One of Zola's most famous realistic novels, Therese Raquin is a clinically observed, sinister tale of adultery and murder among the lower classes in nineteenth-century Parisian society. Zola's shocking tale dispassionately dissects the motivations of his characters— mere "human beasts," who kill in order to satisfy their lust— and stands as a key manifesto of the French Naturalist movement, of which the author was the founding father.