The trains link the siblings to their old life, and the nearby station becomes something of a utopia, where hierarchies are disrupted and communities unexpectedly constructed. It's an oddly contemporary theme for an Edwardian children's novel. Their mother, a writer struggling to support them, is busy and distracted they miss their father terribly. Mysteriously, the children's father has been taken away and they've been ripped from the comforts of the London suburbs to a shambling cottage. That fleeting ritual of yearning and connection comprises the heart of this 1906 British classic. Just as regularly, an old gentleman waves back. Two girls and a boy wave at a train from an embankment in rural Yorkshire, England, every weekday, wet or fine. Barrie Hardymon, editor, Weekend Edition What's the fun in reading this grisly story, besides the racing plot? It's Zola's exploration of what creates the desire to kill - all experienced from the safety of your own (hopefully) locked cupboard. And we haven't even met the other main character, loosely based on Jack the Ripper, whose most potent love affair is with the train. In just the first chapter a woman confesses to a sexual molestation in her past, is beaten and threatened by her own husband for the sin committed against her, and a plot to murder the molester is concocted. The book, with its high body count, is set against the backdrop of the railway between Paris and Le Havre. La Bete Humaine isn't exactly a sunny read, though - it's an exploration of what kinds of murderous tendencies we've all got locked up in our psychological cupboards and how accessible the keys are. It's part of his 20-volume Les Rougon-Macquart cycle, but don't worry, I've been assured that you don't have to read the other 19 if your beach bag just won't fit them and your sunscreen. Patricia Highsmith and Agatha Christie made well-known use of the train as a confined setting for their thrillers - but a less well-known example is this violent, mesmerizing book from the great French novelist Emile Zola.
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