Nana (Les Rougon-Macquart, #9) (Penguin Classics)

by Émile Zola, George Holden (Translator)

book data

978 ratings, 3.77 average rating, 74 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		26%
4		34%
3		28%
2		7%
1		2%

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published

September 30th 1972 by Penguin Classics (first published 1880)

details

Paperback, 470 pages

isbn

0140442634 (isbn13: 9780140442632)

description

Nana opens in 1867, the year of the World Fair, when Paris, thronged by a cosmopolitan elite, was a perfect target for Zola's scathing denunciation of…more

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May 11, 2007

Bob rated it:

(review of isbn 22660729)

Read in October, 2007

It started with my admission (principally to myself, though I placed it on my blog, which means principally to myself) that I didn't know the difference between realism and naturalism - still figuring it out, but I think naturalism means you don't have to have a plot.

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Aug 19, 2009

Jason rated it:

Read in August, 2009

I get it--Nana rose from a fetid pile of garbage and alighted arbitrarily on the upper crust of Parisian society, staining it.

I get it--Nana exposed the myriad faces of man's desires, disgracing them.

I get it--Nana digested men wholly and selfishly, wildly prostituting herself.

I get it, but only in the last couple hundred pages. I'm an ardent fan of Emile Zola, especially the 20 part Les Rougan-Macquart series. His writing is powerful. However, the first 200...more

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Jun 03, 2008

Abailart rated it:

(review of isbn 3746611091)

bookshelves: fiction

Read in June, 2008

Joy unlimited. A long, long time ago my kindly Headmaster recommended I broaden my reading prior to university, and gave me Germinal. I read it somewhat dutifully and marked as done, a knowledge of Zola. Now, man years later, I can read at last. And this book that has been staring from my shelf for years has bombed me out. Nana is a carbonated torrent of the most high speed and energetic writing I have come across. Decay, decadence, death, power, class, cruelty, the brilliant equation of the mus...more

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1 comment

Mar 25, 2009

Manny rated it:

(review of isbn 2070423573)

bookshelves: french, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts

Read in January, 2004

You've heard of The Hooker With A Heart Of Gold? Well, this is the other kind.

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

2 comments

Jan 04, 2009

Mandy rated it:

Read in July, 2008

Nana is one of the best characters in literature I believe, since she has all the flaws one looks for in ourselves despite being a courtesan. The book details beautifully the Haussmannisation in Paris and the emergence of prostitution as a result in the 19th century.

It was a fantastic read for me as I had just studied this period in art history and the details were all easy for me to understand.

What makes Nana so appealing is the fact that she goes from being a no one to...more

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May 22, 2009

Helynne rated it:

(review of isbn 1604240350)

Read in July, 1998

This novel was probably a pioneer in the genre of the otherwise intelligent man who becomes pathetically and pathologically obsessed with a mediocre woman (in the vein of Of Human Bondage, Lolita, Damage etc.,) In the film The Life of Emile Zola starring Paul Muni as Zola, an early scene shows young Zola surprised and delighted at the unexpected success of his early novel, Nana. The scene implies that this work is a sympathetic rendering of the life of the typical Parisian prostitute. This...more This novel was probably a pioneer in the genre of the otherwise intelligent man who becomes pathetically and pathologically obsessed with a mediocre woman (in the vein of Of Human Bondage, Lolita, Damage etc.,) In the film The Life of Emile Zola starring Paul Muni as Zola, an early scene shows young Zola surprised and delighted at the unexpected success of his early novel, Nana. The scene implies that this work is a sympathetic rendering of the life of the typical Parisian prostitute. This is not at all the case. (The film then takes a different direction and eventually devotes most of its time to Zola's involvement in the Dreyfus Affair). Nana is not a pitful character. In fact, she is one of the most exasperating female figures in all of literature, in my opinion. Nana starts out as a cabaret singer, and even though she has a voice "like a corn crake," she exudes sufficient sexuality to keep the male crowd coming in and coveting a personal audience with her. When she begins her life as a prostitute, men are literally rushing to ruin themselves for her. The demise of the fortune and character of the once-wealthy Count Muffat as he gives in to every self-indulgent, costly demand Nana makes on him is an awful thing to behold in print. In Chapter 13, Zola's always vivid writing style--even in English translation--is particularly rich as he describes what a selfish money- and gift-grubbing hedonist Nana is. Furthermore, Nana has no respect for anyone who loves her or anything anyone gives her. Every expensive gift falls into tatters and filth in her wake as she seeks the next unfortunate obsessive lover and easy mark to fulfill her next whim. Another reason Nana goes through money with such recklessness is that she habitually indulges her own cravings for sex at Lesbian houses of prostitution. Not surprisingly, Nana will come to an ignominious end before too many years of this lifestyle. No doubt Zola had observed real-life characters like Nana in the cabarets and brothels of 1880s Paris. But one would wonder why he didn't create a character who was more sympathetic or more a victim of the lifestyle into which she was entrapped (as suggested falsely by the Zola bio film). Nevertheless, this is a work that truly lets Zola's amazing talents and writing style shine through.(less)

