A gothic tale of murder and adultery, Thérèse Raquin was denounced aspornography on its publication in 1867. "Putrid literature" was howLouis Ulbach described the novel in a contemporary review. Zoladefended himself against these attacks in his preface to the secondedition, in which he outlined his aim to produce a new, "scientific"form of realism. The novel marks a crucial step in Zola's developmentand is a major early work of Naturalism.

In his introduction toThérèse Raquin, Brian Nelson places the novel in its cultural,intellectual and artistic contexts, and compares Zola's scientific aimswith his actual practice in this work. The scientific status ofNaturalist fiction remains problematic; in the final analysis it isinfluenced by literary models and conventions. Zola's powerfulmythopoeic imagination does much to counteract the mechanistic view ofhumanity the novel was intended to embody. The myth of the fall is,indeed, fundamental to Zola's Naturalistic vision.