La Bête humaine

There are many ‘beasts’ in this novel, and you learn about what drives these ‘beasts’ into abuse, murder, and more. The whole novel takes place around a train line, and the Train itself is a character of its own, and the way Zola describes the Train is better than most authors ability to describe their human characters.

“…the train was passing in all its stormy violence, as if it might sweep away everything that lay in its path.”

In the novel, Zola analyzes different kind of ‘beasts’, for example one character, Roubard, kills based on calculation and another, Jacques, kills based on desire.

“Oh! To plunge a knife in like that, to satisfy that distant longing…”

Zola also does a terrific job of mocking English detective novels that seemingly resolve quite perfectly.

I really enjoyed reading this book, and if you enjoy a fun thrilling novel that spends time analyzing these dark themes with fantastic detail and description, pick this up!

Read this if you enjoyed Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky!