Zola's masterpiece, 09 Mar 2008
With l'Assommoir, the best novel by Zola. This story of a young courtisane who breaks all rich men's hearts is a metaphor for the revenge of the working class against the bourgeoisie. Nana avenges the poor in her own way, she never forgets her origins, and that is what will be her downfall, eventually.
I also highly recommend the TV miniseries 'Nana' with Véronique Genest, broadcast in the 80's (available on amazon.fr). You'll agree that generally, film adaptations of novels are disappointing, in that case it's not. The adaptation is brilliant and perfectly captures the novel's atmosphere; the actress Veronique Genest incarnates a wonderful Nana, very faithful to the essence of the character.
But read the novel first!

A female rake's progress, 10 Dec 2001
This is a fantastic book - powerful in its critical exposure of the decadence and moral emptiness of its characters and their environment, as well as of the social and political backdrop in which the novel is set. Nana is a product of the Parisian underclass, and this is the story of her rise from the gutter, how she uses her body to capture the attentions of wealthy, foolish middle-aged men, and how she brings down destruction on all those she entraps and manipulates. It is a highly moral tale, despite the fact that the book initially suffered from the censors of the day. Zola's descriptions of the sleazy Paris theatre house where Nana is first discovered - he always meticulously researched his subjects - are totally convincing and evocative of the era and location. Nana rises and falls, and rises again, she is an embodiment, a symbol of all that Zola found rotten and corrupt in the politics and society of his day. Please buy this book - it is unforgettable - the gruesome final paragraph of the novel will stay in your mind forever.

Girl Power in the 1860s, 14 Sep 1999
No drugs, no rock 'n' roll but plenty of sex. Great entertainment in itself, this book is best read as a sequel to "L'Assommoir" ("Drunkard") whose tragic downtrodden heroine can be said, in a way, to have got her revenge on society through her daughter, Nana. You might say it's a case of the underclass striking back and one wonders how today's acting and modelling scene compares with Second Empire Paris. Someone once said that every woman is sitting on a gold mine and Nana certainly proves it. Trouble is, she also proves the old saying "easy come, easy go". What would have happened if they'd had smallpox jabs in those days?

Zola's masterpiece, 09 Mar 2008
With l'Assommoir, the best novel by Zola. This story of a young courtisane who breaks all rich men's hearts is a metaphor for the revenge of the working class against the bourgeoisie. Nana avenges the poor in her own way, she never forgets her origins, and that is what will be her downfall, eventually.
I also highly recommend the TV miniseries 'Nana' with Véronique Genest, broadcast in the 80's (available on amazon.fr). You'll agree that generally, film adaptations of novels are disappointing, in that case it's not. The adaptation is brilliant and perfectly captures the novel's atmosphere; the actress Veronique Genest incarnates a wonderful Nana, very faithful to the essence of the character.
But read the novel first!

A female rake's progress, 10 Dec 2001
This is a fantastic book - powerful in its critical exposure of the decadence and moral emptiness of its characters and their environment, as well as of the social and political backdrop in which the novel is set. Nana is a product of the Parisian underclass, and this is the story of her rise from the gutter, how she uses her body to capture the attentions of wealthy, foolish middle-aged men, and how she brings down destruction on all those she entraps and manipulates. It is a highly moral tale, despite the fact that the book initially suffered from the censors of the day. Zola's descriptions of the sleazy Paris theatre house where Nana is first discovered - he always meticulously researched his subjects - are totally convincing and evocative of the era and location. Nana rises and falls, and rises again, she is an embodiment, a symbol of all that Zola found rotten and corrupt in the politics and society of his day. Please buy this book - it is unforgettable - the gruesome final paragraph of the novel will stay in your mind forever.

Girl Power in the 1860s, 14 Sep 1999
No drugs, no rock 'n' roll but plenty of sex. Great entertainment in itself, this book is best read as a sequel to "L'Assommoir" ("Drunkard") whose tragic downtrodden heroine can be said, in a way, to have got her revenge on society through her daughter, Nana. You might say it's a case of the underclass striking back and one wonders how today's acting and modelling scene compares with Second Empire Paris. Someone once said that every woman is sitting on a gold mine and Nana certainly proves it. Trouble is, she also proves the old saying "easy come, easy go". What would have happened if they'd had smallpox jabs in those days?

claustrophobic excellence., 21 Mar 2008
I read this book for an ou course. If it had not been on the list there is no way I could have finished it.
It is so well written that you can see smell and hear everything in it. It scared me and it upset me. I found myself sympathising with violence-not something I am used to.
Would you enjoy this book? no definately not that is the wrong word. Should you read it anyway? definately! it is worth getting out of your comfort zone for. I wanted to give this very few stars for making me angry and for making me cry but it's just written so well. Just because I didn't laugh or enjoy the storyline does not alter the fact that I will forever remember this book it has challenged so many of my ideas.

I don't believe I'll read a better book, 28 May 2007
I love this book. I read it over twenty years ago but the closing chapters, set in the mine, will never leave me. It is brilliant. One of my all time top novels.

One of the best books ever written, 19 Sep 2006
I first read this when I was about 12 years old (in an English translation, I hasten to add) as I had run out of reading matter and came across this book in my grandfather's study.

I am now 62 years of age, but have never forgotten the initial impact this made on me. Somehow Zola's writing is so descriptive and evocative that one feels that one is really there in the suffering and squalor along with the characters. The suffering and social deprivation of those times is quite unbelievable as we look back over 150 years.

I do not know who translated that edition but I have read it in the original French since, where it is even more
moving.

If you haven't read it, please do, you'll be glad you did and, as someone else wrote in review, it could even change your life or, at the very least give you much pause for thought.

Strike another match..., 13 Jan 2006
I read this (for pure pleasure) during my A-Levels and it was so literally unputdownable that I got told off countless times for reading it under the desk while I should have been concentrating on my Maths and Chemistry exam study. I think I ended up in tears with the school counsellor after I finished it. That's what a good book should do to even the most harded cynic.

The plot is quite simple and yet quite complex - Etienne (Stephen) Lantier is a character from the Rougon-Macquart family followed in the series' other books - particularly "L'Assomoir", which is a parallel book, "Nana", which follows the fortunes of his sister, and "La Bete Humaine", which is about his brother. After losing his job in Lille he travels to the mining district nearby in search of work, and falls in with the Maheu family. Fomenting a strike from the embers of an ongoing dispute, Lantier rouses the miners against the bourgeoisie, who, in Zola's characteristically even-handed style, also have their own point of view. To go any further into the plot would be to spoil a good story.

OK, so I read it in the Penguin translation rather than the original (I'd like to try though since I can read French better than I can speak, understand it spoken or write it), but a good translation should get underneath the skin of the author and bring the milieu alive, not only staying faithful to the original but evoking for English readers the sticky, grimy world of Montsou and Le Voreux. I am reading it in Polish translation as well, to see how it reads in a language which is better at capturing magic and mystery rather than the down-to-earth grittiness of English. This edition was also published under the Soviet regime as a piece of "socialist realism" - though Zola would have turned in his grave at some of the small ...changes... that translation has made to some of the incidents.

Great literature should be worth reading for the plot as well as for the language, and Zola succeeds on both counts, taking up the baton from Balzac and Hugo and pushing on towards the modernist literature of Orwell, Sartre and Huxley. Dostoyevsky created the same sort of racy stories in Russia, and both "Crime and Punishment" and "Germinal" are masterpieces of storytelling that don't waste as much time on philosophical rambling as Tolstoy did in "Anna Karenina", in which the plot got lost among a lot of padding.

Although a great period piece, I have seen Zola's stories adapted into other times and places such as wartime London and the Home Counties, and the failed strike could be seen as prophesising the upheavals in recent British politics, with the rise and fall of the fortunes of the Conservative Party as they try to unseat Labour from power. Good literature is always timeless and "Germinal" is one of the books I would recommend to any aspiring politician of any colour, on how to run an effective campaign - or not as the case might be.

Mandatory reading and socially harrowing, 09 Feb 2005
Some classic novels are worthy but a chore; others are great to study academically; fewer combine adept social commentary with genius literary ability and a compelling plot.

This book had a major impact on me when I read it as a teenager - a Realist novel read in my own time to contrast with the Romantic works of Flaubert which I was dealing with for A level. I then returned to it at University - but importantly have subsequently re-read it more than once for pleasure as well as confidently giving it as a present to friends with a ""great read" recommendation.

It is hard to believe that society has changed so much and that we are so ignorant of the massive poverty and social injustice which existed relatively recently in Europe. This epic novel, as with many of Zola's novels, takes you into the startling detail of life in industrial France - with wonderful characterisation, really moving human stories and exciting & distressing plot .

It really has everything - and it may well change your outlook on life . I wholeheartedly recommend this as one of the greats

Zola's masterpiece, 09 Mar 2008
With l'Assommoir, the best novel by Zola. This story of a young courtisane who breaks all rich men's hearts is a metaphor for the revenge of the working class against the bourgeoisie. Nana avenges the poor in her own way, she never forgets her origins, and that is what will be her downfall, eventually.
I also highly recommend the TV miniseries 'Nana' with Véronique Genest, broadcast in the 80's (available on amazon.fr). You'll agree that generally, film adaptations of novels are disappointing, in that case it's not. The adaptation is brilliant and perfectly captures the novel's atmosphere; the actress Veronique Genest incarnates a wonderful Nana, very faithful to the essence of the character.
But read the novel first!

