About this book
Overview: Prompted by his theories of heredity and environment, Zola set out to show Nana, "the golden fly", rising out of the underworld to feed on society--a predetermined product of her origins. Nana's latent destructiveness is mirrored in the Empire's, and they reflect each others' disintegration and final collapse in 1890. Built around the book's scientific skeleton is a powerful, sensual atmosphere and a rich use of words which elevate the novel beyond the realistic platform into a "poem of male desires." Part of Zola's famed Rougon-Macquart series of novels, this is the portrait of the scandal of Parisian society--Nana, a goddess of love who ruthlessly uses her sexuality to obtain wealth and to send her ruined lovers to the gutter from which she ascended. A tragic heroine ranking with Anna Karenina and Emma Bovary. Originally published in 1880, this is a new edition.
Les Rougon-Macquart · 20 books
In publication order- 8 Une Page d'amour 1879
- 9 Nana 1880 This book
- 10 Pot-Bouille 1882
- 11 The Ladies' Paradise 1883
Subjects
- african americans
- call-girl
- classic literature
- continental european fiction (fictional works by one author)
- decadent france. cover: detail from nana by edouard manet (1877) in the kunsthalle
- education
- fiction
- fiction, general
- france, fiction
- frans
- french fiction
- french literature
- hamburg.
- illustraties
- litterature française
- manners and customs
- moeurs et coutumes
- prostitue
- prostitutes
- prostitution in fiction
- roman français
- romans
- social conditions
- social life and customs
- translations into english
- young women
- young women in fiction