Therese Raquin (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Émile Zola (Author), Robin Buss (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 22, 2005

In a dingy apartment on the Passage du Pont-Neuf in Paris, Thérèse Raquin is trapped in a loveless marriage to her sickly cousin, Camille. The numbing tedium of her life is suddenly shattered when she embarks on a turbulent affair with her husband’s earthy friend Laurent, but their animal passion for each other soon compels the lovers to commit a crime that will haunt them forever. Thérèse Raquin caused a scandal when it appeared in 1867 and brought its twenty-seven-year-old author a notoriety that followed him throughout his life. Zola’s novel is not only an uninhibited portrayal of adultery, madness, and ghostly revenge, but also a devastating exploration of the darkest aspects of human existence.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Novel by Emile Zola, first published serially as Un Mariage d'Amour in 1867 and published in book form with the present title in the same year. Believing that an author must simply establish his characters in their particular environment and then observe and record their actions as if conducting an experiment, Zola nonetheless adopted a highly moral, unscientific tone in this grisly novel, the first to put his "analytical method" into practice. The sensual Therese and her lover Laurent murder her weak husband Camille. After marrying, they are haunted by Camille's ghost, and their passion for each other turns to hatred. They eventually kill themselves. Conservative readers accused Zola of prurience; the novel, however, illustrates the author's belief that sexual pleasure leads only to brutality and destruction. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (February 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140449442
• ISBN-13: 978-0140449440
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #259,298 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars definately not for the squeamish!, October 30, 2002

By 

wendybird "Wendy" (Omaha) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thï¿1/2rï¿1/2se Raquin (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

Dark, creepy, intense, disgusting...I like. If you want a classic read with adultery, murder, and corpses, try this one. Two desperate, adulterous individuals murder the one person that stands between them. Instead of finding happiness, the couple is haunted by insane terror. The book reads like a ghost story, although by 19th century standards it was labled a "psychological study." Also, considering that it was written in the 1860's, it is rather explicit and graphic in some places. One thing that annoyed me was that, due to the translation, some words are repeated over and over (because many French words have only one English equivilent). Also, sometimes the changing tenses are hard to follow, as is the chronology of the flashbacks. Nevertheless, I agree with the blurb on the back cover: "This book has lost none of its power to shock!"

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gripping Story, I Couldn't Put It Down!, April 24, 2006

By 

Heather Simmons (Cohutta, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Therese Raquin (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

Therese Raquin pulled me right into the story. I couldn't put it down, I had to find out what was going to happen next. It was destined to be a classic.
The story is about a young woman named Therese Raquin, who is unhappily married to her sickly, weak cousin Camille. As a child Therese was adopted by Madam Raquin. Camille was her sick son, who she kept close watch over and spoiled with home-made medicines and warm blankets. Camille was always fond of Therese and insisted that she take the medicne before he did (Even though she was never sick). Madam Raquin decided to arrange for the two to one day marry because she feared that there would be no one to take care of Camille once she was gone. Therese and Camille wed once they were 21. Madam Raquin owned a shop that Therese helped her run, and Camille insisted on taking a job as a clerk because he was bored with staying at home. One day Camille ran into his old friend from childhood, Laurent. Laurent is a strong, handsom man, unlike Camille who is small, puny, and and ugly. Therese is immediatley infatuated with Laurent and soon falls in love with him. Laurent is a lazy ladiesman who has landed a job as a clerk at the same company as Camille after failing as an artist. Laurent finds Therese to be ugly and boring because of her constant silence, but he yearns for the company of a woman and sees Therese as an easy woman for him to seduce. He decides to become her lover right under Camille's nose. Madam Raquin considers Laurent a son, Camille considers him a brother, and Therese is crazy about him, so he has no problems arranging meetings for he and Therese to spend a few hours together. Laurent becomes amazed by Therese's lively spirit and activity in the bedroom and quickly falls under her spell. Crazy in love with one another, Therese and Laurent murder Camille in order to be together. For more than two years after Camille's murder, They avoid any intimacy with one another in order to not look suspicious. For those two years They are haunted by the memories of that terrible night and seem to be haunted by Camille himself. Convinced that once they are together again the hauntings will stop, Therese makes herself ill. Madam Raquin, still heartbroken over her son's death, becomes concerned. She believes that Therese's illness is cause by her sadness over Camille. She becomes convinced that Therese needs a man and arranges for her to marry Laurent. Finally, Laurent and Therese are together, but the haunting of Camille only gets worse. For many nights the couple is unable to sleep and are unable to go near each other. Their frustration turns into hate and they begin to abuse one another and blame one other for Camille's death. All the while Madam Raquin falls ill and becomes an invaid, unable to speak or move. Therese and Laurent decide to take care of her because having her in the house means they do not have to be alone with one another. Madam Raquin becomes a witness to the horrible abuse that Laurent and Therese do to one another. They accidentally let their secret slip in front of her while having one of their daily fights. Unable to speak or move to tell anyone, she refuses to let herself die until she sees Therese and Laurent pay for what they did.
This story is one worth reading. The tragic story of two people in love, turned against one another in the middle of a plot to be together. Its a true classic and a must read.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read, September 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Therese Raquin (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

I wanted to read love story which does not have happy ending. So I picked Zola's "Therese Raquin". It is a story of a woman, orphaned since her childhood, raised by her aunt and eventually married to her sickly cousin. Therese lives quiet live full of suppresion: sexual, monetary and intellectual. The first time she feels alive is when she manages to have wild extra marital affair with her husband's handsome, well-built, scheming office friend. Where Therese sees lust and love, her lover, Laurent, sees convenience: mistress he does not need to spend money on and can visit when it suits him. This brutal affair eventually ends with murder, mutual hate between Therese and Laurent and eventually suicide. Zola's storytelling is compelling. Book is a page turner, no matter how you feel about the events it describes. And even though one can expect tragic end, the magnitude of it is enourmous and leaves one stunned for quite some time...