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Rating: 
Summary: Bold and full of suspense
Review: "Therese Raquin" has all the right ingredients where living terror tales are made up of. Comprised of characters of freakish nature (sicky pale, childish, pasty face husband, the kind but naive doting mother, the cruel and good for nothing handsome lover, the plain, boring ugly uninspiring neighbours and of course the dangerously oppressed Therese herself)and their gray depressing surroundings, Zola describes the realistic scene of the poor in France. In the story, a young woman who has to endure a socially/mentally deprived environment in her husband and mother in law's house begins an affair with her husband's childhood friend. Frustrated at their slim chance of a better future, both decide to kill Therese's husband to pursue their happiness together. But is the poor man really dead? Or isn't he..... Ironic, full of suspense, shocking psychology and ugly side of human psychics, Zola has managed to link each of complex human emotion with psychological terror into his tale. If you think this is another simple tale of adultery, you're definitely missing out a lot. Treat yourself to a night of terror and give this a chance!
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Summary: definately not for the squeamish!
Review: Dark, creepy, intense, disgusting...I like. If you want a classic read with adultery, murder, and corpses, try this one. Two desperate, adulterous individuals murder the one person that stands between them. Instead of finding happiness, the couple is haunted by insane terror. The book reads like a ghost story, although by 19th century standards it was labled a "psychological study." Also, considering that it was written in the 1860's, it is rather explicit and graphic in some places. One thing that annoyed me was that, due to the translation, some words are repeated over and over (because many French words have only one English equivilent). Also, sometimes the changing tenses are hard to follow, as is the chronology of the flashbacks. Nevertheless, I agree with the blurb on the back cover: "This book has lost none of its power to shock!"
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Summary: First Impression
Review: I read this a couple months after reading Madame Bovary, so the similarities hit me pretty forcefully. Both are tales of passion overdrawn, become murderous energy. There are a few twists to this that distinguish it from Flaubert's far superior earlier work: Both illicit lovers poison themselves here, whereas in M.B. only Emma kills herself. This takes place in Paris...a corner of Paris less metropolitan and lively than we are used to being told of, but still a big city over Bovary's provincial France. And theissue of Cammille's mother having the stroke is an interesting idea. However, this can't compare with Bovary. Read them back-to-back if you don't believe me (and write your review within six months of having read the books, as I did not.)
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Summary: Therese Raquin
Review: One of Zola's early works. Not his best. I agree it should have taken the form of a short story. I found it to be repetitive towards the end myself. But as often is the case with Zola he can transport you to a time and place in the past that no longer exists and does so with tremendous descriptive style.
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Summary: Mixed
Review: The first half of this novel was interesting, though I agree with one customer review that this should have been a short story. The second half was so repetitive, I was crying with impatience for it to end. However, Zola's descriptions are powerfully rich, and he has a true understanding of the complexity of human beings; in this novel he reaches its furthest depths almost to the point of exaggeration but always maintaining the honesty of the nature of his characters so that it does not entirely lose its credibility.
