ThérèseRaquin

Émile Zola THÉRÈSE RAQUIN Translated with an Introduction by Robin Buss Contents Introduction Note on Adaptation and Translation Preface to the Second Edition (1868) THÉRÈSE RAQUIN Notes Chronology Further Reading Follow Penguin THÉRÈSE RAQUIN Émile Zola, born in Paris in 1840, was brought up in Aix-en-Provence in an atmosphere of struggling poverty after the death of his father in 1847. He was educated at the Collège Bourbon at Aix and then at the Lycée Saint-Louis in Paris. After failing the baccalauréat twice and then taking menial clerical employment, he joined the newly founded publishing house Hachette in 1862 and quickly rose to become head of publicity. Having published his first novel in 1865 he left Hachette the following year to become a full-time journalist and writer. Thérèse Raquin appeared in 1867 and caused a scandal, to which he responded with his famous Preface to the novel’s second edition in 1868 in which he laid claim to being a ‘Naturalist’. That same year he began work on a series of novels intended to trace scientifically the effects of heredity and environment in one family: Les Rougon-Macqu......