Nana (Penguin Classics) by Émile Zola Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Nana (Penguin Classics)
Book Review: Entertaining
Summary: 4 Stars
You don't have to be a scholar of French literature (I'm not) to appreciate Nana. Set in the late 1860's and early 1870's, Zola's novel follows a talentless but beautiful stage actress whose physical charms (which she generously shares with upscale men) make her the talk of Paris. Nana is soon living well beyond the means of the various men who support her; their desire for her inevitably leads to their downfall, while the smiling Nana simply moves on to the next admirer. Zola was apparently saying something about the superficiality and decadence of society (Nana is ultimately doomed, as is the French empire), but from the modern reader's standpoint, the novel works as sort of an entertaining soap opera, a spoof of the upper class, an old school view of the sexual power women wield over men. Above all, it's often very funny. The novel is easy to read and well worth the time.Book Review: Girl Power in the 1860s
Summary: 5 Stars
No drugs, no rock 'n' roll but plenty of sex. Great entertainment in itself, this book is best read as a sequel to "L'Assommoir" whose tragic downtrodden heroine can be said, in a way, to have got her revenge on society through her daughter, Nana. You might say it's a case of the underclass striking back and one wonders how today's acting and modelling scene compares with Second Empire Paris. Someone once said that every woman is sitting on a gold mine and Nana certainly proves it. Trouble is, she also proves the old saying "easy come, easy go". What would have happened if she'd been inoculated against smallpox?Book Review: Hypnotizing
Summary: 5 Stars
Zola is perhaps the best pure writer I've ever read. By this I mean the beauty and flow of his writing independent of all other considerations is unmatched. And this is in translation; he can only be better in the original French. Stunning.
Through the rise and fall of Nana's life Zola offers a beautifully drawn look at the upper and lower classes of Parisian society in the 1870s(?).
I've read 6 or so Zola novels, and this is my favorite so far.
Book Review: It's frightening how dreadfull to read a book can be!
Summary: 1 Stars
This is by far the WORST AND POOREST book I've ever read. Any normal human being (or animal)who has read this book will either become mad and kill himself or throw it from the highest floor of the nearest building after having rippen it to pieces (I also burned it). I have read a lot of books in my life (I read 4 books/week since I'm 9) and this is the only one I've destroied!! It's horrible and I'm now sure that Zola was completely out of his mind!!!Nana is a completely stupid and horrible 18-year old girl who can't do anything else than prostitute herself and destroy others lives and who (God thank you) dies like all her family in the other books. The book is SO BORING!!!!!! You really want to die to stop reading it!!! And it's long..
There doesn't happen anything during the whole book, which is almost 700 pages long!! I read it in French, I hope it's better in English for the poor souls who will have to read it.
Zola is well-known because he writes "well", meaning he uses methaphores and other special constructions, but can you imagine 700 pages full of words you don't understand and complicated structures??!! It's like hell.
The book is a critizism of the Second Empire, politics, and how society works. It's a naturalist novel and heredity is the most important fact. Now we know that all the theory of heredity is false, so this novel is completely out-of-date. I hope you will never have to analyse Nana, because it's almost impossible, I tried!!!! (for school of course).
IF YOU WANT TO LIVE LONG AND HAPPY, DON'T BUY OR READ THIS BOOK!!!!!!!
Book Review: Nana
Summary: 5 Stars
great job sending it right away. I am in the midst of reading it now for my Realism and Impressionism Undergrad Art History course