La Bête humaine
By: Emile Zola ; translated with an introduction by Leonard Tancock.
Series: Penguin classics
Publisher: Penguin Books
Published: 1981
Place of publication: Harmondsworth, Eng; New York
Language: eng; und
Number of pages: 365
Subjects: French fiction -- Translated into English
Work titles: Bête humaine.
Description: On one level a tale of murder, passion, and possession, it is also a compassionate study of individuals derailed by atavistic forces beyond their control. Zola considered this his 'most finely worked' novel, and in it he powerfully evokes life at the end of the Second Empire in France, where society seemed to be hurtling into the future like the new locomotives and railways it was building. While expressing the hope that human nature evolves through education and gradually frees itself of the burden of inherited evil, he is constantly reminding us that under the veneer of technological progress there remains, always, the beast within. This new translation captures Zola's fast-paced yet deliberately dispassionate style, while the introduction and detailed notes place the novel in its social, historical, and literary context.