Nana Quotes

“A ruined man fell from her hands like a ripe fruit, to lie rotting on the ground.”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“All of a sudden, in the good-natured child, the woman stood revealed, a disturbing woman with all the impulsive madness of her sex, opening the gates of the unknown world of desire. Nana was still smiling, but with the deadly smile of a man-eater.”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“The passion for defiling things was inborn in her. It was not enough for her to destroy them, she had to soil them too.”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“She alone was left standing, amid the accumulated riches of her mansion, while a host of men lay stricken at her feet. Like those monsters of ancient times whose fearful domains were covered with skeletons, she rested her feet on human skulls and was surrounded by catastrophes...The fly that had come from the dungheap of the slums, carrying the ferment of social decay, had poisoned all these men simply by alighting on them. It was fitting and just. She had avenged the beggars and outcasts of her world. And while, as it were, her sex rose in a halo of glory and blazed down on her prostrate victims like a rising sun shining down on a field of carnage, she remained as unconscious of her actions as a splendid animal, ignorant of the havoc she had wreaked, and as good-natured as ever.”
― Emile Zola , Nana

“He [Muffat] experienced a sense of pleasure mingled with remorse, the sort of pleasure peculiar to those Catholics whom the fear of hell spurs on to commit sin.”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“In the midst of these fine gentlemen with their great names and their ancient traditions of respectability, the two women sat face to face, exchanging tender glances, triumphant and supreme in the tranquil abuse of their sex, and their open contempt for the male. And the gentlemen applauded them.”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“She [Nana] listened to his [Steiner's] propositions, turning them down every time with a shake of the head and that provocative laughter which is peculiar to full-bodied blondes.”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“On suffoquait, les chevelures s'alourdissaient sur les têtes en sueur. Depuis trois heures qu'on était là, les haleines avaient chauffé l'air d'une odeur humaine. Dans le flamboiement du gaz, les poussières en suspension s'épaississaient, immobiles au-dessous du lustre. La salle entière vacillait, glissait à un vertige, lasse et excitée, prise de ces désirs ensommeillés de minuit qui balbutient au fond des alcôves. Et Nana, en face de ce public pâmé, de ces quinze cents personnes entassées, noyées dans l'affaissement et le détraquement nerveux d'une fin de spectacle, restait victorieuse avec sa chair de marbre, son sexe assez fort pour détruire tout ce monde et n'en être pas entamé.”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“There she stood, by herself, amidst all her treasures, with a whole horde of men grovelling at her feet. Like those dreaded monsters of old whose lairs were littered with bones, she was walking on skulls and surrounded by cataclysms.”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“Satin occupied a couple of rooms which a chemist had furnished for her in order to rescue her from the clutches of the police; but in little over a year she had broken the furniture, knocked in the chairs and dirtied the curtains in such a frenzy of filth and disorder that the two rooms looked as if they were inhabited by a pack of mad cats.”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“The air there was heavy with the somnolence of a party prolonged into the early hours; and a dull light came from the lamps, whose charred wicks glowed red inside their globes. The ladies had reached that vaguely melancholy hour when they felt it necessary to tell each other the story of their lives.”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“Things were definitely going badly. The night looked like ending in disaster. In one corner of the room Maria Blond had started squabbling with Léa de Horn, whom she accused of sleeping with men who weren't really rich.”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“She had not taken her hat off, and she wore a dark dress of an indecisive color midway between puce and goose dripping.”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“The more grievous the sin, the greater the repentance, God was bidding His time.”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“Ce fut une jouissance mêlée de remords, une de ces jouissances de catholique que la peur de l'enfer aiguillonne dans le péché.”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“The ladies had reached that vaguely melancholy hour when they felt it necessary to tell each other their histories.”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“Wasn’t it true that the moment two women were together in the presence of their lovers their first idea was to do one another out of them? It was a law of nature!”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“Foucarmont had twice fought duels, and he was in consequence most politely treated and admitted into every circle.”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“Great disorders lead to great conversions. Providence would have its opportunity.”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“Nevertheless, she was still bitter about her failure. It added to that other bitterness, the lesson Fontan had given her, a shameful lesson for which she held all men responsible. Accordingly, she now declared herself very firm, and quite proof against sudden infatuations, but thoughts of vengance took no hold of her volatile brain. What did maintain a hold on it, in the hours where she was not indignant, was an ever-wakeful lust of expenditure, added to a natural contempt for the man who paid, and to a perpetual passion for consumption and waste, which took pride in the ruin of her lovers.”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“Nevertheless, she was still bitter about her failure. It added to that other bitterness, the lesson Fontan had given her, a shameful lesson for which she held all men responsible. Accordingly, she now declared herself very firm, and quite proof against sudden infatuations, but thoughts of vengance took no hold of her volatile brain. What did maintain a hold on it, in the hours where she was not indignant, was an ever-wakedul lust of expensiture, added to a natural contempt for the man who paid, and to a perpetual passion for consumption and waste, which took pride in the ruin of her lovers.”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“Per un istante, temendo di svenire a quell'odore di donna che ritrovava più caldo, moltiplicato, sotto il soffitto basso, si sedette sul bordo del divano imbottito, tra le due finestre. Ma si rialzò immediatamente, tornò accanto alla toeletta, senza guardare più niente, gli occhi vacui, ripensando a un mazzo di tuberose che una volta era appassito nella sua stanza e l'aveva fatto quasi morire. Le tuberose, quando si decompongono, hanno un odore umano.”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“She had the parchment skin and changeless features peculiar to old maids whom no one ever knew in their younger years.”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“She was listening to his proposals and continually refusing them with shakes of the head and that temptress’s laughter which is peculiar to a voluptuous blonde.”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“At nine o'clock in the evening the body of the house at the Theatres des Varietes was still all but empty. A few individuals, it is true, were sitting quietly waiting in the balcony and stalls, but these were lost, as it were, among the ranges of seats whose coverings of cardinal velvet loomed in the subdued light of the dimly burning luster.”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“Hayır, bazı kusurlar bağışlanamaz... Bir toplumu uçuruma sürükleyen aşırı hoşgörüdür.”
― Emile Zola, Nana

“Kalau kau sendiri tidak senang melakukan sesuatu, itu bukan alasan untuk mencegah orang lain menyukainya.”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“Alors, Nana, tout de suite, entama La Faloise. Il postulait depuis longtemps l'honneur d'être ruiné par elle, afin d'être parfaitement chic.”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“He was a young dandy, and his habiliments, even to his gloves, were entirely yellow.”
― Émile Zola, Nana

“she offered herself to him with that quiet expression which is peculiar to a good-natured courtesan.”
― Émile Zola, Nana