The Beast Within

One of Zola’s most dark and violent works—a tense thriller of political corruption and a graphic exploration of the criminal mind

A key work in the Rougon-Macquart cycle, The Beast Within is Emile Zola’s haunting, impressionistic study of a man’s slow corruption by jealousy. Roubaud is consumed by a jealous rage when he discovers a sordid secret about his young wife’s past. The only way he can rest is by forcing her to help him murder the man involved, but there is a witness—Jacques Lantier, a fellow railway employee. Jacques, meanwhile, must contend with his own terrible impulses, for every time he sees a woman he feels the overwhelming desire to kill. In the company of Roubaud’s wife, Severine, he finds peace briefly, yet his feelings for her soon bring disasterous consequences.

Roger Whitehouse’s vivid translation is accompanied by an introduction discussing Zola’s depiction of the railways, politics and the legal system and the influence of the studies of criminology and the Jack the Ripper murders on his novel. This edition also includes a chronology, suggestions for further reading and notes.