Nana
Édouard Manet, Nana, 1877
Author	Émile Zola
Country	France
Language	French
Series	Les Rougon-Macquart
Publication date	1880
Media type	Print (Serial, Hardback & Paperback)
Preceded by	Une Page d'amour
Followed by	Pot-Bouille

Nana is a novel by the French naturalist author Émile Zola. Émile François Zola ( (2 April 1840 &ndash 29 September 1902 was an influential French Writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people Les Rougon-Macquart is the collective title given to French novelist Émile Zola 's twenty-novel cycle Year 1880 ( MDCCCLXXX) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year The term " serial " refers to the intrinsic property of a series &mdash namely its order. A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) is a Book bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with Cloth Paperback, softback, or softcover describe and refer to a Book by the nature of its binding. Une page d'amour is the eighth novel in the Rougon-Macquart series by Émile Zola, set among the Petite bourgeoisie in Second Empire Pot-Bouille is the tenth novel in the Rougon-Macquart series by Émile Zola. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Naturalism is a movement in Theatre, film, and Literature that seeks to replicate a believable everyday reality, as opposed to such Émile François Zola ( (2 April 1840 &ndash 29 September 1902 was an influential French Writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of Completed in 1880, Nana is the ninth installment in the 20-volume Les Rougon-Macquart series, which was to tell "The Natural and Social History of a Family under the Second Empire" (Becker 96). Year 1880 ( MDCCCLXXX) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year Les Rougon-Macquart is the collective title given to French novelist Émile Zola 's twenty-novel cycle The Second French Empire or Second Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870 between the Second

Origins

A year before he started to write Nana, Zola didn't know anything yet about the Variétés. It was Ludovic Halévy who invited him to see an operetta with him on February 15, 1878, took him backstage, and told him innumerable stories about the amorous life of the star (Anna Judic whose ménage à trois would become the model for Rose Mignon, her husband, and Fauchery) and also about famous cocottes such as Blanche d'Antigny, Anna Deslions, Delphine de Lizy, and Hortense Schneider, an amalgam of which was to serve the writer as the basis for his principal character. Ludovic Halévy ( 1 January 1834 - 8 May 1908) was a French Author and Playwright. Anne Marie-Louise Damiens, stage name Anna Judic ( 18 July 1849, Semur-en-Auxois - 15 April 1911, Golfe-Juan) Ménage à trois is the French term describing a relationship or domestic arrangement in which three people share a sexual relationship Blanche d'Antigny ( May 9 1840 - June 30 1874) was a French singer and actress whose fame today rests chiefly on the fact that Hortense Catherine Schneider La Snédèr, (April 30 1833 - May 6 1920 was a French Soprano, the greatest Operetta star of the 19th century particularly

Synopsis

Nana tells the story of Nana Coupeau's rise from streetwalker to high-class cocotte during the last three years of the French Second Empire. The Second French Empire or Second Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870 between the Second Nana first appears in the end of L'Assommoir (1877), another of Zola's Rougon-Macquart series, in which she is portrayed as the daughter of an abusive drunk; in the end, she is living in the streets and just beginning a life of prostitution. L'Assommoir (1877 is the seventh novel in Émile Zola 's twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. Year 1877 ( MDCCCLXXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common

The new novel opens with a night at the Théâtre des Variétés. The Exposition Universelle (1867) has just opened its doors. In 1864 it was decreed by Emperor Napoleon III that an international exposition should be held in Paris in 1867. Nana is 15 years old (the number 18 mentioned in the book is not more than a fig leaf). Zola had taken care to make this clear to his readers by publishing an elaborate family tree of the Rougon-Macquarts in the newspaper Le Bien Public in 1878 when he started writing Nana. Zola describes in detail the performance of La blonde Vénus, a fictional operetta modelled after Offenbach's La belle Hélène, in which Nana is cast as the lead. Operetta is a genre of light Opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter La belle Hélène (" The Beautiful Helen " or " The Fair Helen " Opéra bouffe in three acts is an Operetta by She has never been seen on a stage, but tout Paris is talking about her. When asked to say something about her talents, Bordenave, the manager of the theatre (he calls it the bordel), explains that a star doesn't have to know how to sing or act: Nana has something else, dammit, and something that takes the place of everything else. I scented it out, and it smells damnably strong in her, or else I lost my sense of smell. Just as the crowd is about to dismiss her performance as terrible, young Georges Hugon shouts: "Très chic!" From then on, she owns the audience, and, when she appears only thinly veiled in the third act, Zola writes: 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.

The novel then goes on to show how Nana destroys every man who pursues her: Philippe Hugon, Georges' brother, imprisoned after stealing from the army, his employer, for Nana; Steiner, a wealthy banker who is ruined after hemorrhaging cash for Nana's decadence; Georges Hugon, who was so captivated with her from the beginning that, when he realized he could not have her, stabs himself with scissors in anguish; Vandeuvres, a wealthy owner of horses who burns himself in his barn after Nana ruins him financially; Fauchery, a journalist and publisher who falls for Nana early on, writes a scathing article about her later, and falls for her again and is ruined financially; and Muffat, whose faithfulness to Nana brings him back for humiliation after humiliation until he finds her in bed with his elderly father-in-law. Becker explains: "What emerges from [Nana] is the completeness of Nana's destructive force, brought to a culmination in the thirteenth chapter by a kind of roll call of the victims of her voracity" (118).