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Jun 14, 2008

theduckthief rated it:

(review of isbn 3746611091)

Read in July, 2008

recommends it for: people who liked "Lorna Doone"

"Everyone has been harassing me with Nana ever since this morning. I've met over twenty people and it's been nothing but Nana this and Nana that! How should I know anything about her? Do you think I know every girl in Paris? Nana is one of Bordenave's discoveries. She must be something magnificent!" - page 2

The Good:

Nana is the discovery of Bordenave, manager of the Variety Theatre and plays the role of Venus in the operetta "La belle Helene". She does...more

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Mar 22, 2008

Jeff rated it:

(review of isbn 3746611091)

Read in April, 2008

recommended to Jeff by: Ryan Chaffee

zola describe the "philosophical subject" of _nana_ as "a whole society rushing to get sex," and for the first hundred pages the book is exactly that simple in its Second Empire moral muckraking and denunciation of upper-class hypocrisy; the women, regardless of their occupation (though most are idle rich or actresses), are quite literally prostitutes, sleeping with rich men in exchange for gifts, money, estates, etc., while their husbands not only acquiesce but operate as vi...more zola describe the "philosophical subject" of _nana_ as "a whole society rushing to get sex," and for the first hundred pages the book is exactly that simple in its Second Empire moral muckraking and denunciation of upper-class hypocrisy; the women, regardless of their occupation (though most are idle rich or actresses), are quite literally prostitutes, sleeping with rich men in exchange for gifts, money, estates, etc., while their husbands not only acquiesce but operate as virtual pimps, securing their own financial fortunes through their wives' sexual "indiscretions."

while zola would undoubtedly ascribe his characters' behaviors as arising from their temporal and locational millieu (late 19th century paris), it strains the imagination to believe that his "naturalism" precludes any possibility of inherent human traits like loyalty, jealousy or empathy.

once zola has levied his initial moral indictment (or his j'accuse, as the case may be), though, he moves on to subtler territory, infusing the novel with difficult questions of class relations, gender expectations and the role of religion in a hedonistic society. The characters of count muffat and his wife sabine, the mysteriously pious venot and nana herself, particularly, provide nuanced portraits of moral and class struggle in a paris bordering on absolute self-destruction.

set against the backdrop of 1869's paris world fair and the rise and fall of nana as a society figure, the novel also presents a number of stunning set pieces: the reflexive gestures of the theater production _the golden venus_ and fauchery's metaphorical "golden fly" article; the grand prix of paris horse race, which recalls the racing scene in _anna karenina_ (both as a narrative occurrence and a metaphorical reflection on that narrative); the wedding celebration of muffat/sabine's daughter to the low-life daguenet, itself a marker of upper crust decline into moral corruption; the equisitely detailed descriptions of backstage theater life; etc. etc.

there can be no doubt that _nana_ is fundamentally didactic, but zola's righteousness is offset by moments of episodic entertainment sufficient to sustain one's enjoyment throughout. (less)

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1 comment

Feb 24, 2010

J.T. Oldfield added it (review of isbn 3746611091)

From my review:

Nana is the story of a not-so-bright woman who makes it big on the stage, not through any singing or acting ability, but wiggling her divine ass in a shear dress. The men go wild. She is courted by everyone, everyone, and the highest bidder gets to be her boyfriend. Once she’s depleted his resources, she moves on to the next guy. More than one dude actually kills himself over her.

