ourselves and all the things we do. This led him to feelings of despair, anguish and abandonment. He said, "we are condemned to be free". I think he was a sad, timid, lost man that did not know how to enjoy freedom. It frightened him.

His most notable works are Being and nothingness, Existentialism and Humanism and Critique of Dialectical Reason. In his last major work Critique of Dialectical Reason, he tried to reconcile and create a synthesis between his existentialism and faith in Marxism. His influences included Kant, Marx, Kierkegaard, Husserl and Heidegger... I think this helps explain his thinking and Rand's criticism.

At least he got one thing right when he warned that we must avoid mauvaise foi (bad faith) and deluding ourselves in order to avoid personal responsibility. Still, the world he saw seems dark and depressing to me.
I prefer the more optimistic, less fatalistic philosophy as demonstrated by the character Roark over Roquentin.

Regards,
O.A.

I had never heard of Nausea. This review makes it sound like possibly the worst story imaginable.