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35-538: The naturalistic novel, first published in a daily newspaper (1888–1889), instantly established Couperus as a household name in the Netherlands. It has been in print ever since. In Dutch, there have been about thirty editions until 2010, two adaptations for the theatre and one for film. Composer Alexander Voormolen dedicated his Nocturne for Eline (1957) to the protagonist of the novel. It has been translated into English (twice), into Norwegian and into Urdu. After

70-436: A final embrace, they commit suicide by taking poison supplied by Laurent, all in front of the hate-filled, watchful gaze of Madame Raquin. Throughout the book, there are references to chains, cages, tombs, and pits. These contribute to the impression that Laurent and Thérèse are in a state of remorse and are plagued by guilt. The book mentions how they always claw at the chains that bound them together. The shop that Thérèse owns

105-450: A foreword for its second edition (1868), in a mixture of pride and defiance, he wrote: "Le groupe d'écrivains naturalistes auquel j'ai l'honneur d'appartenir a assez de courage et d'activité pour produire des oeuvres fortes, portant en elles leur défense", which translates as: "The group of naturalist writers I have the honor to belong to have enough courage and activity to produce strong works, carrying within them their defense." Naturalism

140-638: A job. He eventually starts working for the Orléans Railway Company, where he runs into a childhood friend, Laurent. Laurent visits the Raquins and, while painting a portrait of Camille, contemplates an affair with the lonely Thérèse, mostly because he cannot afford prostitutes anymore. It soon becomes a torrid love affair. They meet regularly and secretly in Thérèse's room. After some time, Laurent's boss no longer allows him to leave early, so

175-444: A picture (even a landscape) which does not in some way resemble the dead man. Sickened by this, he gives up art. They must also tend to Madame Raquin, who suffered a stroke after Camille's death. She suffers a second stroke and becomes completely paralyzed (except for her eyes), after which Thérèse and Laurent accidentally reveal the murder in her presence during one of their many arguments. Madame Raquin, previously blissfully happy,

210-402: A reprint in book form in 1868. It gained additional publicity when critic Louis Ulbach (pen name: Ferragus) called Thérèse Raquin "putrid" in a long diatribe for Le Figaro ; Zola capitalized on this for publicity and referred to it in his preface to the second edition. Zola's book provided the clear inspiration for James M. Cain 's 1934 novel The Postman Always Rings Twice , which has

245-476: A review in the newspaper Le Figaro . Thérèse Raquin tells the story of a young woman, unhappily married to her first cousin by an overbearing aunt, who may seem to be well-intentioned 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. In his preface, Zola explains that his goal in this novel

280-420: A scientific method that "went beyond empiricism, beyond the passive and detached observation of phenomena". The application of this method "called for a scientist to conduct controlled experiments that would either prove or disprove hypotheses regarding those phenomena". Zola took this scientific method and argued that naturalism in literature should be like controlled experiments in which the characters function as

315-659: A similar plot. Zola adapted the novel into a play, Thérèse Raquin , first staged in 1873. It was not performed in London until 1891, under the auspices of the Independent Theatre Society , since the Lord Chamberlain's Office refused to license it. Stage productions of Zola's play include: An opera based on the novel was written by the composer Michael Finnissy . Another opera, Thérèse Raquin , by Tobias Picker , opened in 2000. The novel

350-469: A story about a woman who killed her lover, is considered an example of a narrative within the naturalism category. This story, which also used Gothic elements, presented a tale that highlighted the extraordinary and excessive features in human nature and the social environment that influences them. The protagonist, Miss Emily, was forced to lead an isolated life, and that – combined with her mental illness – made insanity her inevitable fate. The environment in

385-470: Is "so ill", Madame Raquin dotes on him to the point of spoiling him, and he is very selfish. Camille and Thérèse grow up side-by-side and Madame Raquin marries them to each other when Thérèse turns 21. Shortly thereafter, Camille decides that the family should move to Paris so he can pursue a career. Thérèse and Madame Raquin set up shop in the Passage du Pont Neuf to support Camille while he searches for

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420-449: Is compared to a tomb, where Thérèse watches corpses walk by in the day. In his preface to the second edition, Zola writes that he intended to "study temperaments and not characters". To his main characters, he assigns various humors according to Galen 's four temperaments : Thérèse is melancholic , Laurent is sanguine, Camille is phlegmatic and Madame is choleric. For Zola, the interactions of these types of personalities could only have

455-542: Is dead, or that it "may have never lived at all: even in the works of Émile Zola", its founder. "In 1900 an obituary entitled "The Passing of Naturalism" in The Outlook officially declared the literary movement deceased", and that Zola's attempt to create a scientific literature was a failure. This certainly was not the first time Zola's novel had been criticized however. After his novel Thérèse Raquin (1867) had been sharply criticized for both contents and language, in

