Therese Raquin is an 1868 novel by French writer ?mile Zola, first published in serial form in the literary magazine L'Artiste in 1867. It was Zola's third novel. Thérèse Raquin tells the story of a young woman, unhappily married to her first cousin by an overbearing aunt, who may seem to be kindhearted but in many ways is deeply selfish. Thérèse's husband, Camille, is sickly and egocentric and when the opportunity arises, Thérèse enters into a turbulent and sordidly passionate affair with one of Camille's friends, Laurent. Despite the widespread fame it gains at her debut, adultery and murder in the novel were considered scandalous and famously described as "putrid" in a review in the newspaper Le Figaro. In his preface, Zola explains that his goal in this novel was to "study temperaments and not characters".Because of this detached and scientific approach, Thérèse Raquin is considered an example of naturalism.
