Thérèse Raquin
by Émile Zola 1840–1902
The book, and the century it came out of.
Translated by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly
A young wife, her ailing husband and his friend fall into an affair in a dark shop off a Paris passage. What they do next binds them together far more tightly than the affair did, and the rest of the novel is the two of them unable to leave the room. Zola called it a study of temperaments and refused his characters any comfort. Gaslit passages, riverside mornings and shuttered interiors fill the paintings of this Gilded Library volume, whose decoration is shop counter, cat, skiff and looking glass; Edward Vizetelly’s 1901 preface and afterword are included. Illustrated with 60 full-page plates — paintings by Danvin, Pether and Sörensen among them.
This volume, “Thérèse Raquin,” was Zola’s third book, but it was the one that first gave him notoriety, and made him somebody, as the saying goes.
Thérèse Raquin, by Émile Zola, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.
It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.
- Series
- The Gilded Library
- Format
- Ebook
- Extent
- about 224 pages
- Reading time
- about 4 hours
- Illustrations
- Full-page plates, credited
- Text
- Complete, unabridged
- Translation
- Ernest Alfred Vizetelly
- Language
- en
- This edition
- 2026
- ISBN
- 9785501012592
60 paintings are bound into this edition
Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.
A page from this edition
Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.
Both photographed from the finished volume.
Thérèse Raquin, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the The Gilded Library shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.
Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785501012592, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.
Questions readers ask
- Is this the whole of Thérèse Raquin?
- Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
- What exactly did you change?
- The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Émile Zola's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
- Are the pictures really in the book?
- Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
- How long is it?
- About 224 pages, which is roughly about 4 hours of reading.
- What do I actually get?
- An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