A female rake's progress, 10 Dec 2001
This is a fantastic book - powerful in its critical exposure of the decadence and moral emptiness of its characters and their environment, as well as of the social and political backdrop in which the novel is set. Nana is a product of the Parisian underclass, and this is the story of her rise from the gutter, how she uses her body to capture the attentions of wealthy, foolish middle-aged men, and how she brings down destruction on all those she entraps and manipulates. It is a highly moral tale, despite the fact that the book initially suffered from the censors of the day. Zola's descriptions of the sleazy Paris theatre house where Nana is first discovered - he always meticulously researched his subjects - are totally convincing and evocative of the era and location. Nana rises and falls, and rises again, she is an embodiment, a symbol of all that Zola found rotten and corrupt in the politics and society of his day. Please buy this book - it is unforgettable - the gruesome final paragraph of the novel will stay in your mind forever.

Girl Power in the 1860s, 14 Sep 1999
No drugs, no rock 'n' roll but plenty of sex. Great entertainment in itself, this book is best read as a sequel to "L'Assommoir" ("Drunkard") whose tragic downtrodden heroine can be said, in a way, to have got her revenge on society through her daughter, Nana. You might say it's a case of the underclass striking back and one wonders how today's acting and modelling scene compares with Second Empire Paris. Someone once said that every woman is sitting on a gold mine and Nana certainly proves it. Trouble is, she also proves the old saying "easy come, easy go". What would have happened if they'd had smallpox jabs in those days?

claustrophobic excellence., 21 Mar 2008
I read this book for an ou course. If it had not been on the list there is no way I could have finished it.
It is so well written that you can see smell and hear everything in it. It scared me and it upset me. I found myself sympathising with violence-not something I am used to.
Would you enjoy this book? no definately not that is the wrong word. Should you read it anyway? definately! it is worth getting out of your comfort zone for. I wanted to give this very few stars for making me angry and for making me cry but it's just written so well. Just because I didn't laugh or enjoy the storyline does not alter the fact that I will forever remember this book it has challenged so many of my ideas.

I don't believe I'll read a better book, 28 May 2007
I love this book. I read it over twenty years ago but the closing chapters, set in the mine, will never leave me. It is brilliant. One of my all time top novels.

One of the best books ever written, 19 Sep 2006
I first read this when I was about 12 years old (in an English translation, I hasten to add) as I had run out of reading matter and came across this book in my grandfather's study.

I am now 62 years of age, but have never forgotten the initial impact this made on me. Somehow Zola's writing is so descriptive and evocative that one feels that one is really there in the suffering and squalor along with the characters. The suffering and social deprivation of those times is quite unbelievable as we look back over 150 years.

I do not know who translated that edition but I have read it in the original French since, where it is even more
moving.

If you haven't read it, please do, you'll be glad you did and, as someone else wrote in review, it could even change your life or, at the very least give you much pause for thought.

Strike another match..., 13 Jan 2006
I read this (for pure pleasure) during my A-Levels and it was so literally unputdownable that I got told off countless times for reading it under the desk while I should have been concentrating on my Maths and Chemistry exam study. I think I ended up in tears with the school counsellor after I finished it. That's what a good book should do to even the most harded cynic.

The plot is quite simple and yet quite complex - Etienne (Stephen) Lantier is a character from the Rougon-Macquart family followed in the series' other books - particularly "L'Assomoir", which is a parallel book, "Nana", which follows the fortunes of his sister, and "La Bete Humaine", which is about his brother. After losing his job in Lille he travels to the mining district nearby in search of work, and falls in with the Maheu family. Fomenting a strike from the embers of an ongoing dispute, Lantier rouses the miners against the bourgeoisie, who, in Zola's characteristically even-handed style, also have their own point of view. To go any further into the plot would be to spoil a good story.

OK, so I read it in the Penguin translation rather than the original (I'd like to try though since I can read French better than I can speak, understand it spoken or write it), but a good translation should get underneath the skin of the author and bring the milieu alive, not only staying faithful to the original but evoking for English readers the sticky, grimy world of Montsou and Le Voreux. I am reading it in Polish translation as well, to see how it reads in a language which is better at capturing magic and mystery rather than the down-to-earth grittiness of English. This edition was also published under the Soviet regime as a piece of "socialist realism" - though Zola would have turned in his grave at some of the small ...changes... that translation has made to some of the incidents.

Great literature should be worth reading for the plot as well as for the language, and Zola succeeds on both counts, taking up the baton from Balzac and Hugo and pushing on towards the modernist literature of Orwell, Sartre and Huxley. Dostoyevsky created the same sort of racy stories in Russia, and both "Crime and Punishment" and "Germinal" are masterpieces of storytelling that don't waste as much time on philosophical rambling as Tolstoy did in "Anna Karenina", in which the plot got lost among a lot of padding.

Although a great period piece, I have seen Zola's stories adapted into other times and places such as wartime London and the Home Counties, and the failed strike could be seen as prophesising the upheavals in recent British politics, with the rise and fall of the fortunes of the Conservative Party as they try to unseat Labour from power. Good literature is always timeless and "Germinal" is one of the books I would recommend to any aspiring politician of any colour, on how to run an effective campaign - or not as the case might be.

Mandatory reading and socially harrowing, 09 Feb 2005
Some classic novels are worthy but a chore; others are great to study academically; fewer combine adept social commentary with genius literary ability and a compelling plot.

This book had a major impact on me when I read it as a teenager - a Realist novel read in my own time to contrast with the Romantic works of Flaubert which I was dealing with for A level. I then returned to it at University - but importantly have subsequently re-read it more than once for pleasure as well as confidently giving it as a present to friends with a ""great read" recommendation.

It is hard to believe that society has changed so much and that we are so ignorant of the massive poverty and social injustice which existed relatively recently in Europe. This epic novel, as with many of Zola's novels, takes you into the startling detail of life in industrial France - with wonderful characterisation, really moving human stories and exciting & distressing plot .

It really has everything - and it may well change your outlook on life . I wholeheartedly recommend this as one of the greats

Excellent, Compelling and Mind Provoking, 28 Oct 2008
Therese Raquin is an amazing book. It depressed, provoked and shocked me to the extent that i literally could not put it down. (Reading till half 4 is a sign of it's ability) The book at first made me feel sad for Therese and her lonely existence, but gradually as the book went along, i slowly started to hate everything about her. This is the opposite for Camille, with me disliking him and his sickly manners but rooting for him and knowing him more at the end. If you havent read this brilliantly writen, classic book, then you have missed out greatly. Therese Raquin is one of those books that have to be read, providing exceptionally good literature and a alternative read.

Disapointing, 25 Feb 2007
This is my first review so bare with me.

I found Zola's writing style very difficult to stomach. He certainly created two characters whose actions were very believable and their consequent reactions realistic. The problem I found was at no point did I care about the characters. While creating this unbearable atmosphere between the characters I too found myself avoiding returning home to the book. I would make excuses to avoid reading it just as Therese and Laurent would avoid coming home.

The ending was extremely disappointing. It just felt as if he ran out of ideas and made for a swift ending. Several of the chapters seemed completely surplus to requirement and added nothing to the story.

As I said, he did create two believable characters whose actions were wholly believable. Zola succeeded in creating an claustrophobic atmosphere. This said I unfortunately do not feel this was enough.
Basically, I'd never read it again and would advise against people reading it. I'll admit I am not a literary genius and so it is possible some of the quality of the writing as eluded me, however, I have to admit I regret following this through to it's conclusion.

R

Brilliant in its simplicty, 21 Jan 2007
A brilliant book which has a simple plot, wonderful characters and the little written dialogue seems to jump off the page at you.

What has made me love this book so much is the way that Zola has writen it so that the reader wants Therese and Laurent to strive and to be in love again because they are right for each other. The reader also does not grieve for the loss of Camille.

I wish to add that if you are a coward with a vivid imagination (like myself) you may find some descriptions of the lovers scaring themselves with images of the dead Camille a little scary.

Highly Enjoyable, 24 Sep 2006
At first glance, the plot seems to be fairly routine, and perhaps a little boring. I thought this to be in the same vein as Chopin's "Awakening" or perhaps even "Moll Flanders". The title and blurb for this book are misleading, seeming to sell this novel as a romance, especially with the description of Laurent as 'earthy' and the 'animal passion' he shares with Therese, and did not immediately appeal to me. This is near-criminal, as it fails to stress the books chilling and pscyhological aspects that make it such an interesting read.

For this is far more than a simple passion/crime novel, but rather an intense, claustrophobic and highly enjoyable insight into the fracturing of two guilt-ridden, egotistical and self-pitying characters, so fully realised and superbly depicted, and shades of both Balzac and Dostoyevsky abound.

This novel might be described as a horror, a moral fable or a tragic romance. Above all of this though, it is a pscyhological thriller, highly symbolic, yet exciting and morbidly appealing in its entirety.

Gritty, stark and grim, 21 Sep 2006
This is a grim little tale of physical lust, crime and guilt set in the seedy world of 19th century Paris. The anti-hero falls in lust with Therese, the wife of his pathetic friend Laurent, and together they conspire to murder him so they can marry (as much for her money as their mutual passion). But the crime comes back to haunt them, quite literally with joint hallucinations of the murdered, drowned man.

