François Mauriac

From the moment she walks from court having been charged with attempting to poison her husband, to her banishment, escape to Paris, and final years of solitude and waiting, the life of Thérèse Desqueyroux is passionate and tortured. The victim of a hostile fate, Thérèse, as Mauriac said of her ‘belongs to that class of human beings … for whom night can end only when life itself ends. All that is asked of them is that they should not resign themselves to night’s darkness.’ Thérèse’s moving and powerful story affirms the vitality of the human spirit, making her an unforgettable heroine.

Net nichego silnee materinskoj ljubvi, no inogda ona imeet razrushitelnuju silu, potomu chto, kak i ljuboe lekarstvo, v slishkom bolshikh dozakh ona stanovitsja jadom. Felisite Kaznav - voploschenie chrezmernoj zaboty, ona otnositsja k svoemu pjatidesjatiletnemu synu kak k slabomu i glupomu rebenku. Odnako vopreki vole materi on zhenitsja na molodoj sosedke Matilde. Felisite sgoraet ot revnosti i kljanetsja nikogda ne otpuskat syna, poetomu nachinaet nastojaschuju vojnu so svoim istinnym vragom - raschetlivoj nevestkoj. Rajmon Kurrezh vedet rasputnyj obraz zhizni: u nego mnozhestvo ljubovnits, on reguljarno poseschaet bary i nochnye kluby. Dolgie gody muzhchina teshit sebja nadezhdoj, chto esche vstretit na svoem puti Mariju Kross, i vot odnazhdy nochju, nakhodjas v odnom iz svoikh ljubimykh zavedenij, vidit zhenschinu, kotoroj tak zhazhdet otomstit. Blagodarja etoj neozhidannoj vstreche pered chitatelem razvorachivajutsja vospominanija semnadtsatiletnej davnosti, kogda dvoe muzhchin, junosha i ego otets, byli vljubleny v odnu i tu zhe zhenschinu. Ni odin iz nikh ne smog dobitsja ee, i ni odin ne smog zabyt...