If you're drawn to works that delve into the instinctual, darker side of human nature, "Thérèse Raquin" is a must-read. Zola's masterpiece, an exemplar of Naturalism, doesn't shy away from the grim realities of passion and crime. It's a raw, unflinching examination of human beings as creatures of desire, where the suspense and psychological depth can grip you as tightly today as it did readers in the 19th century.

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• Premios Fervenzas Literarias for Traducción (2017)

Therese Paquin is a clinically observed, sinister tale of adultery and murder among the lower orders in nineteenth-century Paris. Zola's dispassionate dissection of the motivations of his characters, mere 'human beasts' who kill in order to satisfy their lust, is much more than an atmospheric Second Empire period-piece. Many readers were scandalized by an approach to character-drawing which seemed to undermine not only the moral values of a deeply conservative society, but also the whole code of psychological description on which the realist novel was based.Together with the important Preface to the Second Edition in which Zola defended himself against charges of immorality, Therese Raquin stands as a key early manifesto of the French Naturalist movement, of which Zola was the founding father. Even today, this novel has lost none of its power to shock. This new translation is based on the second edition of 1868. The Introduction situates the novel in the context of Naturalism, medicine, and the scientific ideas of Zola's day.

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