Zola takes the new science (at that point) of psychology and applies it here, showing man to be no more than an animal driven by physiological appetites. It's not an edifying view of humanity, and in fact there is little humanity in the book at all, but it's somehow not a depressing read for all that. perhaps Zola's own ghoulish energy lifts it, or the sublime writing? If your French is good enough, then read it in the original, but if not this is an excellent translation.

Zola's masterpiece, 09 Mar 2008
With l'Assommoir, the best novel by Zola. This story of a young courtisane who breaks all rich men's hearts is a metaphor for the revenge of the working class against the bourgeoisie. Nana avenges the poor in her own way, she never forgets her origins, and that is what will be her downfall, eventually.
I also highly recommend the TV miniseries 'Nana' with Véronique Genest, broadcast in the 80's (available on amazon.fr). You'll agree that generally, film adaptations of novels are disappointing, in that case it's not. The adaptation is brilliant and perfectly captures the novel's atmosphere; the actress Veronique Genest incarnates a wonderful Nana, very faithful to the essence of the character.
But read the novel first!

A female rake's progress, 10 Dec 2001
This is a fantastic book - powerful in its critical exposure of the decadence and moral emptiness of its characters and their environment, as well as of the social and political backdrop in which the novel is set. Nana is a product of the Parisian underclass, and this is the story of her rise from the gutter, how she uses her body to capture the attentions of wealthy, foolish middle-aged men, and how she brings down destruction on all those she entraps and manipulates. It is a highly moral tale, despite the fact that the book initially suffered from the censors of the day. Zola's descriptions of the sleazy Paris theatre house where Nana is first discovered - he always meticulously researched his subjects - are totally convincing and evocative of the era and location. Nana rises and falls, and rises again, she is an embodiment, a symbol of all that Zola found rotten and corrupt in the politics and society of his day. Please buy this book - it is unforgettable - the gruesome final paragraph of the novel will stay in your mind forever.

Girl Power in the 1860s, 14 Sep 1999
No drugs, no rock 'n' roll but plenty of sex. Great entertainment in itself, this book is best read as a sequel to "L'Assommoir" ("Drunkard") whose tragic downtrodden heroine can be said, in a way, to have got her revenge on society through her daughter, Nana. You might say it's a case of the underclass striking back and one wonders how today's acting and modelling scene compares with Second Empire Paris. Someone once said that every woman is sitting on a gold mine and Nana certainly proves it. Trouble is, she also proves the old saying "easy come, easy go". What would have happened if they'd had smallpox jabs in those days?

claustrophobic excellence., 21 Mar 2008
I read this book for an ou course. If it had not been on the list there is no way I could have finished it.
It is so well written that you can see smell and hear everything in it. It scared me and it upset me. I found myself sympathising with violence-not something I am used to.
Would you enjoy this book? no definately not that is the wrong word. Should you read it anyway? definately! it is worth getting out of your comfort zone for. I wanted to give this very few stars for making me angry and for making me cry but it's just written so well. Just because I didn't laugh or enjoy the storyline does not alter the fact that I will forever remember this book it has challenged so many of my ideas.

I don't believe I'll read a better book, 28 May 2007
I love this book. I read it over twenty years ago but the closing chapters, set in the mine, will never leave me. It is brilliant. One of my all time top novels.

One of the best books ever written, 19 Sep 2006
I first read this when I was about 12 years old (in an English translation, I hasten to add) as I had run out of reading matter and came across this book in my grandfather's study.

I am now 62 years of age, but have never forgotten the initial impact this made on me. Somehow Zola's writing is so descriptive and evocative that one feels that one is really there in the suffering and squalor along with the characters. The suffering and social deprivation of those times is quite unbelievable as we look back over 150 years.

I do not know who translated that edition but I have read it in the original French since, where it is even more
moving.

If you haven't read it, please do, you'll be glad you did and, as someone else wrote in review, it could even change your life or, at the very least give you much pause for thought.

Strike another match..., 13 Jan 2006
I read this (for pure pleasure) during my A-Levels and it was so literally unputdownable that I got told off countless times for reading it under the desk while I should have been concentrating on my Maths and Chemistry exam study. I think I ended up in tears with the school counsellor after I finished it. That's what a good book should do to even the most harded cynic.

The plot is quite simple and yet quite complex - Etienne (Stephen) Lantier is a character from the Rougon-Macquart family followed in the series' other books - particularly "L'Assomoir", which is a parallel book, "Nana", which follows the fortunes of his sister, and "La Bete Humaine", which is about his brother. After losing his job in Lille he travels to the mining district nearby in search of work, and falls in with the Maheu family. Fomenting a strike from the embers of an ongoing dispute, Lantier rouses the miners against the bourgeoisie, who, in Zola's characteristically even-handed style, also have their own point of view. To go any further into the plot would be to spoil a good story.

OK, so I read it in the Penguin translation rather than the original (I'd like to try though since I can read French better than I can speak, understand it spoken or write it), but a good translation should get underneath the skin of the author and bring the milieu alive, not only staying faithful to the original but evoking for English readers the sticky, grimy world of Montsou and Le Voreux. I am reading it in Polish translation as well, to see how it reads in a language which is better at capturing magic and mystery rather than the down-to-earth grittiness of English. This edition was also published under the Soviet regime as a piece of "socialist realism" - though Zola would have turned in his grave at some of the small ...changes... that translation has made to some of the incidents.

Great literature should be worth reading for the plot as well as for the language, and Zola succeeds on both counts, taking up the baton from Balzac and Hugo and pushing on towards the modernist literature of Orwell, Sartre and Huxley. Dostoyevsky created the same sort of racy stories in Russia, and both "Crime and Punishment" and "Germinal" are masterpieces of storytelling that don't waste as much time on philosophical rambling as Tolstoy did in "Anna Karenina", in which the plot got lost among a lot of padding.

Although a great period piece, I have seen Zola's stories adapted into other times and places such as wartime London and the Home Counties, and the failed strike could be seen as prophesising the upheavals in recent British politics, with the rise and fall of the fortunes of the Conservative Party as they try to unseat Labour from power. Good literature is always timeless and "Germinal" is one of the books I would recommend to any aspiring politician of any colour, on how to run an effective campaign - or not as the case might be.

Mandatory reading and socially harrowing, 09 Feb 2005
Some classic novels are worthy but a chore; others are great to study academically; fewer combine adept social commentary with genius literary ability and a compelling plot.

This book had a major impact on me when I read it as a teenager - a Realist novel read in my own time to contrast with the Romantic works of Flaubert which I was dealing with for A level. I then returned to it at University - but importantly have subsequently re-read it more than once for pleasure as well as confidently giving it as a present to friends with a ""great read" recommendation.

It is hard to believe that society has changed so much and that we are so ignorant of the massive poverty and social injustice which existed relatively recently in Europe. This epic novel, as with many of Zola's novels, takes you into the startling detail of life in industrial France - with wonderful characterisation, really moving human stories and exciting & distressing plot .

It really has everything - and it may well change your outlook on life . I wholeheartedly recommend this as one of the greats

Excellent, Compelling and Mind Provoking, 28 Oct 2008
Therese Raquin is an amazing book. It depressed, provoked and shocked me to the extent that i literally could not put it down. (Reading till half 4 is a sign of it's ability) The book at first made me feel sad for Therese and her lonely existence, but gradually as the book went along, i slowly started to hate everything about her. This is the opposite for Camille, with me disliking him and his sickly manners but rooting for him and knowing him more at the end. If you havent read this brilliantly writen, classic book, then you have missed out greatly. Therese Raquin is one of those books that have to be read, providing exceptionally good literature and a alternative read.

Disapointing, 25 Feb 2007
This is my first review so bare with me.

I found Zola's writing style very difficult to stomach. He certainly created two characters whose actions were very believable and their consequent reactions realistic. The problem I found was at no point did I care about the characters. While creating this unbearable atmosphere between the characters I too found myself avoiding returning home to the book. I would make excuses to avoid reading it just as Therese and Laurent would avoid coming home.

The ending was extremely disappointing. It just felt as if he ran out of ideas and made for a swift ending. Several of the chapters seemed completely surplus to requirement and added nothing to the story.

As I said, he did create two believable characters whose actions were wholly believable. Zola succeeded in creating an claustrophobic atmosphere. This said I unfortunately do not feel this was enough.
Basically, I'd never read it again and would advise against people reading it. I'll admit I am not a literary genius and so it is possible some of the quality of the writing as eluded me, however, I have to admit I regret following this through to it's conclusion.

R

Brilliant in its simplicty, 21 Jan 2007
A brilliant book which has a simple plot, wonderful characters and the little written dialogue seems to jump off the page at you.

What has made me love this book so much is the way that Zola has writen it so that the reader wants Therese and Laurent to strive and to be in love again because they are right for each other. The reader also does not grieve for the loss of Camille.

I wish to add that if you are a coward with a vivid imagination (like myself) you may find some descriptions of the lovers scaring themselves with images of the dead Camille a little scary.

Highly Enjoyable, 24 Sep 2006
At first glance, the plot seems to be fairly routine, and perhaps a little boring. I thought this to be in the same vein as Chopin's "Awakening" or perhaps even "Moll Flanders". The title and blurb for this book are misleading, seeming to sell this novel as a romance, especially with the description of Laurent as 'earthy' and the 'animal passion' he shares with Therese, and did not immediately appeal to me. This is near-criminal, as it fails to stress the books chilling and pscyhological aspects that make it such an interesting read.

