Thérèse Raquin

By: Emile Zola

Narrated by: Kate Winslet

Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Once upon a time, a teenaged Kate Winslet (The Reader, Titanic, Revolutionary Road) received a gift that would leave a lasting impression: a copy of Emile Zola’s classic Thérèse Raquin. Six Academy Award nominations and one Best Actress award later, she steps behind the microphone to perform this haunting classic of passion and disaster.

Thérèse Raquin is the story of a young woman forced into an unhappy marriage to her dull, sickly cousin and smothered by her overbearing aunt. When her husband’s childhood friend enters her life, it leads to a torrid affair that sets her spirit free for the first time, but with shattering consequences. Steeped in the atmosphere of 19th-century France and with a darkly rich foreboding, it is a story that brings out the best of its narrator’s incomparable talents.

“It is challenging, and it’s a heck of a lot of fun as well”, said Ms. Winslet of the recording experience. "As a listener, being able to tune out and be taken into another world, an atmosphere, an environment that is being created entirely for you by somebody else’s voice is really a wonderful, magical thing.”

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Public Domain (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Kate Winslet reads as though she is relishing every morsel of the drama…She clearly loves the book, and her pleasure in the text is infectious…she grabs listeners and doesn’t let go.” (AudioFile)

What Did I Do to Deserve this Suffering?

I have rated this with 3 in two categories to prevent an overinflated total score. Listening to this book was torture, not because it was poorly written but because the characters suffer through hell and I suffered right along with them. At one point I caught myself saying aloud, "But what have I done to deserve all this suffering?" If you want to become immersed in their story and have the stomach for what on paper must be about 100 pages of agony, I can recommend this book. It appears that Zola was very concerned with making his morality tale compelling, assuring that those who have sinned do not experience one positive effect from that sin.
Kate Winslet's performance is masterful, however. She captures the personalities, emotions, the tone of the scenes and settings flawlessly.

Kate Could Have Picked a Better Book

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No, there is nothing exceptional about it to recommend, unless the friend is contemplating an immoral act and needs to be cautioned.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Laurent, I guess. None of the characters are meant to be likable, but Laurent is the best villan. He's a little comic, and the most developed.

What three words best describe Kate Winslet’s voice?

attractive, pretentious, versatile

Could you see Thérèse Raquin being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No, I don't think this is a timeless story. I can't see it being made into a successful modern movie or miniseries.

Any additional comments?

Kate Winslet did an excellent job with the dialogue parts, but this was not a dialogue heavy book. Maybe Zola's prose style doesn't lend well to audiobooks, but I did find most of the narration tiresome. It's not a bad book, it's just that there are so many better ones. The plot was good. If you want a book about guilt, this is probably a good choice.

Outstanding. Compelling. Seriously black...

If you could sum up Thérèse Raquin in three words, what would they be?

A bleak existential nightmare comes to life through Winslet's appreciation for the work and beautiful reading.
The story is a cross between Albert Camus' The Stranger and Edgar Allen Poe's Tell-tale Heart with a bit of Stephen King thrown in!
Definitely worth the ride though. A great experience...

Sinister story which steadily builds suspense

Would you listen to Thérèse Raquin again? Why?

This is not a story for the faint hearted. It is a dark and sinister story that steadily builds suspense right up to a dramatic end. The reading by Kate suits the story perfectly. Apart from a slow start it held my attention all the way to the end.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I listen to ebooks while commuting in the car. I found myself sitting in the car in the car park after arriving at work listening to the story. Eventually I dragged myself away.

Powerful story & flawless narration

What did you love best about Thérèse Raquin?

The story itself was quite powerful, but Kate Winslet's narration made it superb. She has a voice of pure silk

What did you like best about this story?

The anguish experienced by the characters following the murder

Which character – as performed by Kate Winslet – was your favorite?

I thought they were all great

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Definitely

Any additional comments?

Please bring on more A-list narrators. I love old classic books and this is such a wonderful way to experience them.

