Nana
Emile Zola
14 €
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Coup de coeur
(Fr. Lit), by Amanda
“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.”
The story of the meteoric rise and fall of a notorious courtesan, Nana brings to life a scintillating portrait of the gilded underbelly of 19th century Paris. Both a scandal and a success when published in 1880, Nana is now a must-read of the French literary canon and a great start for those looking for their first Zola novel.
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."
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."
Translated by George Holden
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Binding: Paperback
Publication date: 26 Jul 1973
Dimensions: 196 x 129 x 21 mm
ISBN: 9780140442632
