"Three years passed in an unchanging sequence of days. Camille never once stayed away from the office; his mother and wife scarcely left the shop. Thérèse, living amidst the damp and gloom in an oppressive, dismal silence, saw life stretching out pointlessly ahead of her, with every evening bringing the same cold bed and every morning the same empty day ahead."
Emile Zola, Thérèse Raquin