''Madeleine Férat'' is an 1868 novel by the French writer

Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...

. It was Zola's fourth novel, written immediately after ''

Thérèse Raquin ''Thérèse Raquin'' is an 1868 novel by French writer Émile Zola, first published in serial form in the literary magazine ''L'Artiste'' in 1867. It was Zola's third novel, though the first to earn wide fame. The novel's adultery and murder ...

'', which had been Zola's first commercial and artistic success. ''Madeleine Ferat'' deals with a beautiful woman in love with her husband William, but hopelessly attracted to her former lover, Jacques. This obsession leads to the destruction of her life, her marriage, and eventually drives her to suicide, while her husband, for his part, goes insane.

Adaptation

In 1920 it was turned into an Italian

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) ...

, '' Maddalena Ferat'', directed by

Roberto Roberti Vincenzo Leone (24 July 1879 – 10 January 1959), known professionally as Roberto Roberti, was an Italian actor, screenwriter and film director. He made over sixty films, mostly during the silent era. He was married to the actress Bice Valeria ...

and Febo Mari and starring

Francesca Bertini Francesca Bertini (born Elena Seracini Vitiello; 5 January 1892 – 13 October 1985) was an Italian silent film actress. She was one of the most successful silent film stars in the first quarter of the twentieth-century. Biography Born in Pra ...

.Gural & Singer p.208

References

Bibliography

* Anna Gural & Robert Singer. ''Zola and Film: Essays in the Art of Adaptation''. McFarland, 2005. 1868 French novels Novels by Émile Zola French novels adapted into films {{1860s-novel-stub