Thérèse Raquin (Classiques) (French Edition)
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Product Description
Product Description
Set in the claustrophobic atmosphere of a dingy haberdasher's shop in the passage du Pont-Neuf in Paris, this powerful novel tells how the heroine and her lover, Laurent, kill her husband, Camille, but are subsequently haunted by visions of the dead man and prevented from enjoying the fruits of their crime. Published in 1867, this is Zola's most important work before the Rougon-Macquart series and introduces many of the themes that can be traced through the later novel cycle.
About the Author
Emile Zola (1840-1902) was the leading figure in the French school of naturalistic fiction. His principal work, Les Rougon-Macquart, is a panorama of mid-19th century French life, in a cycle of 20 novels which Zola wrote over a period of 22 years.
Robin Buss is a journalist and translator. His most recent translations for Penguin include The Plague by Camus and The Black Tulip by Dumas. He lives in London.
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First Sentence
At the end of the Rue Guénégaud, if you follow it away from the river, you find the Passage du Pont-Neuf, a sort of dark, narrow corridor linking the Rue Mazarine to the Rue de Seine. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
At the end of the Rue Guénégaud, if you follow it away from the river, you find the Passage du Pont-Neuf, a sort of dark, narrow corridor linking the Rue Mazarine to the Rue de Seine. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I read this book about a month ago, and I still think about it a lot - despite having since read other books. That alone tells me what a great read it was. Having read other customer reviews prior to buying the book, I expected a ghastly tale of murder, incest and any other human act that, in 1867-1868 might have led to an author being hung! However, what I found in this book was a cautionary tale of how love does not conquer all, and Zola's brilliant interpretation of the distinction between lust and love. Zola paints a highly imaginable picture of the characters' lives, and yes, he does dissect these characters according to then current beliefs about human nature. But what we must remember is that these are his interpretations of what psychological processes could abound after an act of murder carried out in the throes of love, or lust, whichever the reader believes it to be. In modern times we have psychologists to theorise, experiment with and suggest hypotheses pertaining to human behaviour - a discipline that has arisen only over the last century. Books such as this one by Zola enable a valuable insight into what thoughts of human behaviour existed during the 19th century, thoughts that were possibly shared by many, but only one dared voice. Read it for what it is, a tragic love story, and try not to focus on Zola's psychological dissection, and you will enjoy a story rarely told so greatly.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a grim little tale of physical lust, crime and guilt set in the seedy world of 19th century Paris. The anti-hero falls in lust with Therese, the wife of his pathetic friend Laurent, and together they conspire to murder him so they can marry (as much for her money as their mutual passion). But the crime comes back to haunt them, quite literally with joint hallucinations of the murdered, drowned man.
Zola takes the new science (at that point) of psychology and applies it here, showing man to be no more than an animal driven by physiological appetites. It's not an edifying view of humanity, and in fact there is little humanity in the book at all, but it's somehow not a depressing read for all that. perhaps Zola's own ghoulish energy lifts it, or the sublime writing? If your French is good enough, then read it in the original, but if not this is an excellent translation.
Zola takes the new science (at that point) of psychology and applies it here, showing man to be no more than an animal driven by physiological appetites. It's not an edifying view of humanity, and in fact there is little humanity in the book at all, but it's somehow not a depressing read for all that. perhaps Zola's own ghoulish energy lifts it, or the sublime writing? If your French is good enough, then read it in the original, but if not this is an excellent translation.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If Emile Zola was writing today he might have been a screen writer. The images, atmosphere, and characterisation in this novel play a desperate film noir in your head that will replay there perhaps for ever.
The modernity of this book is startling. It is almost impossible to believe it was first published in 1867. It is a gripping, seething tale of neglect, bitterness, and lust that turns to horror and despair as its key protagonists crave redemption and release.
Therese is the adopted daughter of a simple haberdasher and her feeble son. She has learnt young to expect nothing from life, and is not disappointed. She marries the son only because it pleases the mother, and, after all, what else is there? It is a life of such alienation and boredom that only a writer as great as Zola could portray it and yet hold the reader in anticipation of what is to follow. And what follows is altogether more eventful: passion described with a vividness that is shockingly erotic; violence that makes the reader wince; fear that haunts you between each reading.
By the time the tale twists into its downward spiral you may fear that Zola does not know where to take it next. It circles for a while in repetitious misery. But the author is only preparing himself for a final assault that leaves you closing the book as if it were a prematurely opened grave: with a mix of terror and fascination.
