Therese Raquin is the story of a young woman, unhappily married to her first cousin by an overbearing aunt who at first seem to be well-intentioned but in reality is deeply selfish. Therese's husband, Camille, is feeble and self-absorbed, and when the opportunity arises, Therese enters into a fierce and sordidly ardent affair with one of Camille's friends, Laurent. In his preface, Zola explains that his goal in this novel was to "study temperaments and not characters." Because of this detached and scientific approach, Therese Raquin is considered to be an example of naturalism literature."