Kate shines and saves this book

This is one of those rare audiobooks where the performance and audio quality add another star to the review. The story starts out romantic, turns to horror, then languishes in abuse and mental sickness. Even though the story drags on a bit in the final chapters, the reader keeps the listener engaged.

Wow.An experience you will never forget.

Would you consider the audio edition of Thérèse Raquin to be better than the print version?

Without doubt the audio version is riveting in a way the book could not be, by virtue of the fearless, unforgettable performance of a world-class actress in your ear.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The central characters of Therese and Laurent are fascinating like a train wreck, but the character of Madame Raquin, the mother of Camille, is the most haunting, ultimately.

Which character – as performed by Kate Winslet – was your favorite?

Kate Winslet's modulation of voice to stamp each character with life is astonishing. My favorite was the harsh, cynical tone she gave the murderer Laurent. Chilling. Spot on. Brilliant!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Not possible to hear in one sitting. Too terrifying! But good enough to try.

Any additional comments?

I originally chose this not knowing a thing about it, a classic title I didn't recognize. Now it is one of the most powerful novels I have ever come across. And much of the credit, aside from Zola, of course, goes to Kate Winslet, simply one of the greatest actresses of our time.

Great

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Kate winslet has a great voice and a brilliant performance

Who was your favorite character and why?

therese

Which character – as performed by Kate Winslet – was your favorite?

Laurant

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Madame Raquin, paralyzed who has to listen to the murderer's confessions without being able to speak a world, nor to cry, or make a move.

Kate Winslet Reads Proto-Noir (spoilers)

This novel was perhaps the first to show adulterous lovers killing an inconvenient husband. As such, it was one of the first psychological thrillers and arguably one of the first noir novels.

To enjoy a psychological thriller, I have to believe the psychology and be thrilled by it. I had trouble doing either. I began reading / listening to this as a literary work, prepared to learn serious things about the human condition while admiring the author's literary skills. Since this was an English translation of a French novel, I didn't expect that much of whatever Zola's style was to survive. I was impressed by what did come through translation. I admired the author's eye for details and his ability to build characters, settings, and scenes out of them. He outdid himself in his description of the tomb-like shop where most of the action takes place. I could see it, smell it, feel it, fear it. I also admired his set pieces: the boring, maddening domino games; Laurent looking for his victim in the morgue; Laurent and Therese unable to consummate their marriage on their wedding night because of the corpse in the room; Therese begging forgiveness of the dead man's mute paralyzed mother, while said mother wished for her death.

At first, I couldn't find his psychological insights revealing because he revealed them in 1868 and since then talented writers such as James M. Cain, along with many, many hacks, have used them over and over again until they became commonplace. I became interested after the murder because Zola tried something that hasn't been imitated so much. He didn't make Laurent and Therese good people regretting an evil choice, as Dostoyevsky and Dreiser and Cain did, and he didn't make them the remorseless psychopaths that are featured in television crime documentaries. He made them bad people who were capable of regret and especially fear if not remorse or repentance. Unfortunately, Zola wrecked the novel's credibility by having the killers' crack-up caused by a shared hallucination, the presence of the murdered man's ghost, appearing as a corpse. As I mentioned, I enjoyed the ghost’s appearance as a set piece, as I enjoyed watching Zola put his villains though every kind of moral degradation he could think of, but I enjoyed it as I would a horror novel or a pulp thriller, not as a classic of world literature. When Zola ended their lives in a very melodramatic finale, I chuckled and shook my head instead of weeping.

Kate Winslet read this novel in the tone that I would have imagined Zola using: detached and disgusted. She brought the characters, male and female, to life in their short bursts of dialogue: angry, unhinged Therese; loud, brutish Laurent; the fools who played dominoes.

I love Zola but this becomes overwrought

Gréât first half but too much 19th century melodrama! In the vein of spirituality that overcame 18th century middle and upper classe