For this is far more than a simple passion/crime novel, but rather an intense, claustrophobic and highly enjoyable insight into the fracturing of two guilt-ridden, egotistical and self-pitying characters, so fully realised and superbly depicted, and shades of both Balzac and Dostoyevsky abound.

This novel might be described as a horror, a moral fable or a tragic romance. Above all of this though, it is a pscyhological thriller, highly symbolic, yet exciting and morbidly appealing in its entirety.

Gritty, stark and grim, 21 Sep 2006
This is a grim little tale of physical lust, crime and guilt set in the seedy world of 19th century Paris. The anti-hero falls in lust with Therese, the wife of his pathetic friend Laurent, and together they conspire to murder him so they can marry (as much for her money as their mutual passion). But the crime comes back to haunt them, quite literally with joint hallucinations of the murdered, drowned man.

Zola takes the new science (at that point) of psychology and applies it here, showing man to be no more than an animal driven by physiological appetites. It's not an edifying view of humanity, and in fact there is little humanity in the book at all, but it's somehow not a depressing read for all that. perhaps Zola's own ghoulish energy lifts it, or the sublime writing? If your French is good enough, then read it in the original, but if not this is an excellent translation.

The Underbelly, 11 Nov 2007
I am an unashamed devotee of Zola, and find very little to fault in any of his novels. This is especially true of the more recent translations which are much easier to read than those by Vizetelly, admittedly written over a hundred years ago. Zola's novels are much more "earthy" and "real" than those by Dickens and Thackery for example, and being much, much shorter and sharper make them, in my opinion, superior pieces of literature. As this is the newest release of a modern translation, as it were, it can receive 5 stars on behalf of all the other Zola works out there.

Zola's masterpiece, 09 Mar 2008
With l'Assommoir, the best novel by Zola. This story of a young courtisane who breaks all rich men's hearts is a metaphor for the revenge of the working class against the bourgeoisie. Nana avenges the poor in her own way, she never forgets her origins, and that is what will be her downfall, eventually.
I also highly recommend the TV miniseries 'Nana' with Véronique Genest, broadcast in the 80's (available on amazon.fr). You'll agree that generally, film adaptations of novels are disappointing, in that case it's not. The adaptation is brilliant and perfectly captures the novel's atmosphere; the actress Veronique Genest incarnates a wonderful Nana, very faithful to the essence of the character.
But read the novel first!

A female rake's progress, 10 Dec 2001
This is a fantastic book - powerful in its critical exposure of the decadence and moral emptiness of its characters and their environment, as well as of the social and political backdrop in which the novel is set. Nana is a product of the Parisian underclass, and this is the story of her rise from the gutter, how she uses her body to capture the attentions of wealthy, foolish middle-aged men, and how she brings down destruction on all those she entraps and manipulates. It is a highly moral tale, despite the fact that the book initially suffered from the censors of the day. Zola's descriptions of the sleazy Paris theatre house where Nana is first discovered - he always meticulously researched his subjects - are totally convincing and evocative of the era and location. Nana rises and falls, and rises again, she is an embodiment, a symbol of all that Zola found rotten and corrupt in the politics and society of his day. Please buy this book - it is unforgettable - the gruesome final paragraph of the novel will stay in your mind forever.

Girl Power in the 1860s, 14 Sep 1999
No drugs, no rock 'n' roll but plenty of sex. Great entertainment in itself, this book is best read as a sequel to "L'Assommoir" ("Drunkard") whose tragic downtrodden heroine can be said, in a way, to have got her revenge on society through her daughter, Nana. You might say it's a case of the underclass striking back and one wonders how today's acting and modelling scene compares with Second Empire Paris. Someone once said that every woman is sitting on a gold mine and Nana certainly proves it. Trouble is, she also proves the old saying "easy come, easy go". What would have happened if they'd had smallpox jabs in those days?

claustrophobic excellence., 21 Mar 2008
I read this book for an ou course. If it had not been on the list there is no way I could have finished it.
It is so well written that you can see smell and hear everything in it. It scared me and it upset me. I found myself sympathising with violence-not something I am used to.
Would you enjoy this book? no definately not that is the wrong word. Should you read it anyway? definately! it is worth getting out of your comfort zone for. I wanted to give this very few stars for making me angry and for making me cry but it's just written so well. Just because I didn't laugh or enjoy the storyline does not alter the fact that I will forever remember this book it has challenged so many of my ideas.

I don't believe I'll read a better book, 28 May 2007
I love this book. I read it over twenty years ago but the closing chapters, set in the mine, will never leave me. It is brilliant. One of my all time top novels.

One of the best books ever written, 19 Sep 2006
I first read this when I was about 12 years old (in an English translation, I hasten to add) as I had run out of reading matter and came across this book in my grandfather's study.

I am now 62 years of age, but have never forgotten the initial impact this made on me. Somehow Zola's writing is so descriptive and evocative that one feels that one is really there in the suffering and squalor along with the characters. The suffering and social deprivation of those times is quite unbelievable as we look back over 150 years.

I do not know who translated that edition but I have read it in the original French since, where it is even more
moving.

If you haven't read it, please do, you'll be glad you did and, as someone else wrote in review, it could even change your life or, at the very least give you much pause for thought.

Strike another match..., 13 Jan 2006
I read this (for pure pleasure) during my A-Levels and it was so literally unputdownable that I got told off countless times for reading it under the desk while I should have been concentrating on my Maths and Chemistry exam study. I think I ended up in tears with the school counsellor after I finished it. That's what a good book should do to even the most harded cynic.

The plot is quite simple and yet quite complex - Etienne (Stephen) Lantier is a character from the Rougon-Macquart family followed in the series' other books - particularly "L'Assomoir", which is a parallel book, "Nana", which follows the fortunes of his sister, and "La Bete Humaine", which is about his brother. After losing his job in Lille he travels to the mining district nearby in search of work, and falls in with the Maheu family. Fomenting a strike from the embers of an ongoing dispute, Lantier rouses the miners against the bourgeoisie, who, in Zola's characteristically even-handed style, also have their own point of view. To go any further into the plot would be to spoil a good story.

OK, so I read it in the Penguin translation rather than the original (I'd like to try though since I can read French better than I can speak, understand it spoken or write it), but a good translation should get underneath the skin of the author and bring the milieu alive, not only staying faithful to the original but evoking for English readers the sticky, grimy world of Montsou and Le Voreux. I am reading it in Polish translation as well, to see how it reads in a language which is better at capturing magic and mystery rather than the down-to-earth grittiness of English. This edition was also published under the Soviet regime as a piece of "socialist realism" - though Zola would have turned in his grave at some of the small ...changes... that translation has made to some of the incidents.

Great literature should be worth reading for the plot as well as for the language, and Zola succeeds on both counts, taking up the baton from Balzac and Hugo and pushing on towards the modernist literature of Orwell, Sartre and Huxley. Dostoyevsky created the same sort of racy stories in Russia, and both "Crime and Punishment" and "Germinal" are masterpieces of storytelling that don't waste as much time on philosophical rambling as Tolstoy did in "Anna Karenina", in which the plot got lost among a lot of padding.

Although a great period piece, I have seen Zola's stories adapted into other times and places such as wartime London and the Home Counties, and the failed strike could be seen as prophesising the upheavals in recent British politics, with the rise and fall of the fortunes of the Conservative Party as they try to unseat Labour from power. Good literature is always timeless and "Germinal" is one of the books I would recommend to any aspiring politician of any colour, on how to run an effective campaign - or not as the case might be.

Mandatory reading and socially harrowing, 09 Feb 2005
Some classic novels are worthy but a chore; others are great to study academically; fewer combine adept social commentary with genius literary ability and a compelling plot.

This book had a major impact on me when I read it as a teenager - a Realist novel read in my own time to contrast with the Romantic works of Flaubert which I was dealing with for A level. I then returned to it at University - but importantly have subsequently re-read it more than once for pleasure as well as confidently giving it as a present to friends with a ""great read" recommendation.

It is hard to believe that society has changed so much and that we are so ignorant of the massive poverty and social injustice which existed relatively recently in Europe. This epic novel, as with many of Zola's novels, takes you into the startling detail of life in industrial France - with wonderful characterisation, really moving human stories and exciting & distressing plot .

It really has everything - and it may well change your outlook on life . I wholeheartedly recommend this as one of the greats

Excellent, Compelling and Mind Provoking, 28 Oct 2008
Therese Raquin is an amazing book. It depressed, provoked and shocked me to the extent that i literally could not put it down. (Reading till half 4 is a sign of it's ability) The book at first made me feel sad for Therese and her lonely existence, but gradually as the book went along, i slowly started to hate everything about her. This is the opposite for Camille, with me disliking him and his sickly manners but rooting for him and knowing him more at the end. If you havent read this brilliantly writen, classic book, then you have missed out greatly. Therese Raquin is one of those books that have to be read, providing exceptionally good literature and a alternative read.

Disapointing, 25 Feb 2007
This is my first review so bare with me.

I found Zola's writing style very difficult to stomach. He certainly created two characters whose actions were very believable and their consequent reactions realistic. The problem I found was at no point did I care about the characters. While creating this unbearable atmosphere between the characters I too found myself avoiding returning home to the book. I would make excuses to avoid reading it just as Therese and Laurent would avoid coming home.