Read the whole review here: http://bibliofreakblog.com/fiction/nana-......more

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Aug 23, 2009

Quinn rated it:

(review of isbn 3746611091)

Read in September, 2009

Zola's eugenic theories--carried through the Rougon-Macquart series--airbrush patriarchy with biology and nowhere is the sheen brighter than in Nana. Rather than the prostitute as symptom of general poverty and gendered legal inequality (women were considered minors under the Code Napoleon) in industrializing Paris, she is taken as the cause of the city's ills. Nana is Zola's aetiology of Second Empire decadence, and the eponymous courtesan is, in his words, the "golden fly" on its s...more

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Nov 18, 2009

Judith rated it:

(review of isbn 3442075955)

I don't know if I gave this book a fair shake because it was so annoying I had to stop reading it after 50 pages or so. All the women were described as "sluts" and "whores". All the men were drooling boors. And the author's tone seemed to be one of a madly gesticulating Frenchman flippantly dismissing various sexual escapades as if to say, "ah yes, sex is so boring. but what else is there to talk about?"

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Feb 10, 2009

Aaron rated it:

Read in February, 2009

Without a bookclub pulling me along, I never would have finished this. It took more than half the book for it to gain momentum and pull me forward, but I ended up enjoying it a lot. Any book that employs the words "scrofulous" and "crapulous" is good for me.

I might recommend a different translation. I found parts of this one too passive-voice.

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Sep 28, 2008

Susanna rated it:

(review of isbn 3746611091)

Read in October, 2008

If you can get past the rampant misogyny and heavy-handed symbolism, Nana is a good book.
The narrative starts out slowly, but builds consistently through a bombardment of scenes of aristocratic depravity. The women here are only after power through their lovers, and Nana tops them all, dragging man after man into the depths of poverty and degradation sheerly through the allure of her sensuality. She drives men mad!! She sleeps with everyone, man and woman alike, young and old, and discard...more

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Dec 27, 2008

Annlikesred rated it:

(review of isbn 3746611091)

I was reading Extras last night and the popular girl's name was Nana and it reminded me of this book. I know it meant something to me 20 years ago, but I can't remember what...other than it reminds me of the store Nana in the Village in NY where my friends worked.

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Aug 28, 2009

Holly rated it:

(review of isbn 3746611091)

Really loved this book (read in French). Zola is another amazing French author who makes French literature so much more acessible. Hope to read all 'Les Rougon-Macquart' books. Nana is an unforgetable character, easily compared to Becky Sharp of "Vanity Fair".

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May 07, 2009

Maureen rated it:

(review of isbn 3746611091)

Read in May, 2009

It took me a little while to get into this book, particularly because I originally found the writing style of Zola and/or his translator a bit tedious, but overall I enjoyed it.

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Mar 22, 2008

Cassiel rated it:

(review of isbn 3746611091)

bookshelves: 2008, classic

My curiosity is now satisfied, and I doubt that I will ever read another book by Zola.

Even given the Victorian era in which the book was written, the obsession with morality is surprising.

As long as he remains an observer and recorder, Zola's writing is impressive; evocative descriptions of 19th century Paris and the people of its underworld. The instant he lets his prejudices show, the writing deteriorates into diatribes about the holy penis vs. the diabolical vagina. ...more

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2 comments

Jun 27, 2009

Cindi is currently reading it (review of isbn 3746611091)

bookshelves: currently-reading

I keep a copy of this book in the original French by my bedstand. Sometimes, I'll read a page or two right before I fall asleep. The progress is slow coming.

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Jan 04, 2009

Pris robichaud rated it:

(review of isbn 3746611091)

Read in January, 2008

Nana is a "realistic" Novel for the studious of the late XIX Century France. Nana the courtesan, is an analogy for the times.

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Feb 23, 2009

Gabrielle rated it:

What Can I say, I love reading Zola's thought provoking novels that are an interesting comment on the times through the lives of common people. This was the second book of Zola's that I read, the first Therese Racquin. This is a bold story about Nana, a prostitute in France in the late 1800's. A true classic.

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