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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was not prepared for how crazy this book was. I mean, I'd read how the novel was received when it was first published - putrid pornography! - but I figured it would be like Lady Chatterly's Lover; a lot of fuss over very little. Wrong!
Unfortunately, I was eating lunch when I started reading the chapter about the morgue visit. Oh my! I stopped reading and saved it for later, when I was not at risk for becoming nauseated. I had no idea that was a thing, people viewing dead bodies for fun. Upon reflection, it makes sense. People used to consider viewing executions as a fun way to spend the afternoon. You could visit mental hospitals to laugh at the crazy people. People go on & on about the good ol' days, not understanding how violent and brutal they were, much more so than now.
I did not find the scenes to be pornographic, Zola still writes about them fairly vaguely. However, for the time period, the scenes were amazingly frank. The scene where Laurent is trying to masturbate while thinking about Therese but the image of her rotting murdered husband keeps intruding on his thoughts so he can't orgasm - wow. Of course, Zola never writes the words orgasm or masturbation but the reader knows what is going on.
As a reader, I never felt connected to the characters so it wasn't so upsetting to read about their breakdowns. I felt very much removed emotionally from the action, so to speak. It was a bit like rubbernecking at an accident - shock for shock's sake almost.
I don't like this as much as Nana & The Ladies Paradise, the other Zola I have read, but I am glad I did read this. 19th century French novels are so wildly different than English Victorian era ones. They reveal a much darker, more lurid view of humanity.
52 Books Reading Challenge/#48 Cover with a woman facing away
Popsugar Challenge 2021/ random TBR list
Unfortunately, I was eating lunch when I started reading the chapter about the morgue visit. Oh my! I stopped reading and saved it for later, when I was not at risk for becoming nauseated. I had no idea that was a thing, people viewing dead bodies for fun. Upon reflection, it makes sense. People used to consider viewing executions as a fun way to spend the afternoon. You could visit mental hospitals to laugh at the crazy people. People go on & on about the good ol' days, not understanding how violent and brutal they were, much more so than now.
I did not find the scenes to be pornographic, Zola still writes about them fairly vaguely. However, for the time period, the scenes were amazingly frank. The scene where Laurent is trying to masturbate while thinking about Therese but the image of her rotting murdered husband keeps intruding on his thoughts so he can't orgasm - wow. Of course, Zola never writes the words orgasm or masturbation but the reader knows what is going on.
As a reader, I never felt connected to the characters so it wasn't so upsetting to read about their breakdowns. I felt very much removed emotionally from the action, so to speak. It was a bit like rubbernecking at an accident - shock for shock's sake almost.
I don't like this as much as Nana & The Ladies Paradise, the other Zola I have read, but I am glad I did read this. 19th century French novels are so wildly different than English Victorian era ones. They reveal a much darker, more lurid view of humanity.
52 Books Reading Challenge/#48 Cover with a woman facing away
Popsugar Challenge 2021/ random TBR list
Une fin un peu précipitée... mais c'est Zola après tout!
Billet sur le blogue: http://moncoinlecture.com/therese-raquin-emile-zola/
Billet sur le blogue: http://moncoinlecture.com/therese-raquin-emile-zola/
A great book looking at human temperament and what can happen when certain individuals are put in certain situations. Zola's work is very scientific in his detachment from the idea of humans, as he looks at the characters more as beings or 'organisms'.
Spoiler
So I mostly noted how I think this will turn out as an adaptation, because the book wasn't really holding my interest so much.Notes While Reading:
Camille is sickly. Therese is an orphan, strong but treated the same. She knows how to hide the energy exploding beneath. He is very ego-centric and doesn’t really think about others. I’m thinking Madame Bovary, or maybe more like that Wharton or James one with the sickly wife. Ethan Frome? Therese seems to be completely compliant. She’s kinda crazy and super critical. Laurent wants to do nothing exc be happy & do art. So far this is well-written and not dull. Okay, Laurent’s internal dialogue sounds like…not a human being’s. Also, Elizabeth Olsen isn’t ugly, but I suppose that’s Hollywood. Okay now she’s beautiful; all right then. So that’s a very melodramatic monologue for Olsen, and kinda abruptly thrown in there.
So Olsen will be icily frigid balanced with bursting passion. Well MMMM showed that she could do the first. Okay now here’s another soap-tastic scene.
Here’s Jessica Lange’s scene: crying and breaking down at her beloved’s death; based on Smoldering Children and Afterbirth, shouldn’t be too hard. I guess Olsen’s crying should work well too.
Is Laurent the main character now? Guilty people are boring.
So after she can no longer talk will Lange have most of her baity moments?
Morality tale. Olsen’s crying again.
“Contemplated the opposite houses on which the sun threw sheets of gold.”
“But he will bury us all. People who are at their last breath, never die." – How cynical.
“Developing in him the nerves of a woman, along with keen, delicate sensations.” – Uh wtf? So killing makes you a good artist then? And womanly apparently.
Very limited cast. Okay I cannot see Lange being lead, at all. And while disability is baity, she can’t talk or move.
Thérèse Raquin est la fille qu'auraient pu avoir Mac Beth et Madame Bovary. Son amant, Laurent, est un fantastique modèle de lâcheté, d'amoralité, de paresse (physique et intellectuelle) et de cupidité. Zola, de sa plume aux envolées prodigieuses et à la précision redoutable, décide d'unir ces deux destins pour le pire sans jamais entrevoir le meilleur (existe-t-il seulement ?). Un plongeon dans la culpabilité, dans la question du poids de nos choix-pensées-actes sur nos vies. Glaçant dans toute la narration jusqu'au crash final.