The ending was extremely disappointing. It just felt as if he ran out of ideas and made for a swift ending. Several of the chapters seemed completely surplus to requirement and added nothing to the story.

As I said, he did create two believable characters whose actions were wholly believable. Zola succeeded in creating an claustrophobic atmosphere. This said I unfortunately do not feel this was enough.
Basically, I'd never read it again and would advise against people reading it. I'll admit I am not a literary genius and so it is possible some of the quality of the writing as eluded me, however, I have to admit I regret following this through to it's conclusion.

R

Brilliant in its simplicty, 21 Jan 2007
A brilliant book which has a simple plot, wonderful characters and the little written dialogue seems to jump off the page at you.

What has made me love this book so much is the way that Zola has writen it so that the reader wants Therese and Laurent to strive and to be in love again because they are right for each other. The reader also does not grieve for the loss of Camille.

I wish to add that if you are a coward with a vivid imagination (like myself) you may find some descriptions of the lovers scaring themselves with images of the dead Camille a little scary.

Highly Enjoyable, 24 Sep 2006
At first glance, the plot seems to be fairly routine, and perhaps a little boring. I thought this to be in the same vein as Chopin's "Awakening" or perhaps even "Moll Flanders". The title and blurb for this book are misleading, seeming to sell this novel as a romance, especially with the description of Laurent as 'earthy' and the 'animal passion' he shares with Therese, and did not immediately appeal to me. This is near-criminal, as it fails to stress the books chilling and pscyhological aspects that make it such an interesting read.

For this is far more than a simple passion/crime novel, but rather an intense, claustrophobic and highly enjoyable insight into the fracturing of two guilt-ridden, egotistical and self-pitying characters, so fully realised and superbly depicted, and shades of both Balzac and Dostoyevsky abound.

This novel might be described as a horror, a moral fable or a tragic romance. Above all of this though, it is a pscyhological thriller, highly symbolic, yet exciting and morbidly appealing in its entirety.

Gritty, stark and grim, 21 Sep 2006
This is a grim little tale of physical lust, crime and guilt set in the seedy world of 19th century Paris. The anti-hero falls in lust with Therese, the wife of his pathetic friend Laurent, and together they conspire to murder him so they can marry (as much for her money as their mutual passion). But the crime comes back to haunt them, quite literally with joint hallucinations of the murdered, drowned man.

Zola takes the new science (at that point) of psychology and applies it here, showing man to be no more than an animal driven by physiological appetites. It's not an edifying view of humanity, and in fact there is little humanity in the book at all, but it's somehow not a depressing read for all that. perhaps Zola's own ghoulish energy lifts it, or the sublime writing? If your French is good enough, then read it in the original, but if not this is an excellent translation.

The Underbelly, 11 Nov 2007
I am an unashamed devotee of Zola, and find very little to fault in any of his novels. This is especially true of the more recent translations which are much easier to read than those by Vizetelly, admittedly written over a hundred years ago. Zola's novels are much more "earthy" and "real" than those by Dickens and Thackery for example, and being much, much shorter and sharper make them, in my opinion, superior pieces of literature. As this is the newest release of a modern translation, as it were, it can receive 5 stars on behalf of all the other Zola works out there.

The Debacle, 17 Jul 2008
In the late 1860s Prussia, led by Kaiser Wilhelm and Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, engaged the French government headed by Napoleon III in heated negotiations over the throne of Spain and the sovereignty of the Low Countries. The dispute grew as France looked for a fight.

France declared war in 1870 but was ill prepared to fight the ensuing Franco-Prussian War. Poorly equipped and incompetently led, the French soldiers were badly used. The result, from the French point of view was a catastrophe. At the battle of Sedan the Prussians captured over 100,000 French troops and Napoleon III himself. France was forced to cede Alsace-Lorraine to the Germans. In the immediate aftermath of the war, a left-wing rebellion erupted in Paris. It was suppressed with brutal rigor.

Like Tolstoy's War and Peace, Zola's The Debacle is a historical novel in which the facts of the war are very accurately described, and then well-drawn fictional characters are inserted. The story is told with verve through the eyes of two soldiers. The events of the Franco-Prussian War are extremely complex, yet Zola never lets the reader get lost. The story is engrossing and compelling. This is one of the great books of French literature.

To the reader who comes to this review by way of my history of the Tour de France, this book is related to the Tour rather obliquely. Tour founder Henri Desgrange wrote extensively in the sports newspaper L'Auto, which also owned the Tour de France. Desgrange tried to model his own writing style on Zola's.
-Bill McGann, author of "The Story of the Tour de France"


Profound and moving, 03 Sep 2003
Published in 1892, La Debacle (sometimes translated as The Downfall), is the penultimate novel in Zola's great twenty-novel Rougon-Macquart cycle. As each volume is independent, there is no particular merit in reading them in order. Together, they present a comprehensive vista of nineteenth-century France in very much the same way that Sinclair Lewis was to portray American society, a generation later.

If you are new to Zola, I recommend you start with Germinal, the most accessible book in the series and widely acknowledged to be Zola's masterpiece. The Debacle ranks as one of the great war stories of all time. Set in the Franco-Prussian War and its aftermath, the days of the Paris Commune, it is also that rarest of things, a successful political novel.

In this book, Zola demonstrates his characteristic understanding of human nature. In particular, he gives a compelling depiction of the profound intimacy that can develop between comrades-in-arms in time of war.

Although it is marred by Zola's tendency to repeat himself - in all his books, he tends to light on a word or phrase which he flogs to death through the course of the story - and some episodes are slow-paced, it is nonetheless a fine piece of writing. Full of humane wisdom and keen insight, it is a moving and memorable masterpiece.

Zolas masterpiece- Breathtaking., 29 Apr 2003
Breathtaking.

Zolas novels in the Rougon-Macquart series are seminal works of art and La Debacle is the best I`ve read in that series so far. Beautifully written as ever this book is another masterpiece. Zolas` encapsulation of every facet of human emotion is stunning. Everything is here, La Debacle shows you the savagery with which men treat each other during time of war then shows you the love,compassion and comradeship between men of all backgrounds and classes thrown together in the horrors of conflict during Napoleonic times.

The part of the novel which details the futile and murderous charge of the French cavalry towards the Prussian lines and the love which the character Prosper has for his horse Zephir is particularly heartbreaking. A brilliant warning for anyone in todays world who thinks that war is good and glorious.

A very rich tale of war and friendship, 12 Dec 2001
This epic depiction of the 1870 war between the French and the Prussian reveals the multi-faceted talents of Emile Zola: a masterful storyteller and a concerned journalist.

The Debacle follows the daily life, joy and sufferings of two french infantry soldiers caught in the midst of the 1870 war (from its beginning to the Paris Commune). Zola depicts the very moving tale of an unlikely friendship between a well-educated, middle-class private and its corporal, a veteran of Napoleon I wars and former farmer. This fiction story is set in the middle of the historic events of the 1870 war, which Zola describes with historian-like precision. The combat scenes are extremely vivid and graphic and you really go from one page to the other fearing for the lifes of the two heroes. The military hospital scene after the battle of Sedan is one of the best descriptions of the absurdity of war. Some may find the numerous descriptions made by Zola a bit too long, but these descriptions help to give this story its specific "authentic" feel. This book is not a funny tale but it is not without humour, as the portraits of the French officers are quite funny.

All in all it is a very good Zola, more difficult than Germinal or la Bete Humaine, but a great book nonetheless.

Zola's masterpiece, 09 Mar 2008
With l'Assommoir, the best novel by Zola. This story of a young courtisane who breaks all rich men's hearts is a metaphor for the revenge of the working class against the bourgeoisie. Nana avenges the poor in her own way, she never forgets her origins, and that is what will be her downfall, eventually.
I also highly recommend the TV miniseries 'Nana' with Véronique Genest, broadcast in the 80's (available on amazon.fr). You'll agree that generally, film adaptations of novels are disappointing, in that case it's not. The adaptation is brilliant and perfectly captures the novel's atmosphere; the actress Veronique Genest incarnates a wonderful Nana, very faithful to the essence of the character.
But read the novel first!

A female rake's progress, 10 Dec 2001
This is a fantastic book - powerful in its critical exposure of the decadence and moral emptiness of its characters and their environment, as well as of the social and political backdrop in which the novel is set. Nana is a product of the Parisian underclass, and this is the story of her rise from the gutter, how she uses her body to capture the attentions of wealthy, foolish middle-aged men, and how she brings down destruction on all those she entraps and manipulates. It is a highly moral tale, despite the fact that the book initially suffered from the censors of the day. Zola's descriptions of the sleazy Paris theatre house where Nana is first discovered - he always meticulously researched his subjects - are totally convincing and evocative of the era and location. Nana rises and falls, and rises again, she is an embodiment, a symbol of all that Zola found rotten and corrupt in the politics and society of his day. Please buy this book - it is unforgettable - the gruesome final paragraph of the novel will stay in your mind forever.

