Therese Raquin: Deliciously Dark Intents

Beware, I have a great many spoilers in this blog, don't read past the first paragraph if you still want to be surprised by the novel!

Wow, this was a surprisingly savage novel that swept me away into world of family secrets and zero morality.  Berated by critics with comments such as "Therese Raquin is the study of too exceptional a case; the drama of modern life is more adaptable than this, less enveloped in horror and madness" and having been referred to as "putrid literature" in its day, this was not a popular novel.  Emile Zola's aim in this novel was to bring out the beast in his characters, not to create something that would appear realistic and certainly not something to appease his critics.  This is evident as with each chapter we see some sort of personal development in one his main protagonists, and these developments spiral out of control as the novel develops and that is why this is a novel I loved, it has a no holds barred feel to it that renders it almost timeless.

Zola drops us right into France during the 19th century to tell his tale of the Raquins, Mme Raquin with her sickly child Camille and her adopted niece Therese.  Both children grow up knowing they will marry and this becomes routine as both just go along with their mothers wishes, no complaints, it just seems to be a natural progression.  The change is brought to play when the pallid Camille cajoles his mother into moving from the countryside back to the city so he can follow his ambition to work, not so much to be a success, he just seems to want to be another cog in the wheel in whichever career makes itself available to him.  Mme Raquin reopens a haberdashery in a quiet, dark street, this doubles up as the living accommodation for the family.  Therese at this point still feels tepid, she is a quiet and uninterested soul that has no wants or needs, no passion, no nothing, she is flotsam and jetsam to Camille and Mme Raquin.  Her character shifts when Camille brings a work colleague home to one of the family's traditional Thursday night dominoes sessions and Therese awakens to this new man's presence.  Laurent and Therese begin a passionate, ferocious affair, one of pure pleasure.  It is this affair that drives them to commit the most terrible of crimes in order to make the way clear for themselves.  As a result of this they become haunted, broken creatures and the madness begins!

The reason this novel works so well is that none of Zola's characters are 'good' people, all of them behave in such a way that their only interest is in their own happiness and they mould those around them to serve this end.  Mme Raquin marries her offspring to have a family to provide for her, Camille forces his mother to the city so he can follow his own path, Therese and Laurent murder Camille to secure their own future and even the regulars at the domino game try to orchestrate the marriage of Laurent and Therese so that their domino night can continue without the disruption of a mourning widow.  It is only towards the end of the novel that you begin to feel remorse for Mme Raquin, as she realises the terrible truth of the relationship between Laurent and Therese but is powerless to do anything about it in her paralytic state, her rage is very satisfying and you want so badly for her to break out of her paralysis and murder the broken couple.  All of the characters are just vile, but it works, and this is why it works.

My favourite bit of the novel, and don't judge me, is when Laurent and Therese are finally married.  They enter their marital room and the horror of this novel is finally realised in all it's glory.  The two newly weds are haunted by the image of the drowned Camille, they see his face and feel his presence in whatever they try to do.  They feel his damp, sickly body between them at night and Laurent subconsciously paints the drowned man's face into all of his work.  Their guilt tears them apart and drives them into a world of vice and deception, it is just brilliant.  I was only somewhat distressed when Laurent, paranoid that the cat knows something, breaks the back of the family cat and leaves him to die slowly, wailing as he crawls across the roof.  I like animals, and that was a particularly brutal, harrowing scene.

With all that said, this novel gets under your skin, it exposes the animal side of people without the morality we expect from society.  It is this dark and relentless approach that makes this book so incredibly delicious, akin to eating a thoroughly calorific chocolate fudge cake with lashings of sauce and loving every second of it guilt free!