Thérèse Raquin in Classics Without All the Class

Apr 09, 2013 Anindyta rated it liked it

“Sometimes people die,” she murmured at last. “Only it is dangerous for those who survive.” - Therese Raquin

I picked this one because I found out that this one is Zola’s first popular book. I already wrote in this blog, I never read anything about him so I want to begin with everyone’s favorite book. Hopefully, I could join this ‘everyone’ and build a good first impression of Zola.

Therese Raquine is a girl or you can say young woman. Therese Raquine is an orphan girl who’s adopted by her aunt, M

“Sometimes people die,” she murmured at last. “Only it is dangerous for those who survive.” - Therese Raquin

I picked this one because I found out that this one is Zola’s first popular book. I already wrote in this blog, I never read anything about him so I want to begin with everyone’s favorite book. Hopefully, I could join this ‘everyone’ and build a good first impression of Zola.

Therese Raquine is a girl or you can say young woman. Therese Raquine is an orphan girl who’s adopted by her aunt, Madame Raquine. I like her name, Therese Raquine. I didn’t know the meaning of the name, but I could feel the name has its own grace but the name has an inner dark, the mysterious scent which makes me curious about this book.

Therese lives with her aunt and her husband, Camille. Actually, Camille is her aunt’s son, so practically she married her cousin. They live in a small house near Seine, in Vernon. Her aunt is a wealthy former mercer and needs space from the working world to search for serenity in this peaceful house. Although her aunt is happy with their situation, Therese and Camille feel the opposite. They want to move to the busier, happier, and merrier town where they can live happily, not quietly like in the village. So when her aunt agrees with them, the three of them leave immediately to Paris. In Paris, they live in a dark arcade, where they open a shop to make a living. This is supposed to make Therese happy, live free and all, but unfortunately Therese isn’t happy. She hates the arcade, she hates the shop, she hates the new companies who always come in Thusrday to play domino, she hates all of it. But the most hated by her is her husband. He disgusts her. Then one day, come Laurent, the old friend of Camille. He is the tall and strong man. Therese and Laurent become a secret couple and kill Camille for their own happiness.

So, this one is a book about murder. Not about how to solve it, but how to live with it. Most part of this book consists about the life after murder. How Therese and Laurent live and hide their sin from people is the main idea. They live their life with despair and haunted from Camille ghost. Maybe some of you call this a ghost story but I think this is funny. Why funny ? Well, this is my first book which I dislike the main characters so much. Dislike here doesn’t mean that I hate these characters so I don’t want to read this book again. No, this dislike is pulling me farther and farther through this book. This is funny to me because I know what exactly will happen to them, but I’m enjoying their messed up life in words by Mr. Zola. They dreamt of a happy life but get a hell instead, that’s funny. Or maybe I can say…this book is ironic.

I can see Mr. Zola is a clever-clever man. He can make these two young killers suffer in his way. I really like this kind of torture, it’s unthinkable for me before. The way he describe the arcade, the way he told the story, it’s…picturesque. Yes, picturesque. I can imagine my own Therese Raquin and his husband running around in the dark shop. I can see my own Therese Raquin film in my head. And his writing is not hard to understand, it’s light enough to read it in one day.

Anyway, I found some things annoying in this book. First is the character. I know this is about murderer and I’m not expecting the characters will be good, humble, and bla bla person. So I’m not complaining about how Mr. Zola made Therese and Laurent so egoist and evil. But you know, I’m not really like how Zola wrote about the friends of Raquin family. He made them like they are really annoying and don’t care at all to anyone except they have something to do with them. Well, you can correct me if I’m wrong in this but I found it so. I can’t help but feeling sad when I found one book full of evil characters. I just believe there is light in everyone’s shadow.

And the second is about money. Why is there always the amount of salary in every character’s introduction? For example, when Camille introduced his friend. Olivier, the head clerk of Prefecture of Police, worth 3,000 francs a year. And Grivet earned 2,100 francs a year. Is it necessary? Did everyone at that time talk about their earnings so openly like that?

Well, I guess it’s time for me to stop this rambling about Therese Raquin. This is my first read by Emile Zola and I guess I’ll give his other book a shot sometimes. I love his wonderful writings. I guess this book taught me how we always afraid by the one who’s far but not aware of the danger in front of our nose. And yeah, it taught me about karma too.

My rating for the book is 3.5 / 5 ...more

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