Girl Power in the 1860s, 14 Sep 1999
No drugs, no rock 'n' roll but plenty of sex. Great entertainment in itself, this book is best read as a sequel to "L'Assommoir" ("Drunkard") whose tragic downtrodden heroine can be said, in a way, to have got her revenge on society through her daughter, Nana. You might say it's a case of the underclass striking back and one wonders how today's acting and modelling scene compares with Second Empire Paris. Someone once said that every woman is sitting on a gold mine and Nana certainly proves it. Trouble is, she also proves the old saying "easy come, easy go". What would have happened if they'd had smallpox jabs in those days?

claustrophobic excellence., 21 Mar 2008
I read this book for an ou course. If it had not been on the list there is no way I could have finished it.
It is so well written that you can see smell and hear everything in it. It scared me and it upset me. I found myself sympathising with violence-not something I am used to.
Would you enjoy this book? no definately not that is the wrong word. Should you read it anyway? definately! it is worth getting out of your comfort zone for. I wanted to give this very few stars for making me angry and for making me cry but it's just written so well. Just because I didn't laugh or enjoy the storyline does not alter the fact that I will forever remember this book it has challenged so many of my ideas.

I don't believe I'll read a better book, 28 May 2007
I love this book. I read it over twenty years ago but the closing chapters, set in the mine, will never leave me. It is brilliant. One of my all time top novels.

One of the best books ever written, 19 Sep 2006
I first read this when I was about 12 years old (in an English translation, I hasten to add) as I had run out of reading matter and came across this book in my grandfather's study.

I am now 62 years of age, but have never forgotten the initial impact this made on me. Somehow Zola's writing is so descriptive and evocative that one feels that one is really there in the suffering and squalor along with the characters. The suffering and social deprivation of those times is quite unbelievable as we look back over 150 years.

I do not know who translated that edition but I have read it in the original French since, where it is even more
moving.

If you haven't read it, please do, you'll be glad you did and, as someone else wrote in review, it could even change your life or, at the very least give you much pause for thought.

Strike another match..., 13 Jan 2006
I read this (for pure pleasure) during my A-Levels and it was so literally unputdownable that I got told off countless times for reading it under the desk while I should have been concentrating on my Maths and Chemistry exam study. I think I ended up in tears with the school counsellor after I finished it. That's what a good book should do to even the most harded cynic.

The plot is quite simple and yet quite complex - Etienne (Stephen) Lantier is a character from the Rougon-Macquart family followed in the series' other books - particularly "L'Assomoir", which is a parallel book, "Nana", which follows the fortunes of his sister, and "La Bete Humaine", which is about his brother. After losing his job in Lille he travels to the mining district nearby in search of work, and falls in with the Maheu family. Fomenting a strike from the embers of an ongoing dispute, Lantier rouses the miners against the bourgeoisie, who, in Zola's characteristically even-handed style, also have their own point of view. To go any further into the plot would be to spoil a good story.

OK, so I read it in the Penguin translation rather than the original (I'd like to try though since I can read French better than I can speak, understand it spoken or write it), but a good translation should get underneath the skin of the author and bring the milieu alive, not only staying faithful to the original but evoking for English readers the sticky, grimy world of Montsou and Le Voreux. I am reading it in Polish translation as well, to see how it reads in a language which is better at capturing magic and mystery rather than the down-to-earth grittiness of English. This edition was also published under the Soviet regime as a piece of "socialist realism" - though Zola would have turned in his grave at some of the small ...changes... that translation has made to some of the incidents.

Great literature should be worth reading for the plot as well as for the language, and Zola succeeds on both counts, taking up the baton from Balzac and Hugo and pushing on towards the modernist literature of Orwell, Sartre and Huxley. Dostoyevsky created the same sort of racy stories in Russia, and both "Crime and Punishment" and "Germinal" are masterpieces of storytelling that don't waste as much time on philosophical rambling as Tolstoy did in "Anna Karenina", in which the plot got lost among a lot of padding.

Although a great period piece, I have seen Zola's stories adapted into other times and places such as wartime London and the Home Counties, and the failed strike could be seen as prophesising the upheavals in recent British politics, with the rise and fall of the fortunes of the Conservative Party as they try to unseat Labour from power. Good literature is always timeless and "Germinal" is one of the books I would recommend to any aspiring politician of any colour, on how to run an effective campaign - or not as the case might be.

Mandatory reading and socially harrowing, 09 Feb 2005
Some classic novels are worthy but a chore; others are great to study academically; fewer combine adept social commentary with genius literary ability and a compelling plot.

This book had a major impact on me when I read it as a teenager - a Realist novel read in my own time to contrast with the Romantic works of Flaubert which I was dealing with for A level. I then returned to it at University - but importantly have subsequently re-read it more than once for pleasure as well as confidently giving it as a present to friends with a ""great read" recommendation.

It is hard to believe that society has changed so much and that we are so ignorant of the massive poverty and social injustice which existed relatively recently in Europe. This epic novel, as with many of Zola's novels, takes you into the startling detail of life in industrial France - with wonderful characterisation, really moving human stories and exciting & distressing plot .

It really has everything - and it may well change your outlook on life . I wholeheartedly recommend this as one of the greats

Excellent, Compelling and Mind Provoking, 28 Oct 2008
Therese Raquin is an amazing book. It depressed, provoked and shocked me to the extent that i literally could not put it down. (Reading till half 4 is a sign of it's ability) The book at first made me feel sad for Therese and her lonely existence, but gradually as the book went along, i slowly started to hate everything about her. This is the opposite for Camille, with me disliking him and his sickly manners but rooting for him and knowing him more at the end. If you havent read this brilliantly writen, classic book, then you have missed out greatly. Therese Raquin is one of those books that have to be read, providing exceptionally good literature and a alternative read.

Disapointing, 25 Feb 2007
This is my first review so bare with me.

I found Zola's writing style very difficult to stomach. He certainly created two characters whose actions were very believable and their consequent reactions realistic. The problem I found was at no point did I care about the characters. While creating this unbearable atmosphere between the characters I too found myself avoiding returning home to the book. I would make excuses to avoid reading it just as Therese and Laurent would avoid coming home.

The ending was extremely disappointing. It just felt as if he ran out of ideas and made for a swift ending. Several of the chapters seemed completely surplus to requirement and added nothing to the story.

As I said, he did create two believable characters whose actions were wholly believable. Zola succeeded in creating an claustrophobic atmosphere. This said I unfortunately do not feel this was enough.
Basically, I'd never read it again and would advise against people reading it. I'll admit I am not a literary genius and so it is possible some of the quality of the writing as eluded me, however, I have to admit I regret following this through to it's conclusion.

R

Brilliant in its simplicty, 21 Jan 2007
A brilliant book which has a simple plot, wonderful characters and the little written dialogue seems to jump off the page at you.

What has made me love this book so much is the way that Zola has writen it so that the reader wants Therese and Laurent to strive and to be in love again because they are right for each other. The reader also does not grieve for the loss of Camille.

I wish to add that if you are a coward with a vivid imagination (like myself) you may find some descriptions of the lovers scaring themselves with images of the dead Camille a little scary.

Highly Enjoyable, 24 Sep 2006
At first glance, the plot seems to be fairly routine, and perhaps a little boring. I thought this to be in the same vein as Chopin's "Awakening" or perhaps even "Moll Flanders". The title and blurb for this book are misleading, seeming to sell this novel as a romance, especially with the description of Laurent as 'earthy' and the 'animal passion' he shares with Therese, and did not immediately appeal to me. This is near-criminal, as it fails to stress the books chilling and pscyhological aspects that make it such an interesting read.

For this is far more than a simple passion/crime novel, but rather an intense, claustrophobic and highly enjoyable insight into the fracturing of two guilt-ridden, egotistical and self-pitying characters, so fully realised and superbly depicted, and shades of both Balzac and Dostoyevsky abound.

This novel might be described as a horror, a moral fable or a tragic romance. Above all of this though, it is a pscyhological thriller, highly symbolic, yet exciting and morbidly appealing in its entirety.

Gritty, stark and grim, 21 Sep 2006
This is a grim little tale of physical lust, crime and guilt set in the seedy world of 19th century Paris. The anti-hero falls in lust with Therese, the wife of his pathetic friend Laurent, and together they conspire to murder him so they can marry (as much for her money as their mutual passion). But the crime comes back to haunt them, quite literally with joint hallucinations of the murdered, drowned man.

Zola takes the new science (at that point) of psychology and applies it here, showing man to be no more than an animal driven by physiological appetites. It's not an edifying view of humanity, and in fact there is little humanity in the book at all, but it's somehow not a depressing read for all that. perhaps Zola's own ghoulish energy lifts it, or the sublime writing? If your French is good enough, then read it in the original, but if not this is an excellent translation.

The Underbelly, 11 Nov 2007
I am an unashamed devotee of Zola, and find very little to fault in any of his novels. This is especially true of the more recent translations which are much easier to read than those by Vizetelly, admittedly written over a hundred years ago. Zola's novels are much more "earthy" and "real" than those by Dickens and Thackery for example, and being much, much shorter and sharper make them, in my opinion, superior pieces of literature. As this is the newest release of a modern translation, as it were, it can receive 5 stars on behalf of all the other Zola works out there.

The Debacle, 17 Jul 2008
In the late 1860s Prussia, led by Kaiser Wilhelm and Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, engaged the French government headed by Napoleon III in heated negotiations over the throne of Spain and the sovereignty of the Low Countries. The dispute grew as France looked for a fight.

France declared war in 1870 but was ill prepared to fight the ensuing Franco-Prussian War. Poorly equipped and incompetently led, the French soldiers were badly used. The result, from the French point of view was a catastrophe. At the battle of Sedan the Prussians captured over 100,000 French troops and Napoleon III himself. France was forced to cede Alsace-Lorraine to the Germans. In the immediate aftermath of the war, a left-wing rebellion erupted in Paris. It was suppressed with brutal rigor.

