Berk Worms Book Club: 19th Century Classic

Welcome to the Berk Worms Book Club🐛 2025. Each month we all read the same book that we have chosen from a particular genre and then meet to discuss it as well as other books we are reading.

For November 2025, we have chosen to resd a 19th century classic called Therese Raquin by Emile Zola published in 1867. The book was originally written in French and translated into English. The book is approximately 190-200 pages, but it varies, depending on which edition you have.

About the novel: Perhaps his most famous work, Émile Zola's Thérèse Raquin is a dark and gripping story of lust, violence and guilt, set in the gloomy back streets of Paris.

In the claustrophobic atmosphere of a dingy haberdasher's shop on the Passage du Pont-Neuf in Paris, Thérèse Raquin is trapped in a loveless marriage to her sickly cousin, Camille. The numbing tedium of her life is suddenly shattered when she embarks on a turbulent affair with her husband's earthy friend Laurent, but their animal passion for each other soon compels the lovers to commit a crime that will haunt them forever. Thérèse Raquin caused a scandal when it appeared in 1867 and borught its twenty-seven-year-old author a notoriety that followed him throughout his life. Zola's novel is not only an uninhibited portrayal of adultery, madness and ghostly revenge, but also a devastating exploration of the darkest aspects of human existence.

Critical views:

‘By merging elements of the gothic and tragic with a study of petit-bourgeois banality, Zola created a work of enduring fascination.’ Anna Winter, (The Guardian, 2010)

Reading ahead with the BERKWORMS

9 December Is Christmas 🎄 Meal & Celebration🎉 we will also be picking our 2026 genres and we will be discussuing our Sci-Fi pick which is Isaac Asimov’s novel called ‘The End of Eternity!

Happy reading, 🐛Cazza