Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola

Extract

[...] Gradually, Thérèse can no longer bear this very planned little life. Her repressed sensuality is awakened when she meets Laurent, a somewhat foolish childhood friend and failed painter. She becomes his mistress and, faced with this complicated adulterous situation, the lovers decide to drown Camille during a boat outing. At first, everything goes wonderfully for them: they get married and inherit Camille's property, but remorse gradually invades them until they start to hate each other. Trapped in their own madness, imagining that with the disappearance of the partner, obsessions and hallucinations will disappear, they each decide to assassinate the other. [...]

[...] Head of the naturalism, he is considered one of the most popular French novelists. With Thérèse Raquin, Zola imposed himself as a very great writer despite the very virulent criticisms at the reception of the work. Résumé succinct : Thérèse was raised by her aunt Mme Raquin who aimed to marry her to her son Camille, a man of weak constitution and little education. Thérèse, on the other hand, has a fiery temperament that she represses by accepting this marriage. Mme Raquin opened a haberdashery in Paris in a passage described as sinister. [...]

[...] It's indeed a punch in the gut, a book in which Zola digs into the darkness of emotions. But the novel keeps us on the edge of our seats and, initially, we feel empathy for Thérèse, but we eventually come to despise the two lovers and are shocked by their audacity and duplicity. We follow the passion of these two depraved beings and their slow descent into Hell. The theme of madness with the description of the couple's hallucinations and terrors plunges us into a fantastical universe very surprising, contrasting with the realism of the beginning of the work. [...]