Like Tolstoy's War and Peace, Zola's The Debacle is a historical novel in which the facts of the war are very accurately described, and then well-drawn fictional characters are inserted. The story is told with verve through the eyes of two soldiers. The events of the Franco-Prussian War are extremely complex, yet Zola never lets the reader get lost. The story is engrossing and compelling. This is one of the great books of French literature.

To the reader who comes to this review by way of my history of the Tour de France, this book is related to the Tour rather obliquely. Tour founder Henri Desgrange wrote extensively in the sports newspaper L'Auto, which also owned the Tour de France. Desgrange tried to model his own writing style on Zola's.
-Bill McGann, author of "The Story of the Tour de France"


Profound and moving, 03 Sep 2003
Published in 1892, La Debacle (sometimes translated as The Downfall), is the penultimate novel in Zola's great twenty-novel Rougon-Macquart cycle. As each volume is independent, there is no particular merit in reading them in order. Together, they present a comprehensive vista of nineteenth-century France in very much the same way that Sinclair Lewis was to portray American society, a generation later.

If you are new to Zola, I recommend you start with Germinal, the most accessible book in the series and widely acknowledged to be Zola's masterpiece. The Debacle ranks as one of the great war stories of all time. Set in the Franco-Prussian War and its aftermath, the days of the Paris Commune, it is also that rarest of things, a successful political novel.

In this book, Zola demonstrates his characteristic understanding of human nature. In particular, he gives a compelling depiction of the profound intimacy that can develop between comrades-in-arms in time of war.

Although it is marred by Zola's tendency to repeat himself - in all his books, he tends to light on a word or phrase which he flogs to death through the course of the story - and some episodes are slow-paced, it is nonetheless a fine piece of writing. Full of humane wisdom and keen insight, it is a moving and memorable masterpiece.

Zolas masterpiece- Breathtaking., 29 Apr 2003
Breathtaking.

Zolas novels in the Rougon-Macquart series are seminal works of art and La Debacle is the best I`ve read in that series so far. Beautifully written as ever this book is another masterpiece. Zolas` encapsulation of every facet of human emotion is stunning. Everything is here, La Debacle shows you the savagery with which men treat each other during time of war then shows you the love,compassion and comradeship between men of all backgrounds and classes thrown together in the horrors of conflict during Napoleonic times.

The part of the novel which details the futile and murderous charge of the French cavalry towards the Prussian lines and the love which the character Prosper has for his horse Zephir is particularly heartbreaking. A brilliant warning for anyone in todays world who thinks that war is good and glorious.

A very rich tale of war and friendship, 12 Dec 2001
This epic depiction of the 1870 war between the French and the Prussian reveals the multi-faceted talents of Emile Zola: a masterful storyteller and a concerned journalist.

The Debacle follows the daily life, joy and sufferings of two french infantry soldiers caught in the midst of the 1870 war (from its beginning to the Paris Commune). Zola depicts the very moving tale of an unlikely friendship between a well-educated, middle-class private and its corporal, a veteran of Napoleon I wars and former farmer. This fiction story is set in the middle of the historic events of the 1870 war, which Zola describes with historian-like precision. The combat scenes are extremely vivid and graphic and you really go from one page to the other fearing for the lifes of the two heroes. The military hospital scene after the battle of Sedan is one of the best descriptions of the absurdity of war. Some may find the numerous descriptions made by Zola a bit too long, but these descriptions help to give this story its specific "authentic" feel. This book is not a funny tale but it is not without humour, as the portraits of the French officers are quite funny.

All in all it is a very good Zola, more difficult than Germinal or la Bete Humaine, but a great book nonetheless.

Second Empire Decadence: Use or be Used, 07 Aug 2007
This new translation by Brian Nelson is excellent. He captures Zola's juxtaposition of intensely detailed descriptive passages with fast moving dialogue. The over wrought, MillsandBoonesque descriptions of hothouse l'amour are great fun. In this novel, sympathetic characters are hard to find. Apparently based on real individuals and events, Zola pulls no punches in his portrayl of greed and lust and how they impact upon the protagonists. The prosaic final two lines of the novel feel like a bucket of cold water dumped over the reader's head.

Best of the early Zolas, 23 Dec 2006
The second novel in Zola's Rougon-Macquart cycle, this is one of his best novels. Written in 1871 and published just after the fall of the Second Empire in France, "The Kill" shows that society at its decadent height. The action takes place in the playgrounds of the fabulously wealthy and tells the story of a woman driven into a scandalous affair by her oblivious husband's utter self-obsession and greed, set against the backdrop of Haussmann's massive redevelopment and the birth of modern Paris. This new translation is excellent, and represents the first new English edition for almost 110 years.

Zola's masterpiece, 09 Mar 2008
With l'Assommoir, the best novel by Zola. This story of a young courtisane who breaks all rich men's hearts is a metaphor for the revenge of the working class against the bourgeoisie. Nana avenges the poor in her own way, she never forgets her origins, and that is what will be her downfall, eventually.
I also highly recommend the TV miniseries 'Nana' with Véronique Genest, broadcast in the 80's (available on amazon.fr). You'll agree that generally, film adaptations of novels are disappointing, in that case it's not. The adaptation is brilliant and perfectly captures the novel's atmosphere; the actress Veronique Genest incarnates a wonderful Nana, very faithful to the essence of the character.
But read the novel first!

A female rake's progress, 10 Dec 2001
This is a fantastic book - powerful in its critical exposure of the decadence and moral emptiness of its characters and their environment, as well as of the social and political backdrop in which the novel is set. Nana is a product of the Parisian underclass, and this is the story of her rise from the gutter, how she uses her body to capture the attentions of wealthy, foolish middle-aged men, and how she brings down destruction on all those she entraps and manipulates. It is a highly moral tale, despite the fact that the book initially suffered from the censors of the day. Zola's descriptions of the sleazy Paris theatre house where Nana is first discovered - he always meticulously researched his subjects - are totally convincing and evocative of the era and location. Nana rises and falls, and rises again, she is an embodiment, a symbol of all that Zola found rotten and corrupt in the politics and society of his day. Please buy this book - it is unforgettable - the gruesome final paragraph of the novel will stay in your mind forever.

Girl Power in the 1860s, 14 Sep 1999
No drugs, no rock 'n' roll but plenty of sex. Great entertainment in itself, this book is best read as a sequel to "L'Assommoir" ("Drunkard") whose tragic downtrodden heroine can be said, in a way, to have got her revenge on society through her daughter, Nana. You might say it's a case of the underclass striking back and one wonders how today's acting and modelling scene compares with Second Empire Paris. Someone once said that every woman is sitting on a gold mine and Nana certainly proves it. Trouble is, she also proves the old saying "easy come, easy go". What would have happened if they'd had smallpox jabs in those days?

claustrophobic excellence., 21 Mar 2008
I read this book for an ou course. If it had not been on the list there is no way I could have finished it.
It is so well written that you can see smell and hear everything in it. It scared me and it upset me. I found myself sympathising with violence-not something I am used to.
Would you enjoy this book? no definately not that is the wrong word. Should you read it anyway? definately! it is worth getting out of your comfort zone for. I wanted to give this very few stars for making me angry and for making me cry but it's just written so well. Just because I didn't laugh or enjoy the storyline does not alter the fact that I will forever remember this book it has challenged so many of my ideas.

I don't believe I'll read a better book, 28 May 2007
I love this book. I read it over twenty years ago but the closing chapters, set in the mine, will never leave me. It is brilliant. One of my all time top novels.

One of the best books ever written, 19 Sep 2006
I first read this when I was about 12 years old (in an English translation, I hasten to add) as I had run out of reading matter and came across this book in my grandfather's study.

I am now 62 years of age, but have never forgotten the initial impact this made on me. Somehow Zola's writing is so descriptive and evocative that one feels that one is really there in the suffering and squalor along with the characters. The suffering and social deprivation of those times is quite unbelievable as we look back over 150 years.

I do not know who translated that edition but I have read it in the original French since, where it is even more
moving.

If you haven't read it, please do, you'll be glad you did and, as someone else wrote in review, it could even change your life or, at the very least give you much pause for thought.

Strike another match..., 13 Jan 2006
I read this (for pure pleasure) during my A-Levels and it was so literally unputdownable that I got told off countless times for reading it under the desk while I should have been concentrating on my Maths and Chemistry exam study. I think I ended up in tears with the school counsellor after I finished it. That's what a good book should do to even the most harded cynic.

The plot is quite simple and yet quite complex - Etienne (Stephen) Lantier is a character from the Rougon-Macquart family followed in the series' other books - particularly "L'Assomoir", which is a parallel book, "Nana", which follows the fortunes of his sister, and "La Bete Humaine", which is about his brother. After losing his job in Lille he travels to the mining district nearby in search of work, and falls in with the Maheu family. Fomenting a strike from the embers of an ongoing dispute, Lantier rouses the miners against the bourgeoisie, who, in Zola's characteristically even-handed style, also have their own point of view. To go any further into the plot would be to spoil a good story.

