Thérèse Raquin

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Thérèse Raquin is the name of the third novel written by Émile Zola , which appeared in 1867. It is often referred to as his first actual novel.

The naturalistic novel brought the then 27-year-old journalist Émile Zola the literary breakthrough. In 1873 he adapted the novel to the play of the same name. According to his foreword to the second edition of the novel, Zola intended to depict the "human beasts" ( brute humaine ). He took up the topic of humans as beasts in 1890 in the novel La bête humaine .

action

Thérèse Raquin, child of the French captain Monsieur Degans, who fell in Africa, and an unknown North African woman, was born in Oran and grew up with an aunt in the French provincial town of Vernon together with her ailing cousin Camille. Madame Raquin insists on a wedding between Thérèse and her son because she wants her son to be well looked after. After the wedding, Camille gets the family to settle in Paris and the mother buys a shabby sewing business without daylight. Thérèse runs the shop with her aunt, while her husband Camille works as a minor clerk for a railway company. Forced marriage turns out to be dispassionate and boring. Camille is completely disinterested in sex. As a result, Thérèse cheats on her husband with his best friend Laurent, a failed painter without any talent. In this sexually permissive and passionate relationship, both believe they are happy and make plans to kill Camille in order to be able to live out their relationship openly. Laurent drowns Camille on a Sunday excursion on the Seine , and he and Thérèse declare the murder an accident. Neither the police nor the family have the slightest suspicion. After a year, Thérèse and Laurent marry, apparently reluctantly and purportedly only to please the old lady. However, the relationship has clearly lost its passion since the joint murder of Camille. The couple are plagued by nightmares and remorse. A gradual descent into hell follows. Paranoia and hallucinations make their lives unbearable. Madame Raquin, now paralyzed and unable to speak, witnesses one of these attacks, but her accusation remains unrecognized by household friends (including a police superintendent) who believe in family happiness. There is mutual blame and violence. The once passionate relationship ends in a mutual suicide . Madame Raquin testifies to this dying and receives a kind of silent satisfaction in her suffering.

Film adaptations

The story of the novel was filmed several times:

Web links

Wikisource: Thérèse Raquin  - sources and full texts (French)