Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola (Book Analysis): Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide

By Bright Summaries

Unlock the more straightforward side of Thérèse Raquin with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!

This engaging summary presents an analysis of Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola, which tells the story of an unhappily married woman who, along with her lover, murders her husband. However, although they thought that this crime would allow them to be together, they are tormented by guilt and remorse, and sink into madness as the story progresses. When it was first published, Thérèse Raquin was controversial because of its depiction of immoral behaviour, and was even described as “putrid” by one reviewer. Nonetheless, it remains one of Zola’s most remarkable and memorable books and laid the foundations for the literary movement of naturalism, of which Zola was the leading figure. He was also an influential social thinker, and is now regarded as one of France’s greatest novelists.

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• A complete plot summary
• Character studies
• Key themes and symbols
• Questions for further reflection

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• Language: English
• Publisher: BrightSummaries.com
• Release date: May 24, 2017
• ISBN: 9782806295620

Book preview

French writer and journalist

Born in Paris in 1840.

Died in Paris in 1902.

Notable works:

Nana (1880), novel

The Ladies’ Paradise (1883), novel

Germinal (1885), novel

Émile Zola was born in 1840 and died in 1902. He is considered to be one of the greatest French novelists of the 19th century. He was also the leading figure of naturalism, a movement which sought to apply the experimental scientific methods of the time to literature: after observing reality, Zola would put forward a hypothesis and test it through experimentation in his books. This aesthetic can be seen in particular in Les Rougon-Macquart, a cycle of 20 novels which constitutes his most important work and met with major success, in spite of many criticisms.

Zola was also famous for his social and political stances, which often gave rise to condemnation. The best-known of these concerns the Dreyfus affair; his pamphlet J’accuse (I accuse) had a major influence on the pardoning of the Jewish officer Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935).

A story of passion and death

Genre: novel

Reference edition: Zola, É. (2013) Thérèse Raquin. Trans. Thorpe, A. London: Vintage.

1st edition: 1867

Themes: naturalism, the body, madness, animality, crime, investigation, vice

Thérèse Raquin was published in 1867 and was Zola’s first great success as a novelist. In it, he puts his theory of naturalism into practice and tells the story of how Thérèse and her lover Laurent are driven to crime by the determinism of their bodies. The