But most remarkably of all, Zola has somehow, in this story of desperately lost eighteenth century Parisian souls, found qualities and frailties that are so universal and so poignant that you care even as these creatures tear themselves and each other to pieces. He understands as well, maybe better, than any writer how human beings will build a whole world on even the flimsiest foundation and fill it with all their aspirations - and disenchantments. And so the needy become the passionate; the petty the desperate; the melancholy the murderer. And the murderer the sad and lonely child.
For all that Zola has laid the dysfunction of each of his characters so bare you can hardly bear to look, he somehow allows you still to see their souls. Incredibly the ending fills you with sorrow almost as much as with horror.
The modernity of this book is startling. It is almost impossible to believe it was first published in 1867. It is a gripping, seething tale of neglect, bitterness, and lust that turns to horror and despair as its key protagonists crave redemption and release.
Therese is the adopted daughter of a simple haberdasher and her feeble son. She has learnt young to expect nothing from life, and is not disappointed. She marries the son only because it pleases the mother, and, after all, what else is there? It is a life of such alienation and boredom that only a writer as great as Zola could portray it and yet hold the reader in anticipation of what is to follow. And what follows is altogether more eventful: passion described with a vividness that is shockingly erotic; violence that makes the reader wince; fear that haunts you between each reading.
By the time the tale twists into its downward spiral you may fear that Zola does not know where to take it next. It circles for a while in repetitious misery. But the author is only preparing himself for a final assault that leaves you closing the book as if it were a prematurely opened grave: with a mix of terror and fascination.
But most remarkably of all, Zola has somehow, in this story of desperately lost eighteenth century Parisian souls, found qualities and frailties that are so universal and so poignant that you care even as these creatures tear themselves and each other to pieces. He understands as well, maybe better, than any writer how human beings will build a whole world on even the flimsiest foundation and fill it with all their aspirations - and disenchantments. And so the needy become the passionate; the petty the desperate; the melancholy the murderer. And the murderer the sad and lonely child.
For all that Zola has laid the dysfunction of each of his characters so bare you can hardly bear to look, he somehow allows you still to see their souls. Incredibly the ending fills you with sorrow almost as much as with horror.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Dark, claustrophobic but very readable
There is something of the German Novelle about this work - a form of novel that is a thought experiment - what would happen if I put these people in this situation? Read more
Published 2 months ago by Brownbear101
When the webs you create catch you in them
The book reflects the age in which the author lived and wants to be a chronicle of that period. It displays the way money ruled society and the immorality behind a surface of good... Read more
Published 5 months ago by archibaldb
The dark side of human nature.
This book has been etched on my soul.
It is dark and disturbing, but so compelling.
A marvellous study in the dark side of human nature. Read more
It is dark and disturbing, but so compelling.
A marvellous study in the dark side of human nature. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Thomas Hardy fan
A brilliant French 'Crime and Punishment'
Emile Zola describes his novel as `the analytical work that surgeons carry out on dead one'.
His aim is to write a study of temperaments, of people dominated by their nerves... Read more
His aim is to write a study of temperaments, of people dominated by their nerves... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Luc REYNAERT
Very graphic literature
Having reached the stage where it is possible,with a dictionary to hand, for me to read French literature that is separate from what is set in Class, this is my first experience of... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Mrs. J. Wattam
wow
love it, love it, love it. amazing story, and wow is all i can say. read it in three days.
Published on 22 Dec 2009 by Niina nia kabesa
Naturalism Anybody?
It's necessary to read the preface of this book as without it one is at a loss to explain the strange melodrama which unfolds. Read more
Published on 7 Sep 2009 by Eileen Shaw
Thursday night for dominoes
Zola was famously anti Clerical but at heart we have here a very moral 19th Century tale. The nervous, dull, listless Therese and earthy, idle, hot-blooded Laurent keep schtum for... Read more
Published on 26 Jun 2009 by Officer Dibble
Excellent, Compelling and Mind Provoking
Therese Raquin is an amazing book. It depressed, provoked and shocked me to the extent that i literally could not put it down. Read more
Published on 28 Oct 2008 by Louis/Imogen/Dad
Disapointing
This is my first review so bare with me.
I found Zola's writing style very difficult to stomach. Read more
I found Zola's writing style very difficult to stomach. Read more
Published on 24 Feb 2007 by Richard M. Shand
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