Thérèse Raquin and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more

Buy Used
Used - Good See details
$3.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Therese Raquin (Penguin Classics)
 
 
Start reading Thérèse Raquin on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Therese Raquin (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Emile Zola (Author), Leonard Tancock (Translator, Introduction)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)


Available from these sellers.



Book Description

Penguin Classics June 30, 1962
At last he was rid of his crime. He had killed Camille. It was a matter that was settled, and would be spoken of no more. He was now going to lead a tranquil existence, until he could take possession of Therese. The thought of the murder had at times half choked him, but now that it was accomplished, he felt a weight removed from his chest, and breathed at ease, cured of the suffering that hesitation and fear had given him.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought


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

Language Notes

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

Product Details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics (June 30, 1962)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0140441204
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140441208
  • Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 6.6 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,136,278 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Authors

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

 

Customer Reviews

38 Reviews
5 star:
 (15)
4 star:
 (18)
3 star:
 (3)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (38 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
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
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!"
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


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)   
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.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


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...
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews











Only search this product's reviews



Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
THERESE RAQUIN is the earliest of Emile Zola's novels to have maintained a position as a literary work of some intrinsic value and not merely as one of his historically interesting juvenilia or worthless pot-boilers. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
paralysed woman, haberdashery business, drowned man
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Madame Raquin, Passage du Pont-Neuf, Thérèse Raquin, Orleans Railway, One Sunday
New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:




What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums





Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject