Smiling!

Realising the inappropriate reaction to my second reading of Zola's early duel with murderous passion, I try to look concerned or appalled or just plain disgusted, like his contemporary audience.

In his preface, he complains about the critics hating the novel for all the wrong reasons. A...more

Usually when I review a book I try to allot the stars not by the audiobook's narration but by the author's words and content. With this book I am awarding four stars but it is partially due to Kate Winslet's fantastic narration. She is as you must know a famous actress. I strongly believe I would...more

You don't need another Coca Cola
Or the latest Francis Ford Coppola
You don't need a holiday in Angola
You need this novel by Emile Zola
It's raw like a bad case of ebola
It's atomic like gay enola
Not pretty like a gladiola
Or sweet like a tune from a old victrola
He told the truth like the Ayatollah
He...more

and here i thought thomas hardy was cruel to his characters... this book doesnt take long to turn into slow torture for crimes committed, and it gets darker and more dramatic until it reaches the heights of opera-vengeance. its very tempting as a modern reader to question the characters motivatio...more

This is the kind of book you survive, an obstacle course for masochists , the only people who will truly love it, don't get me wrong a very talented writer in his first important novel shows his skill, but he has a tendency to wallow in misery, giving a reader too many painful scenes. Zola believ...more

You know how it is. Your mother marries you to your sexless cousin and in silent defiance you enter a torrid affair with a peasant painter. All those hours spent humouring the dull man in your dreary shop, waiting for your next animalistic tussle with your fiery lover. Then one day, you realise t...more

تيريز راكان .. قصة خيانة . . . . . التقييم خمس نجوم .

من قلب الواقع يرسم زولا خطوط شخصياته، من وحي الحياة الإجتماعية العادية يخلق شخصياته الموجودة أصلا، ستعرفهم .. و إن لم تعرفهم أكيد ستكون قد سمعت بهم، و إن لم تسمع بهم فهذا مؤكد أنك عرفت أو سمعت عن نماذج قريبة منهم، هذا هو زولا و الإتجاه الطبيعي...more

"The Arcade of the Pont Neuf is not a place for a stroll. You take it to make a short cut, to gain a few minutes. It is traversed by busy people whose sole aim is to go quick and straight before them… The arcade now assumes the aspect of a regular cut-throat alley. Great shadows stretch along the...more

Somewhere within the spectrum occupied by anything from Romeo and Juliet to Tromeo and Juliet, there is a well-trodden path full of whispers, whimpers and piercing screams about the miseries of the love process. Whether you are tragically in love with your enemy's hottie boomdottie tween daughter...more

Introduction, by Adam Thorpe
A Note on the Translation
Acknowledgments

--Thérèse Raquin

Notes