Eya’s Reviews > La Bête humaine > Status Update

I may have started to enjoy reading classics as much as contemporary books... Reading this book just like reading “Les Liaisons dangereuses by Laclos was far from being a chore. It is so engrossing !!!

The parallels he makes between scenes that are a hundred pages apart are fascinating ! The sequence of events is carefully constructed.

I should not have praised his metaphors because two pages later he wrote “ ils le contemplaient avec des yeux ronds de sauvages accourus sur une côte où des Européens naufrageraient.”. If there is one thing I can't stand about classic literature, it is banalized racism....🫩🫩😤

Émile Zola masterfully uses extended metaphors ! 😲🤩

The psychology behind Séverine and Jacques’s relationship is insanely clever! Their interactions reveal so much about who they really are, deep down, as characters.

😦🫢😦 This is the DARKEST and CRAZIEST book I have ever read in my entier life. Every single man in this novel is disgusting and one of them is UTTERLY UNHINGED. This book was definitely written to make you feel uncomfortable.

Zola writes incredibly well ! In a scene where Séverine is being beaten, he draws a contrast between what is happening inside the apartment and the joyful sounds and atmosphere wafting in from outside (especially from the apartment below). He then describes the station visible from the window, using metaphors and colors that seem to foreshadow a bad omen. He truly created an unsettling atmosphere.