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Therese Raquin

Therese Raquin

ClassicsLiterary Fiction
Pages
256
Published
1867
Language
English

Synopsis

Married off to her sickly cousin Camille by a domineering aunt, Thérèse Raquin lives a suffocated life in a dim little shop in a Paris passage. Beneath her passive surface burns a fierce, thwarted nature—one that ignites when she meets Laurent, her husband's coarse, sensual friend. Their affair is immediate and consuming, and it drives them to a terrible decision: to be free of Camille for good.

But the murder they imagine will liberate them instead binds them together in horror. Haunted by guilt and by the memory of the man they killed, Thérèse and Laurent find their desire curdling into loathing, their nerves fraying, their nights unbearable. Zola dissects their disintegration with the cold eye of a scientist studying specimens.

One of Émile Zola's earliest and most notorious novels, Thérèse Raquin is a dark, unflinching study of temperament, remorse, and the physical toll of a crime that cannot be undone—an early landmark of literary naturalism. Translated from the French.

Prose complexity
7/10

Vibe

DarkTenseGrittyMelancholicAtmospheric

Genres

Classics Literary Fiction Drama Biography Plays Romance Psychological Thriller

About the author

É
Émile Zola

Emile Zola was a French journalist and novelist known for his series of 20 novels known collectively as Les Rougon-Macquart (1871-93). Zola's style was called literary naturalism; his novels were attacked and even banned for their frankness and sordid detail, and caused quite a bit of controversy in their day. The same traits made him a best-selling author and a star of French literature in his day. In 1898 he then further incurred the wrath of French officials when he published the open letter...

Characters

Thérèse RaquinProtagonist

A repressed young woman whose affair leads her into murder and its aftermath.

LaurentProtagonist

Camille's friend and Thérèse's lover, complicit in the crime.

Madame RaquinSupporting
Camille RaquinSupporting

Thérèse's sickly husband and cousin.

All characters in Therese Raquin

Frequently asked questions

  • Is this book part of the Rougon-Macquart series?

    This novel is a standalone work and is not part of the Rougon-Macquart cycle, though it is often considered a foundational text that helped Zola develop the principles of Naturalism he later applied to that series.

  • Did the author adapt this story for other mediums?

    Zola himself adapted the novel into a four-act stage play in 1873, and the story has since been the subject of numerous film adaptations, including a 1953 version directed by Marcel Carné and the 2013 film titled In Secret.

  • What was the initial critical reception to this novel?

    Upon its publication in 1867, the book was highly controversial and was famously denounced by some contemporary critics as putrid literature due to its unflinching focus on adultery and violence.

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