“On her part she seemed to revel in daring and shamelessness. Not a single moment of hesitation or fear possessed her. She threw herself into adultery with a kind of furious honesty, flouting danger, and as it were, taking pride in doing so.” - From Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola 🇫🇷

When this novel first came out in France, it was criticised as “putrid/rotten”. Zola’s portrayal of treason and cardinal sins was judged “scandalous”, but the man who would later rise to fame on the back of “J’Accuse…” had already taken a first step towards consolidating his naturalist style.

Throughout the novel, this naturalism is evident: Zola examines his characters’ temperament and observes their behaviour with the detachment and cold calculation of a surgeon; his plot is governed by fatalism and his protagonists seems to be controlled by powers beyond their grasp. The entire novel has an air of an “experiment”, which is a defining feature of Zola’s literary style.

I found the novel disturbing, but definitely intriguing. I also found the description of the murderers’ agony vivid and thought-provoking. Without meaning to, Zola had left us a valuable piece of morality “theatre”. A valuable read indeed.

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