Thérèse Raquin
novel by Émile Zola
Thérèse Raquin (French pronunciation: [teʁɛz ʁakɛ̃]) is an early novel by French writer Émile Zola. The germ of the novel was present in his short story "Un Mariage d'Amour", published in December 1866. He then expanded the story into a novel, which appeared in serial form from August–October 1867 in the magazine L'Artiste. Later that year it was published in book form. Although it was Zola's third novel, Thérèse Raquin was the one that earned him fame and notoriety. The plot, with its focus on adultery and murder, was considered scandalous and described as "putrid literature" in a review in Le Figaro.
The novel tells the tale of a young woman, Thérèse Raquin, who is coerced by an overbearing aunt into a loveless marriage with her first cousin Camille. He is sickly and egocentric and when the opportunity arises, Thérèse enters into a turbulent, sordid affair with Camille's friend, Laurent. Despite their numerous trysts, Thérèse and Laurent are convinced they can only be truly happy if they are married. To do that, they must kill Camille, and so they carry out the murderous deed.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q268545. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1866 and 1867.
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This entry incorporates text from “Thérèse Raquin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.