Nana book cover

Nana is a novel by the French naturalist author Emile Zola. Completed in 1880, Nana is the ninth installment in the 20-volume Les Rougon-Macquart series, which was to tell "The Natural and Social History of a Family under the Second Empire" (Becker 96). Nana book cover This image is a book cover. ... Nana book cover This image is a book cover. ... For other meanings see Naturalism. ... mile Zola (April 2, 1840 - September 29, 1902) was an influential French novelist, the most important example of the literary school of naturalism, and a major figure in the political liberalization of France. ... 1880 (MDCCCLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Les Rougon-Macquart is the collective title given to French novelist Emile Zolas greatest literary achievement, a monumental twenty-novel cycle about the exploits of various members of an extended family during the French Second Empire, from the coup détat of December 1851 which established Napoleon III as... The neutrality of this article is disputed. ...

Nana tells the story of a young prostitute, the novel's titular character, who rises from humble beginnings to single-handedly consuming much of the Parisian elite. Nana first appears in the end of L'Assommoir (1877), another of Zola's Rougon-Macquart series, in which she is portrayed as the daughter of an abusive drunk; in the end, she is living in the streets and just beginning a life of prostitution. Prostitution is the sale of sexual services (typically manual stimulation, oral sex, sexual intercourse, or anal sex) for cash or other kind of return, generally indiscriminately with many persons. ... Parisian is a moderate to upscale U.S. chain of department stores, based in Birmingham, Alabama. ... LAssommoir (1877) is the seventh novel in Emile Zolas twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. ... 1877 (MDCCCLXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...

Nana picks up where this left off. The first scene is a play in which Nana has been cast as the lead; Bordenave, the owner of the theatre, insists on calling it a "bordel," and it fits the scene. Nana is a terrible actor and a terrible singer, but, claims Bordenave, "Nana has something else ... that makes up for everything else" (Zola 6). Just as the crowd is about to dismiss her performance as terrible (which it is), young Georges Hugon shouts: "She's wonderful!" From then on, she owns the crowd, and, when she appears naked in the third act, Zola notes that "Nana was still smiling, but it was the piqued smile of a devourer of men" (Zola 25).

The rest of the novel then catalogues the men she destroys variously: Philippe Hugon, Georges' brother, imprisoned after stealing from the army, his employer, for Nana; Steiner, a wealthy banker who is ruined after hemorrhaging cash for Nana's decadence; Georges Hugon, who was so captivated with her from the beginning that, when he realized he could not have her, stabs himself with scissors in anguish; Vandeuvres, a wealthy owner of horses who burns himself in his barn after Nana ruins him financially; Fauchery, a journalist and publisher who falls for Nana early on, writes a scathing article about her later, and falls for her again and is ruined financially; and Muffat, whose faithfulness to Nana brings him back for humiliation after humiliation until he finds her in bed with his elderly father-in-law. Becker explains: "What emerges from [Nana] is the completeness of Nana's destructive force, brought to a culmination in the thirteenth chapter by a kind of roll call of the victims of her voracity" (118).

Nana was received with outrage in its time, as were most of Zola's novels. And, while it is held up as a fine example of writing, it is not especially true to Zola's touted naturalist philosophy; instead, it is one of the most symbolically complex of his novels, setting it apart from the earthy realism of L'Assommoir or the more brutal realism of La Terre (1887). (However, it was a great deal more realistic than contemporary novels of the demimonde.) Nana's death is made to coincide with the downfall of the Second Empire, and Zola often slips into the sensational to deepen the symbolic downfall of the Empire. LAssommoir (1877) is the seventh novel in Emile Zolas twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. ... La Terre (The Earth) is a novel by Émile Zola, published in 1887. ... 1887 (MDCCCLXXXVII) is a common year starting on Saturday (click on link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. ... The canonical example of Second Empire style is the Opéra Garnier, in which Neo-Baroque meets Neo-Renaissance. ...

Nana is especially noted for the crowd scenes, of which there are many, in which Zola proves himself a master of capturing the incredible variety of people. Whereas in his other novels -- notably Germinal (1885) -- he gives the reader an amazingly complete picture of surroundings and the lives of characters, from the first scene we are to understand that this novel treads new ground. This article is on the book by Emile Zola. ... 1885 (MDCCCLXXXV) is a common year starting on Thursday. ...

Nana became popular, in spite of the opprobrium it garnered.

Edouard Manet, who possibly read drafts of the novel as Zola was writing it, exhibited a painting entitled "Nana," showing a young girl ogled by a wealthy man. This painting was banned from the Salon, but Zola was much taken with it, and it might have influenced his own depiction of Nana in the novel. Édouard Manet (portrait by Nadar) Édouard Manet (January 23, 1832 - April 30, 1883) was a noted French painter. ...

Nana has been widely and excellently translated into English.

Jean Renoir made a film adaptation of Nana in 1926. Additionally, Jean-Luc Godard's film Vivre Sa Vie is heavily influenced by the novel. The film traces an aspiring actress's (also named Nana) descent into prostitution. Jean Renoir Jean Renoir (September 15, 1894 – February 12, 1979), born in the Montmartre Quarter of Paris, France was a film director. ... Jean-Luc Godard. ... Categories: Movie stubs | 1962 films | French films ...

References

• Becker, George J. Master European Realists of the Nineteenth Century. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1982.
• Zola, Émile. Nana. Colette Becker, ed. Paris: Dunod, 1994. Selections translated by Chris St. Pierre (that's me).

External links

• Nana, available freely at Project Gutenberg (French)
• Free etext of Nana in English.