Thérèse Desqueyroux

Thérèse Desqueyroux, a motherless orphan, attempted to poison her husband, Bernard. To preserve family honor, Bernard testifies in her favor in court, and Thérèse is acquitted. As the novel begins, she is on her way to the Argelouse estate, where she must face the man she tried to kill. In one of his most austere works, Mauriac portrays the introspection of a soul seeking forgiveness for her sins, in a coldly unforgiving and rigid bourgeois world that leaves no room for tragic deviations.