Thérèse Desqueyroux by François Mauriac

Thérèse Desqueyroux

François Mauriac

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Thérèse Desqueyroux [teʁɛz deskeʁuːest un livre de François Mauriac paru en 1927. En 1950, ce roman fut inclus dans la liste du Grand prix des Meilleurs romans du demi-siècle. Il a été aussi adapté au cinéma en 1962 par Georges Franju et en 2012 par Claude Miller.

Thérèse Desqueyroux. (2021, May 25). In wikipedia. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9r%C3%A8se_Desqueyroux

Thérèse Desqueyroux (French pronunciation: ​[teʁɛz dɛskɛʁu]) is the most famous novel by François Mauriac. The novel is set in the Landes, a sparsely populated area of south-west France covered largely with pine forests. As it opens, a court case is being dismissed. The main character, the titular Thérèse, has been tried for poisoning her husband Bernard by overdosing him with Fowler's Solution, a medicine containing arsenic. Despite strong evidence against her, including prescriptions she forged, the case has been dropped; the family closed ranks to prevent scandal and Bernard himself testified in her defence. On the journey home, Thérèse reflects at length on her life so far, trying to understand what brought her to continue poisoning her husband after she observed him taking an accidental overdose. She suggests that her actions were part of an "imperceptible slope", caused in part by the pressures of motherhood and marriage and the stifling life of a Catholic landowner's wife in 1920s rural France. However, neither Thérèse nor the narrator provides a clear explanation for her behaviour.

Thérèse Desqueyroux (novel). (2020, April 3). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9r%C3%A8se_Desqueyroux_(novel)

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Suggested by 1 French learners

This is a great psychological thriller and much of the book focuses on Thérèse trying to understand why she tried to kill her husband. It takes place in a mysterious forest in Argelouse and has lots of ominous imagery, so it makes for great intrigue and a fun read as Thérèse tries to come to terms with what she's done.

Noah