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  • Thérèse Raquin

  • By: Emile Zola
  • Narrated by: Kate Winslet
  • Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (750 ratings)
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Thérèse Raquin cover art

Thérèse Raquin

By: Emile Zola
Narrated by: Kate Winslet
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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.”

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 listeners say about Thérèse Raquin

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    327
  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
    140
  • 2 Stars
    44
  • 1 Stars
    26
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    446
  • 4 Stars
    130
  • 3 Stars
    48
  • 2 Stars
    21
  • 1 Stars
    5
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    257
  • 4 Stars
    178
  • 3 Stars
    130
  • 2 Stars
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  • 1 Stars
    32

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

gripping and vivid

I've read three of the Zola books before so knew this was going to be gritty and harrowing. As my first audible book though I was blown away at how moving and shocking the narrative is. I gasped out loud several times in horror - Zola certainly knows how to get into ones head with his graphic descriptions of outer desolation and inner torment. Kate Winslet does a tremendous job and really relishes some of his most vivid adjectives - "sanguine, vile, grotesque" to name but a few. Must be riproaring in the original language. Highly recommended and especially as an introduction to Zola who can be heavy going.

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39 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • R
  • 22-06-12

walking companion

Kate Winslet is a very acceptable companion trudging the muddy lanes in an early English 'summer'. Her voice is even and pleasant, and she doesn't attempt the appalling voice caricatures of some readers. Have read criticisms of her French accent, but that's to be picky. Given that Zola's characters lead drab lives - picture Degas' 'Absinthe Drinker' - she manages to bring out the drama in what is a pretty bleak tale. I'd listen to her again, and the 4 stars are for her rendition. I've read the book in French and English and would give the story a 3.

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33 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Well read

Not all actors make good readers (and not all readers make good actors) but Kate Winslet does a fine job with this tale. There are a few occasions where she misplaces the emphasis in a sentence, and her French pronunciation sometimes seems a bit off: her way of pronouncing Camille as an elongated "Cameeeya" sounded odd to my ears. But on the whole this is an elegantly read audiobook of Zola's harrowing novel.



Minus one star because Audible chose to use a Victorian English translation in the public domain, rather than a better, modern translation such as that by Robin Buss for Penguin.

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23 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting

Not my usual thing but its a haunting little tale and beautifully read by KW. It's an interesting look at love and relationships, it took a while for me to get into it and want to listen as I don't think anyone is likeable at all but I eventually intrigued me (along with the language) and is worth a listen.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Dark story, beautifully read

I would have loved to have read the paper version of this book myself but Kate Winslet's reading was the next best thing. The story is mesmerising and the narration drags you into a dark, suffocating atmosphere steadily descending into terrifying madness.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A classic page turner

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

Absolutely, I already have. Brilliant classic story and excellent production.

What other book might you compare Thérèse Raquin to, and why?

Im reading Suskind's Perfume currently and am struck by the similarities of the two.

What does Kate Winslet bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

She's an amazing narrator.

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

Absolutely.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Therese Racquin

Would you listen to Thérèse Raquin again? Why?

There is a new translation by Adam Thorpe that is out that I would like to read. Audible doesn't seem to credit translators but this would be helpful. My next look at the textwill be this translation.

What other book might you compare Thérèse Raquin to, and why?

Not my usual genre. As a story of passion and violence I have trouble thinking of a better one. Someonecompared it to "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (film). Crime and Punishment?

What about Kate Winslet’s performance did you like?

Her lovely diction and crisp vowels. . Wonderful voice to listen to for hours on end.Unimaginative in some spots and she needed to have read it a little more closely in a few places

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It's not ful of laughs. I wondered at Zola's own history with violence in relationshipsas it was so full of pyschological insights as well as what felt like first hand experience. Wild fight scenes of great abuse betweenLaurent and Therese were completely amazing. The ebb and flow of their despair and their need for psychological escape were breathtaking.

Any additional comments?

It is a contemporary book in its message. It will most likely, sadly, never goout of fashion as a study of the limits of human tolerance for dealing with guilt andwith "cognitive dissonance". .

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Therese Raquin

Zola's novel charts the Rake's Progress of the heroine as her actions reap their consequences. Kate Winslet's narration evokes a sense of the excitement and despair, the dank, dark recesses of the shop and the horror and eventual haunting of the principal characters. This audio book deserves it's place on the Audible 100 classics to 'read'.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic

This is a fantastic listen...so dark and grim and painful! I, as with one of the other reviewers, found myself gasping throughout. The narration is perfect. Loved it....

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Do Not Read This If You Are Prone To Depresion!

I have never read/heard such a depressing book in my life. If you are of a depressive persuasion, don’t read it, it will have you cutting your wrists!! If you are not depressed before you read it, you will be by the time you’ve finished it!!
Every character is depressing, the story is depressing, the whole thing is under a cloud. Even Kate Winslet reading it cannot drag it out of the doldrums.
I can understand the concept behind the writing of this book but, really, the Author shouldn’t have bothered.
I like to be entertained by my books....this missed the mark by a million miles!

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4 people found this helpful