人面兽心 (1890)

《人面兽心》（法语：La Bête humaine，又译《衣冠禽兽》）是法国写实主义作家左拉的《卢贡-马卡尔家族》系列第十七部作品，发表于1890年，描写法国西方铁路员工的生活。主人翁铁路工人雅克·朗蒂埃（Jacques Lantier）因自己的父祖辈酗酒，在他血管中流淌著是腐烂的血，他老是怀疑自己患有遗传性的精神病，总是精神恍惚，做出一些奇怪的事。一次偶然的旅途中，侯保（Roubaud）在火车上杀了妻子萨维丽娜（Séverine）的情人——教父（Grandmorin），在返回自己车箱的途中，正巧被朗蒂埃撞见。但在案发后警察着手调查时，朗蒂埃隐瞒了这件事，并且一再为他们开脱，使得侯保夫妇有不在场证明。侯保夫妇和他成为了朋友，朗蒂埃更爱上了萨维丽娜。后来，朗蒂埃和侯保妻子的关系越来越密切，萨维丽娜要他杀了侯保以证明他是爱她的，朗蒂埃却不敢下手，萨维丽娜决定疏远他。朗蒂埃再见到她时，要重新争取对她的爱，不料他得知萨维丽娜有了新欢。在一次舞会后癫痫症发作，他把萨维丽娜掐死了。第二天早上，朗蒂埃本人从飞驰的火车上跳下山坡自杀。

La Bête humaine (English: The Beast Within or The Beast in Man or The Monomaniac) is an 1890 novel by Émile Zola. It is the seventeenth book in Zola's Les Rougon-Macquart series. The story focuses on the lives and violent passions of railway workers who operate the line between Paris and Le Havre in the late 1860s. The novel is a tense psychological thriller and has been adapted multiple times for radio, television, and film.

Characters

Jacques Lantier: an engine driver who is the family link to the Les Rougon-Macquart series. He is the son of Gervaise Macquart (L'Assommoir), brother of Étienne Lantier (Germinal) and Claude Lantier (L'Œuvre), and half-brother of the eponymous Nana.

Roubaud: deputy stationmaster at Le Havre

Séverine: Roubaud's wife

Judge Grandmorin: a prominent wealthy man – former director of the railway company and judge in the French judicial system – and a notorious womanizer

Phasie: Lantier's sickly aunt who lives in an isolated house by the railway line outside Paris

Flore: a railway employee, and Phasie's daughter, who is infatuated with Lantier

Cabuche: a forestry worker who lives near Phasie

Pecqueux: the fireman on Lantier's train

Plot summary

During a train layover in Paris, Roubaud comes to suspect that his wife Séverine had an affair years ago with Judge Grandmorin, her patron when she was an orphaned teenager. Roubaud forces a confession from her about being seduced by Grandmorin. In a jealous rage, Roubaud makes her write a note to the judge, asking for a rendezvous on that evening's express from Paris. It is the same train that Roubaud and Séverine are taking back to Le Havre.

Lantier is afflicted with hereditary madness that causes his sexual desires to turn into fits of violence against women. His relationship to his engine, which he affectionately dubs "La Lison", provides him some relief. While staying in Paris to have "Lison" repaired, he visits his Aunt Phasie. When he encounters her daughter Flore, his passions are inflamed and trigger his homicidal mania. He feels on the verge of stabbing her, but restrains himself and runs away. Standing near the railway line, Lantier observes the express from Paris go by. Through a passing window, he glimpses a man holding a knife, bent over another man. Lantier later finds Grandmorin's body beside the track with his throat cut.

Roubaud and Séverine are suspects since they were on the train with Grandmorin and will inherit some of his property. Lantier sees Roubaud at the police station and privately thinks that he resembles the man with the knife, but when questioned by the police says he cannot positively identify the murderer. The magistrate, pursuing a false lead against Cabuche, dismisses Roubaud and Séverine. Even though they have been cleared of the crime, their marriage becomes strained. They hide the cash and watch they stole from Grandmorin under a floorboard in their apartment. As "insurance" against a change in Lantier's eyewitness testimony, Roubaud cultivates a friendship with the engine driver and encourages his wife to do so.

Séverine and Lantier begin an affair, at first clandestinely but then more openly until they are caught by Roubaud. Despite his previous jealousy, Roubaud seems unmoved; he spends less time at home and turns to gambling.

One night, Séverine admits to Lantier that Roubaud murdered Grandmorin, and she assisted. Lantier feels the return of his own urge to kill. The next morning, he leaves the apartment to kill the first woman he meets. After choosing a victim, he is seen by someone he knows and abandons the idea. He is relieved and hopes his murderous inclinations will plague him no longer.