Nana (Penguin Classics) Summary and Reviews

Nana (Penguin Classics)
by Émile Zola

Nana (Penguin Classics)
List Price: $12.00
Our Price: $5.64
You Save: $6.36 (53%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


or

Book Summary Information

Author: Émile Zola
Introduction: George Holden
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1972-09-30
ISBN: 0140442634
Number of pages: 480
Publisher: Penguin Classics

Book Reviews of Nana (Penguin Classics)

Book Review: "Unsurpassable... Straight out of Babylon!"
Summary: 5 Stars

This was my first Zola novel, and I'm glad I started here. Considering that Zola is the French writer famous for advocating a new literary style - which he called naturalism - to address heavy issues such as war ("the Debacle"), labor strife ("Germinal"), murder ("the Beast Within"), I was surprised at the light comic touch in much of "Nana." In the guise of a bedroom farce, this book is a critique of the hedonistic world of late 1860s Paris. At the start of the story, the voluptuous and audacious Nana creates a stir in her theatrical debut as Blond Venus, but it is in her real-life role as Paris' most sought after "high-class tart" that she achieves her greatest fame. A cross-section of male society (everyone from a love-sick teenager to an aged marquis), falls for Nana, and her admirers even bump into each other at the doorway of her boudoir as her busy schedule sometimes creates awkward conflicts. "The bedroom was being made into a public right of way," Zola tells us. Nana's antics often had me chuckling in disbelief at her chutzpah and ruthlessness as she discarded one beau after another (after spending all of their money): "A ruined man dropped through her fingers like a ripe fruit, to rot quietly on the ground, by himself."

But there is a lot more going on than Nana's prurient misadventures. Zola's goal was to create an accurate and comprehensive picture of people and society in "Nana" and in the 19 other novels that comprised his Rougon-Macquart cycle. In doing so, he picked up the torch from his literary forefather Honore de Balzac, who penned a similarly ambitious series he dubbed The Human Comedy more than 30 years earlier. Benefiting from Balzac's model and the advantage of writing at a later period, Zola was able to portray French society with unprecedented frankness and gritty attention to detail. Zola tells the story of Nana through a series of set pieces, each one representing a new phase of her "career." Zola introduces us to the theatre scene of Paris (Nana's actor cohorts are a riot); gatherings of high society in Paris' most upscale salons; a rowdy dinner party hosted by Nana; a high-stakes horse race (in which a horse named in Nana's honor is part of the lineup); we are even shown what may literature's first lesbian pick up bar/restaurant, where Nana meets a prostitute who becomes her only true love.

"Nana," published in 1880, is the ninth book in the Rougon-Macquart series. I enjoyed it so much that I purchased the novels that immediately preceded and followed it, "L'Assommoir" (about Nana's parents) and "Pot-Bouille" (about adultery and other goings on in an apartment building). Zola never bogs down the narrative with excessive background. In fact, all we need to know about Nana's family history is explained to us when she discovers a newspaper article written by a journalist acquaintance. Tellingly enough, Nana doesn't bother to read the snarky article (which informs us that her mother was a laundress and her father a drunk) but assumes it's favorable because of its impressive length.

In his preface to "L'Assommoir" Zola described that story as "morality in action," which pretty much sums up this novel as well. The conclusion is epic in scope, and it absolutely floored me. The great Gustave Flaubert was positively giddy with admiration for "Nana," particularly the ending: "Chapter 14, unsurpassable!... Yes!... Christ Almighty!... Incomparable!... Straight out of Babylon!"

You shouldn't need any higher recommendation to read "Nana" than that!

Classics Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Classics Books
Native son ImageNative son
by Richard Wright
Perennial Library; Published: 1987; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.75
Native Son: And How Bigger Was Born ImageNative Son: And How Bigger Was Born
by Richard Wright
Perennial; Published: 1993-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $60.00
Raphael and the Noble Task ImageRaphael and the Noble Task
by Catherine Salton
Harper; Published: 2000-10-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.49
Price in other shops: $20.00
Island (Perennial Classics) ImageIsland (Perennial Classics)
by Aldous Huxley
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2002-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops: $14.99
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn ImageA Tree Grows in Brooklyn
by Betty Smith
Harper; Published: 2001-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.86
Price in other shops: $23.99
The Great Divorce CD ImageThe Great Divorce CD
by C. S. Lewis
HarperAudio; Published: 2003-11-25; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $13.05
Price in other shops: $22.00
Great Expectations ImageGreat Expectations
by Charles Dickens
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1979-06; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops: $12.10
This Side of Paradise ImageThis Side of Paradise
by Fitzgerald
Scribner Paper Fiction; Published: 1988-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops: $6.95
Black Coffee (Poirot) ImageBlack Coffee (Poirot)
by Agatha Christie
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2002-12-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $68.32
Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1960s) ImageSlouching Towards Bethlehem (1960s)
by Joan Didion
Flamingo; Published: 2001-04-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $22.25
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Le Rouge Et Le Noir ImageLe Rouge Et Le Noir
by Stendhal
Livre De Poche French; Published: 1997-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.03
Price in other shops: $14.95
The Sound and the Fury: The Corrected Text ImageThe Sound and the Fury: The Corrected Text
by William Faulkner
Vintage; Published: 1990-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops: $14.00
The Parisian Prowler: Le spleen de Paris: petits poe`mes en prose ImageThe Parisian Prowler: Le spleen de Paris: petits poe`mes en prose
by Charles Baudelaire
University of Georgia Press; Published: 1997-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.43
Price in other shops: $18.95
Frankenstein (Dover Thrift Editions) ImageFrankenstein (Dover Thrift Editions)
by Mary Shelley
Dover Publications; Dover Publications; Published: 1994-10-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops: $2.00
La Dame Aux Camelias (Classiques de Poche) (French Edition) ImageLa Dame Aux Camelias (Classiques de Poche) (French Edition)
by Alexandre Dumas
Livre De Poche French; Published: 2001-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.94
Price in other shops: $24.95
Against Nature (A Rebours) (Penguin Classics) ImageAgainst Nature (A Rebours) (Penguin Classics)
by Joris-Karl Huysmans
Penguin Classics; Published: 2004-02-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.71
Price in other shops: $16.00
The Waste Land: A Facsimile and Transcript of the Original Drafts Including the Annotations of Ezra Pound ImageThe Waste Land: A Facsimile and Transcript of the Original Drafts Including the Annotations of Ezra Pound
by T. S. Eliot
Mariner Books; Published: 1974-03-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.16
Price in other shops: $25.00
The Jungle: The Uncensored Original Edition ImageThe Jungle: The Uncensored Original Edition
by Upton Sinclair
See Sharp Press; Published: 2003-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.95
Price in other shops: $12.00
The Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Writings (Signet Classics) ImageThe Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Writings (Signet Classics)
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Signet Classics; Published: 2005-07-05; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops: $7.95
Germinal (Penguin Classics) ImageGerminal (Penguin Classics)
by Émile Zola
Penguin Classics; Published: 2004-05-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops: $11.00