490-737: Is now filled with rage, disgust, and horror. During an evening game of dominoes with friends, Madame Raquin manages to move her finger with an extreme effort of will to trace words on the table: " Thérèse et Laurent ont ...". The complete sentence was intended to be " Thérèse et Laurent ont tué Camille " (Thérèse and Laurent killed Camille). At this point, her strength gives out and the words are interpreted as "Thérèse and Laurent look after me very well". Thérèse and Laurent find life together intolerable. Laurent has started beating Thérèse, something she deliberately provokes to distract her from her life. Thérèse has convinced herself that Madame Raquin has forgiven her and spends hours kissing her and praying at

525-543: The author could discover and analyze the forces, or scientific laws, that influenced behavior, and these included emotion, heredity, and environment. The movement largely traces to the theories of French author Émile Zola . Literary Naturalism traces back most directly to Émile Zola 's "The Experimental Novel" (1880), which details Zola's concept of a naturalistic novel, which traces philosophically to Auguste Comte 's positivism , but also to physiologist Claude Bernard and historian Hippolyte Taine . Comte had proposed

560-477: The central ideas to an era. The European influence critics viewed it in much the same way as Zola. For example, according to theorist Kornelije Kvas , naturalism presents "forms of human experience not spoken of before – the physiological aspect of human behavior, sexuality, poverty – as literary topics worthy of being dealt with." Recent theorists have either re-conceptualized naturalism as a narrative form, or denied its existence entirely. Some say that naturalism

595-419: The dead Camille in their bed every night, preventing them from touching each other and quickly driving them even more insane. They vacillate between trying desperately to rekindle their passion to get rid of the corpse hallucinations (and trying to 'heal' the bite scar) and despising each other. Laurent, previously an untalented artist, is suddenly struck with surprising talent and skill, but he can no longer paint

630-427: The disabled woman's feet. The couple argue almost constantly about Camille and who was responsible for his death, so they exist in an endless waking nightmare. They are being driven to rashly plot to kill each other. At the novel's climax, they're about to kill each other when each realizes the other's plan. They break down sobbing in silent agreement of what they should do next, and reflect on their miserable lives. After

665-515: The drowning was an accident and that the couple actually tried to save Camille. Laurent is still uncertain about whether Camille is truly dead and frequently visits the mortuary, which he persists in although it disturbs him, until he finally finds the dead body there. Thérèse becomes far more nervous and has nightmares; the previously calm and centered Laurent also becomes nervous. Their feelings toward each other are greatly changing, but they still plot to marry without raising suspicion and therefore reap

700-636: The first place, but Eline Vere is an exception: a pleasure we've missed for far too long." This article about an 1880s novel is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . See guidelines for writing about novels . Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page . Naturalism (literature) Naturalism is a literary movement beginning in the late nineteenth century, similar to literary realism in its rejection of Romanticism , but distinct in its embrace of determinism , detachment, scientific objectivism , and social commentary. Literary naturalism emphasizes observation and

735-567: The forms of a class structure based on slavery and social change, together with heredity , represented the forces beyond her control. Th%C3%A9r%C3%A8se Raquin Thérèse Raquin [teʁɛz ʁakɛ̃] is an 1868 novel by French writer Émile Zola , first published in serial form in the literary magazine L'Artiste in 1867. It was Zola's third novel, though the first to earn wide fame. The novel's adultery and murder were considered scandalous and famously described as "putrid" in

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770-454: The lovers must think of something new. Thérèse comes up with the idea of killing Camille, and they become infatuated with the idea of being able to be together permanently while being married. It seems Camille is the only obstacle in this. They eventually drown him during a boat trip, though in defending himself Camille succeeds in biting Laurent on the neck. Madame Raquin is in shock after hearing of her son's disappearance. Everybody believes that

805-737: The most remarkable figure was Vicente Blasco Ibánez ; In Brazil, the main writer of the genre was Aluísio de Azevedo . Naturalism in American literature traces to Frank Norris , whose theories were markedly different from Zola's, particularly to the status of naturalism within the loci of realism and Romanticism; Norris thought of naturalism as being Romantic, and thought Zola as being "a realist of realists". To Link, while American naturalism had trends, its definition had no unified critical consensus. Link's examples include Stephen Crane , Jack London , Theodore Dreiser , and Frank Norris, with William Dean Howells and Henry James being clear markers on

840-468: The other side of the naturalist/realist divide. The center of Crane's naturalism is recognized as " The Open Boat ," which portrayed a naturalistic view of man with his depiction of a group of survivors adrift in a boat. The humans with their creation confronted the sea and the world of nature. In the experiences of these men, Crane articulated the illusion of gods and the realization of the universe's indifference. William Faulkner 's " A Rose for Emily ,"

