A review by nighm
Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola

3.0

The criticism that comes to mind immediately as I finished: it could have ended at any time. Most of the book is little more than a downward spiral, and there’s no reason the bottom couldn’t have been reached sooner. It is certainly horror and one wonders if Zola has read Edgar Allen Poe. The novel depicts in a horrifying manner the worst possible effects of sin, and yet there is not enough goodness in the book to make it as awful as it should be, so that one is merely relieved, though not entirely satisfied, when the end comes.