Rating: 
Summary: A MUST READ
Review: THERESE RACQUIN IS A STORY OF ILLICIT LOVE AND REVENGE. IT IS ALSO A GHOST STORY. IF YOU LIKE VERY DRAMATIC WRITING SUPER CHARGED WITH HIGH-EMOTION, READ THIS BOOK BY ZOLA. IT IS THE STORY OF A YOUNG MARRIED WOMAN, THERESE, ESSENTIALLY EMOTIONALLY DEAD WHO FALLS IN LOVE WITH A FRIEND OF HER HUSBAND NAMED LAURENT. SHE HAS NO FEELINGS AT ALL FOR HER HUSBAND, BUT THE SEXUAL LOVE AFFAIR BETWEEN HER AND HIS FRIEND BECOMES SO INTENSE AND OUT OF CONTROL THAT THE PAIR TALK OF MURDERING THE HUSBAND SO THEY CAN MARRY. LAURENT, THE LOVER, BECOMES ALMOST A FRIEND OF THE FAMILY - THERESA, HER MOTHER AND HUSBAND. THEY ALL LOVE HIM, EVEN AS THERESA IS CARRYING ON A WILD AFFAIR WITH HIM. THE LOVE-SEXUAL AFFAIR IS DESCRIBED BREATHTAKILGLY - AS ONLY ZOLA CAN DO. THEN, LAURENT MURDERS CAMILLE, THE HUSBAND. FROM THIS POINT ON, THE BOOK DEALS WITH THE CHANGING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THERESA, LAURENT AND THE MOTHER. THIS IS ALSO DESCRIBED IN HIGHLY CHARGED WRITING, QUITE DRAMATIC, AND IS A PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY OF THESE THREE PEOPLE WITH A MURDER BETWEEN THEM. I RATE THIS BOOK AS A MUST READ. CURRENTLY THIS BOOK IS THE BASIS FOR A BROADWAY MUSICAL "THOU SHALT NOT."
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Summary: well-written, suspenseful, classic
Review: Therese Raquin centers on Therese, who is raised by her aunt with the expectation that she will marry her male cousin, Camille. And so she does. Then one day, Camille brings home his old school friend Laurent, and for the first time in her life, Therese feels passion. She and Laurent enter an illicit love affair, in which they successfully implement a plot to kill Camille and then get married and live with, of all people, Camille's mother. However, all bad deeds must be repaid, and the psychological demise of Laurent and Therese's relationship in light of their shared crime is both horrific and realistic. They scramble to be the first to bring down the other in a way that will absolve themselves of all blame, dropping clues to bystanders all the while. This book, originally written in French, is a classic masterpiece and a must-read!
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Summary: If you're thinking of committing adultery...
Review: This was Zola's first masterpiece. I think it's one of the most disturbing tales of adultery I've ever read. A woman named Therese is trapped in a dull marriage to her sickly cousin Camille. She takes his robust and sexy friend Laurent as her lover, and soon they plot Camille's death. The three of them go out on a boat for a leisure row on the river, and when they reach a secluded spot, Laurent throws Camille into the water. He drowns. Therese and Laurent overturn the boat to make it look like an accident, and they swim to shore calling for help. Their plan works. They marry. they should be happy, right? No, they aren't, because the murder and death of Camille haunts their guilty conscience until they nearly go mad. The ending to this extremely grim tale is terrifying and tragic, and morally correct. It will shake you to your very soul. There's a film adaptation of this book starring Kate Nelligan. This is one of those rare cases where the movie is even better than the novel. It's the most haunting thing I've ever seen. It was the most emotionally powerful thing I've ever, ever seen on screen. I think it made me have an anxiety attack haha. David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness"
Rating: 
Summary: Atmosphere abounds in this easy read
Review: With enough suspense to keep you reading, this novel is memorable for its understanding of sexual tension and the quirkiness and contrariness of base human feelings when they are given full rein. The characters, none of them especially admirable, more like adults with the personalities of children, play out their destinies against the richly atmospheric underside of 19th century Paris. There is a certain satisfying relish in the way in which Zola plunges his characters into what will prove to be their personal hell. On Therese and her afternoons spent in adulterous sexual abandonment" She recalled every detail of the afternoon's wild passion and dwelt on them one by one in her memory, contrasting that thrilling orgy with the dead-and-alive scene before her eyes (regular Thursday evening get togethers with friends of her mother-in-law and husband)..how happy she was to deceive them with such triumphant impudence". The mother of the victim, Madame Raquin, had believed in her daughter-in-law and new "son" as the epitome of devoted and caring "children", but had seen her vision of life reduced to nothing more than "murder and lust". The use by Zola of the red scar on the neck of the murderer Laurent is a simple but effective and memorable image. Vivid, lurid, it's fun time in Zola land! A good read for that plane flight.
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