Therese Raquin

Description

'Its force of impact, its narrative muscle and its psychological clarity make it still, nearly 150 years on, one of the most shocking books in the canon' JULIAN BARNES Mysterious disappearances, domestic cases, noiseless, bloodless snuffings-out. the law can look as deep as it likes, but when the crime itself goes unsuspected. oh yes, there's many a murderer basking in the sun...;;When Ther se Raquin is forced to marry the sickly Camille, she sees a bare life stretching out before her, leading every evening to the same cold bed and every morning to the same empty day. Escape comes in the form of her husband's friend, Laurent, and Ther se throws herself headlong into an affair. There seems only one obstacle to their happiness; Camille. They plot to be rid of him. But in destroying Camille they kill the very desire that connects them.;;First published in 1867, Ther se Raquin has lost none of its power to enthral. Adam Thorpe's unflinching translation brings Zola's dark and shocking masterwork to life.; ;;A NEW TRANSLATION BY ADAM THORPE;;'Adam Thorpe's version deserves to become the standard English text' Daily Telegraph

mile Zola (1840-1902) is the author of Les Rougon-Macquart - a cycle of 20 novels written over a period of 22 years including Nana(1880), Germinal (1885) and The Drinking Den (1877)- which provides a panoramic view of life under Napoleon III. He was the leading figure in the French school of naturalistic fiction. Zola campaigned for justice over the Dreyfus affair - 'it is up to us poets to nail the guilty to the eternal pillory' - and his open letter to the President 'J'accuse' landed him a prison sentence that he evaded only through exile in England. He is buried in the Pantheon alongside Rousseau, Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas.;;Adam Thorpe was born in Paris in 1956. His first novel, Ulverton, was published in 1992, and he has written nine others, two collections of stories and six books of poetry - most recently Voluntary. Thorpe's translation of Madame Bovary, 'stunning and heartily recommended' (Scotsman), is available in Vintage Classics. He lives in France with his wife and family.

Adam Thorpe's version deserves to become the standard English text -- Anthony Cummins * Daily Telegraph * Anyone who thinks the British contingent brought lurid literature effing and blinding its way to life in the 1990s should be force-fed Emile Zola's 1867 novel Therese Raquin, which, in Adam Thorpe's stark new translation, is revealed in all its queasy glory as a shockingly effective literary mash-up of pulp fiction, melodrama and grimly unflinching social realism -- Tina Jackson * Metro * The translator of this new edition in English, Adam Thorpe...brings an unusual freshness and zip to the task... This handsome Vintage Classics edition contains some useful editorial matter, but not Zola's own preface to the second edition. In that sense, then, it comes close to returning us to the baldness (and boldness) of the original Naturalist document * Times Literary Supplement * [Adam Thorpe] brings an unusual freshness and zip to the task, which goes some way towards returning us to that sense of unnerving immediacy which the young Zola's novel would have given its readers in 1867 -- Nicholas White * Times Literary Supplement * This story seeps into your insides -- Kate Winslet