OK, so I read it in the Penguin translation rather than the original (I'd like to try though since I can read French better than I can speak, understand it spoken or write it), but a good translation should get underneath the skin of the author and bring the milieu alive, not only staying faithful to the original but evoking for English readers the sticky, grimy world of Montsou and Le Voreux. I am reading it in Polish translation as well, to see how it reads in a language which is better at capturing magic and mystery rather than the down-to-earth grittiness of English. This edition was also published under the Soviet regime as a piece of "socialist realism" - though Zola would have turned in his grave at some of the small ...changes... that translation has made to some of the incidents.

Great literature should be worth reading for the plot as well as for the language, and Zola succeeds on both counts, taking up the baton from Balzac and Hugo and pushing on towards the modernist literature of Orwell, Sartre and Huxley. Dostoyevsky created the same sort of racy stories in Russia, and both "Crime and Punishment" and "Germinal" are masterpieces of storytelling that don't waste as much time on philosophical rambling as Tolstoy did in "Anna Karenina", in which the plot got lost among a lot of padding.

Although a great period piece, I have seen Zola's stories adapted into other times and places such as wartime London and the Home Counties, and the failed strike could be seen as prophesising the upheavals in recent British politics, with the rise and fall of the fortunes of the Conservative Party as they try to unseat Labour from power. Good literature is always timeless and "Germinal" is one of the books I would recommend to any aspiring politician of any colour, on how to run an effective campaign - or not as the case might be.

Mandatory reading and socially harrowing, 09 Feb 2005
Some classic novels are worthy but a chore; others are great to study academically; fewer combine adept social commentary with genius literary ability and a compelling plot.

This book had a major impact on me when I read it as a teenager - a Realist novel read in my own time to contrast with the Romantic works of Flaubert which I was dealing with for A level. I then returned to it at University - but importantly have subsequently re-read it more than once for pleasure as well as confidently giving it as a present to friends with a ""great read" recommendation.

It is hard to believe that society has changed so much and that we are so ignorant of the massive poverty and social injustice which existed relatively recently in Europe. This epic novel, as with many of Zola's novels, takes you into the startling detail of life in industrial France - with wonderful characterisation, really moving human stories and exciting & distressing plot .

It really has everything - and it may well change your outlook on life . I wholeheartedly recommend this as one of the greats

Excellent, Compelling and Mind Provoking, 28 Oct 2008
Therese Raquin is an amazing book. It depressed, provoked and shocked me to the extent that i literally could not put it down. (Reading till half 4 is a sign of it's ability) The book at first made me feel sad for Therese and her lonely existence, but gradually as the book went along, i slowly started to hate everything about her. This is the opposite for Camille, with me disliking him and his sickly manners but rooting for him and knowing him more at the end. If you havent read this brilliantly writen, classic book, then you have missed out greatly. Therese Raquin is one of those books that have to be read, providing exceptionally good literature and a alternative read.

Disapointing, 25 Feb 2007
This is my first review so bare with me.

I found Zola's writing style very difficult to stomach. He certainly created two characters whose actions were very believable and their consequent reactions realistic. The problem I found was at no point did I care about the characters. While creating this unbearable atmosphere between the characters I too found myself avoiding returning home to the book. I would make excuses to avoid reading it just as Therese and Laurent would avoid coming home.

The ending was extremely disappointing. It just felt as if he ran out of ideas and made for a swift ending. Several of the chapters seemed completely surplus to requirement and added nothing to the story.

As I said, he did create two believable characters whose actions were wholly believable. Zola succeeded in creating an claustrophobic atmosphere. This said I unfortunately do not feel this was enough.
Basically, I'd never read it again and would advise against people reading it. I'll admit I am not a literary genius and so it is possible some of the quality of the writing as eluded me, however, I have to admit I regret following this through to it's conclusion.

R

Brilliant in its simplicty, 21 Jan 2007
A brilliant book which has a simple plot, wonderful characters and the little written dialogue seems to jump off the page at you.

What has made me love this book so much is the way that Zola has writen it so that the reader wants Therese and Laurent to strive and to be in love again because they are right for each other. The reader also does not grieve for the loss of Camille.

I wish to add that if you are a coward with a vivid imagination (like myself) you may find some descriptions of the lovers scaring themselves with images of the dead Camille a little scary.

Highly Enjoyable, 24 Sep 2006
At first glance, the plot seems to be fairly routine, and perhaps a little boring. I thought this to be in the same vein as Chopin's "Awakening" or perhaps even "Moll Flanders". The title and blurb for this book are misleading, seeming to sell this novel as a romance, especially with the description of Laurent as 'earthy' and the 'animal passion' he shares with Therese, and did not immediately appeal to me. This is near-criminal, as it fails to stress the books chilling and pscyhological aspects that make it such an interesting read.

For this is far more than a simple passion/crime novel, but rather an intense, claustrophobic and highly enjoyable insight into the fracturing of two guilt-ridden, egotistical and self-pitying characters, so fully realised and superbly depicted, and shades of both Balzac and Dostoyevsky abound.

This novel might be described as a horror, a moral fable or a tragic romance. Above all of this though, it is a pscyhological thriller, highly symbolic, yet exciting and morbidly appealing in its entirety.

Gritty, stark and grim, 21 Sep 2006
This is a grim little tale of physical lust, crime and guilt set in the seedy world of 19th century Paris. The anti-hero falls in lust with Therese, the wife of his pathetic friend Laurent, and together they conspire to murder him so they can marry (as much for her money as their mutual passion). But the crime comes back to haunt them, quite literally with joint hallucinations of the murdered, drowned man.

Zola takes the new science (at that point) of psychology and applies it here, showing man to be no more than an animal driven by physiological appetites. It's not an edifying view of humanity, and in fact there is little humanity in the book at all, but it's somehow not a depressing read for all that. perhaps Zola's own ghoulish energy lifts it, or the sublime writing? If your French is good enough, then read it in the original, but if not this is an excellent translation.

The Underbelly, 11 Nov 2007
I am an unashamed devotee of Zola, and find very little to fault in any of his novels. This is especially true of the more recent translations which are much easier to read than those by Vizetelly, admittedly written over a hundred years ago. Zola's novels are much more "earthy" and "real" than those by Dickens and Thackery for example, and being much, much shorter and sharper make them, in my opinion, superior pieces of literature. As this is the newest release of a modern translation, as it were, it can receive 5 stars on behalf of all the other Zola works out there.

The Debacle, 17 Jul 2008
In the late 1860s Prussia, led by Kaiser Wilhelm and Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, engaged the French government headed by Napoleon III in heated negotiations over the throne of Spain and the sovereignty of the Low Countries. The dispute grew as France looked for a fight.

France declared war in 1870 but was ill prepared to fight the ensuing Franco-Prussian War. Poorly equipped and incompetently led, the French soldiers were badly used. The result, from the French point of view was a catastrophe. At the battle of Sedan the Prussians captured over 100,000 French troops and Napoleon III himself. France was forced to cede Alsace-Lorraine to the Germans. In the immediate aftermath of the war, a left-wing rebellion erupted in Paris. It was suppressed with brutal rigor.

Like Tolstoy's War and Peace, Zola's The Debacle is a historical novel in which the facts of the war are very accurately described, and then well-drawn fictional characters are inserted. The story is told with verve through the eyes of two soldiers. The events of the Franco-Prussian War are extremely complex, yet Zola never lets the reader get lost. The story is engrossing and compelling. This is one of the great books of French literature.

To the reader who comes to this review by way of my history of the Tour de France, this book is related to the Tour rather obliquely. Tour founder Henri Desgrange wrote extensively in the sports newspaper L'Auto, which also owned the Tour de France. Desgrange tried to model his own writing style on Zola's.
-Bill McGann, author of "The Story of the Tour de France"


Profound and moving, 03 Sep 2003
Published in 1892, La Debacle (sometimes translated as The Downfall), is the penultimate novel in Zola's great twenty-novel Rougon-Macquart cycle. As each volume is independent, there is no particular merit in reading them in order. Together, they present a comprehensive vista of nineteenth-century France in very much the same way that Sinclair Lewis was to portray American society, a generation later.

If you are new to Zola, I recommend you start with Germinal, the most accessible book in the series and widely acknowledged to be Zola's masterpiece. The Debacle ranks as one of the great war stories of all time. Set in the Franco-Prussian War and its aftermath, the days of the Paris Commune, it is also that rarest of things, a successful political novel.

In this book, Zola demonstrates his characteristic understanding of human nature. In particular, he gives a compelling depiction of the profound intimacy that can develop between comrades-in-arms in time of war.

Although it is marred by Zola's tendency to repeat himself - in all his books, he tends to light on a word or phrase which he flogs to death through the course of the story - and some episodes are slow-paced, it is nonetheless a fine piece of writing. Full of humane wisdom and keen insight, it is a moving and memorable masterpiece.

Zolas masterpiece- Breathtaking., 29 Apr 2003
Breathtaking.

Zolas novels in the Rougon-Macquart series are seminal works of art and La Debacle is the best I`ve read in that series so far. Beautifully written as ever this book is another masterpiece. Zolas` encapsulation of every facet of human emotion is stunning. Everything is here, La Debacle shows you the savagery with which men treat each other during time of war then shows you the love,compassion and comradeship between men of all backgrounds and classes thrown together in the horrors of conflict during Napoleonic times.

The part of the novel which details the futile and murderous charge of the French cavalry towards the Prussian lines and the love which the character Prosper has for his horse Zephir is particularly heartbreaking. A brilliant warning for anyone in todays world who thinks that war is good and glorious.

A