875-414: The phenomena. Naturalism began as a branch of literary realism , and realism had favored fact, logic, and impersonality over the imaginative, symbolic, and supernatural. Frank Norris , an American journalist and novelist, whose work was predominantly in the naturalist genre, "placed realism, romanticism, and naturalism in a dialectic, in which realism and romanticism were opposing forces", and naturalism

910-543: The publication of the translation by Ina Rilke , the book was reviewed in The Scotsman in 2010: "Couperus is a fine, driving storyteller even when he's off telling fairy stories in some symbolist landscape as in the rather mimsy Psyche . He wrote Eline Vere for serialisation, so it has the energy of the great Victorian novels without the melodrama, something astounding spread over 600 careful pages. ... Rediscovered novels usually make you realise why they were lost in

945-415: The result that plays out in his plot . Also in his preface, Zola calls both Thérèse and Laurent "human brutes" and the characters are often given animal tendencies. Zola would take up this idea again in his La Bête humaine (1890). Thérèse Raquin is generally considered to be Zola's first major work. Upon its release in 1867, Thérèse Raquin was a commercial and artistic success for Zola; this led to

980-430: The rewards of their actions. Thérèse acts very subdued around family and acquaintances and Laurent publicly shows great concern and care for her, so Michaud, one of the family's regular visitors, decides that Thérèse should remarry and her ideal husband should be Laurent. They finally marry but are haunted by the memory of the murder; Laurent's bite scar serves as a constant reminder for them both. They have hallucinations of

1015-461: The scientific method in the fictional portrayal of reality. Naturalism includes detachment, in which the author maintains an impersonal tone and disinterested point of view; determinism, which is defined as the opposite of free will, in which a character's fate has been decided, even predetermined , by impersonal forces of nature beyond human control; and a sense that the universe itself is indifferent to human life. The novel would be an experiment where

1050-789: The title role. Its first professional production was at the Williamstown Theatre Festival on June 30, 1993, directed by Michael Greif, with Lynn Hawley as Thérèse. On July 10, 1994, Michael Greif, in conjunction with La Jolla Playhouse in California, put up the West Coast premiere with Paul Giamatti in the role of Camille. Its professional New York premiere was on October 27, 1997, at the Classic Stage Company , directed by David Esbjornson , with Elizabeth Marvel as Thérèse. The Los Angeles premiere

1085-617: Was a mixture of the two. Norris's idea of naturalism differs from Zola's in that "it does not mention materialistic determinism or any other philosophic idea". Apart from Zola and Norris, there are various literary critics who have their own separate views on the matter. As said by Paul Civello , these critics can be grouped into four broad, and often overlapping, groups: early theorists, history-of-idea critics, European influence critics, and recent theorists. The early theorists saw naturalism thematically and in terms of literary technique. The history-of-idea critics understood it as an expression of

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1120-548: Was directed by Charlie Stratton, with Leslie Hope as Thérèse. A 2014 UK musical, Thérèse Raquin , with music by Craig Adams and book and lyrics by Nona Shepphard, featured Julie Atherton as Thérèse, Tara Hugo as Madame, Jeremy Legat as Camille and Ben Lewis /Greg Barnett as Laurent. After a sold-out run at The Finborough Theatre the Theatre Bench production transferred to Park Theatre in Finsbury Park and

1155-518: Was made into the Broadway musical Thou Shalt Not , with music by Harry Connick Jr. The play The Artificial Jungle by Charles Ludlam was an adaption of the novel, written in the hard-boiled crime style of James M. Cain . Neal Bell adapted the novel into a play under the same title. It was first produced at New York University by Playwrights Horizons Theatre School on December 3, 1991, directed by Edward Elefterion, with Katie Bainbridge as

1190-582: Was to "study temperaments and not characters". Because of this detached and scientific approach, Thérèse Raquin is considered an example of naturalism . Thérèse Raquin was first adapted for the stage as an 1873 play written by Zola himself. It has since then been adapted numerous times as films, TV mini-series, musicals, and an opera, among others. Thérèse Raquin is the daughter of a French sea captain and an Algerian mother. After her mother's death, her father takes her to live with her aunt, Madame Raquin, and Camille, her valetudinarian son. Because her son

1225-526: Was very popular in its time and was known in different literary traditions in Western Europe . In the Netherlands , there was Cooplandt, Couperus , Frederik van Eeden and Marcellus Emants . In Germany , the most important naturalistic writers were Gerhart Hauptmann , Arno Holz and Johannes Schlaf . In Belgium, the most important writers were Cyriel Buysse and Stijn Streuvels . In Spain,

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