Thérèse Racquin

Genre: Gothic horror, Naturalism, Psychological

Publisher: Penguin (Classics)

This is the stuff of nightmares. A quick but far from easy read, such is the power of Zola’s narrative which he weaves with classic 19th-century gothic themes: psychological terror and madness; violent power-play; the supernatural; transgressive sexuality. The narrative is suffocating and Thérèse and Laurent’s world ever-shrinking in a claustrophobic study of their atavistic, adulterous and murderous actions. Superb.