Thérèse Raquin – Émile Zola. Penguin Classics

Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola

Translated with an introduction by Leonard Tancock. Penguin Classics paperback edition.

'Putrid Literature', 'a quagmire of slime and blood', 'a sewer' — these were some of the critics' reactions to this novel on its publication in 1868. The immediate success which Thérèse Raquin enjoyed was partly due to scandal, following the accusation of pornography; in reply Zola defined the new creed of Naturalism in the famous preface printed in this volume. The novel is a grim tale of adultery, murder and revenge in a nightmarish setting — a thriller and, as Tancock says in his introduction, a cautionary tale on the sixth and seventh commandments. Full of black macabre poetry, this early work of Zola has kept its tragic power for over a century.

The cover reproduces a detail from Under the Lamplight by Edouard Vuillard, Musée Annonciade, St Tropez.

Publisher: Penguin Classics
ISBN: 0-14-044120-4
Translator: Leonard Tancock
Condition: Good — some tanning to pages and light wear to covers consistent with age; binding sound.