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Nana, the daughter of a Paris laundress, steps onto the stage of the Théâtre des Variétés with no voice and no talent and becomes the sensation of the…
Nana, the daughter of a Paris laundress, steps onto the stage of the Théâtre des Variétés with no voice and no talent and becomes the sensation of the season. As a courtesan of the Second Empire she ruins one rich admirer after another, bankers, aristocrats and a devout count, who sacrifice their fortunes and families to her.
Context and significance
Published in 1880 as part of Zola's Rougon-Macquart cycle, Nana is a fierce portrait of a society rotting from within, and it ends in July 1870 as crowds outside shout for war with Prussia, the war that would bring the Empire down. It is a book for adult readers, written with Zola's unflinching realism; see Germinal.
About the author
Émile Zola (1840–1902) grew up in Aix-en-Provence, where his best friend was the future painter Cézanne, and worked as a clerk for a Paris publisher before becoming a journalist and novelist. He planned and wrote a cycle of twenty novels following one family under the Second Empire, including Germinal and Nana.
In 1898 his open letter 'J'accuse...!' defended the wrongly convicted Captain Dreyfus and forced him into exile in England. He died in 1902, poisoned by fumes from a blocked chimney, and his remains were later moved to the Panthéon. Thérèse Raquin was his first success.