When Nana's work is done, Zola has her die a horrible death from smallpox: What lay on the pillow was a charnel house, a heap of pus and blood, a shovelful of putrid flesh. The pustules had invaded the whole face, so that one pock touched the next. While outside her window the crowd is madly chanting To Berlin! To Berlin! (the time is July 1870, after the Ems Dispatch), Venus is decomposing. The Ems Dispatch (Emser Depesche sometimes called the Ems Telegram, is the document that was used by France as a pretext to declare the Franco-Prussian And this is, Zola implies, what is about to happen to the Second Empire.

Reception

Nana Title Page of the original French Edition

The novel was an immediate success. Le Voltaire, the French newspaper that was to publish it in instalments from October 1879 on, had launched a gigantic advertising campaign, raising the curiosity of the reading public to a fever pitch. When Charpentier finally published Nana in book form in February 1880, the first edition of 55'000 copies was sold out in one day. Flaubert and Edmond de Goncourt were full of praise for Nana. Gustave Flaubert (gystaːv flobɛːʁ in French ( December 12, 1821 &ndash May 8, 1880) was a French writer who is counted among Edmond de Goncourt ( May 26, 1822 &ndash July 16, 1896) was a French writer critic book publisher and the founder of the Académie On the other hand, a part of the non-reading public, spurred on by some critics, reacted to the book with outrage. While the novel is held up as a fine example of writing, it is not especially true to Zola's touted naturalist philosophy; instead, it is one of the most symbolically complex of his novels, setting it apart from the earthy "realism" of L'Assommoir or the more brutal "realism" of La Terre (1887). L'Assommoir (1877 is the seventh novel in Émile Zola 's twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. La Terre ( The Earth) is a novel by Émile Zola, published in 1887 Year 1887 ( MDCCCLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common However, it was a great deal more authentic than most contemporary novels about the demimonde. Demimonde was a polite 19th century term that was often used the same way we use the term "mistress" today

Nana is especially noted for the crowd scenes, of which there are many, in which Zola proves himself a master of capturing the incredible variety of people. Whereas in his other novels -- notably Germinal (1885) -- he gives the reader an amazingly complete picture of surroundings and the lives of characters, from the first scene we are to understand that this novel treads new ground. Germinal (1885 is the thirteenth novel in Émile Zola 's twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. Year 1885 ( MDCCCLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common

Flaubert summed up the novel in one perfect sentence:

Nana tourne au mythe, sans cesser d'être réelle. Gustave Flaubert (gystaːv flobɛːʁ in French ( December 12, 1821 &ndash May 8, 1880) was a French writer who is counted among

(Nana turns into myth, without ceasing to be real. )

Filmography

• 1926 Nana, FR, d. Jean Renoir, Nana: Catherine Hessling, Muffat: Werner Krauss
• 1934 Nana, US, d. Jean Renoir (French ʁəˈnwaʁ ( September 15, 1894 – February 12, 1979) born in the Montmartre district of Paris Werner Johannes Krauss ( Krauß in German ( June 23, 1884 – October 20, 1959) was a German film actor Dorothy Arzner, Nana: Anna Sten, Muffat: Lionel Atwill
• 1955 Nana, FR/IT, d. Dorothy Arzner ( January 3, 1897 &ndash October 1, 1979) was a pioneering American Film director. Anna Sten ( December 3, 1908 – November 12, 1993) was a Russian-born actress who became the most famous or rather the most notorious of the Lionel Atwill ( March 1, 1885 – April 22, 1946 was an English stage and film actor born in Croydon, London, England. Christian-Jaque, Nana: Martine Carol, Muffat: Charles Boyer

There are also various French TV series of Nana, as well as half a dozen short movies (silent) that are titled Nana or Nanà. Christian-Jaque ( Christian Maudet) ( September 4, 1904, Paris – July 8, 1994, Boulogne-Billancourt) was a noted Martine Carol ( May 16, 1920 &ndash February 6, 1967) was a French film actress. Charles Boyer (28 August 1899 – 26 August 1978 was a four-time Academy Award -nominated French Actor who starred in a number of classic Hollywood Besides, Nana being a diminutive form of Anna, there are characters named Nana in innumerable movies that have nothing in common with Zola's novel.

• Katherine Schofield played Nana in the 1968 British mini-series. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located
• Véronique Genest played Nana in the 1981 French mini-series. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics.

In 1968 Masterpiece Theatre's mini-series Nana starring Katherine Schofield and airing first on BBC2 and later on PBS was widely praised for its faithfulness to Zola's novel, and for its overall excellence. Masterpiece (formerly known as Masterpiece Theatre) is a drama Anthology television series produced by WGBH Boston. The Public Broadcasting Service ( PBS) is a Non-profit Public broadcasting Television service with 354 member TV stations in the In 1981 a French mini-series starring Véronique Genest as Nana aired in France. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics.

The protagonist of Jean-Luc Godard's 1962 film Vivre Sa Vie (played by his then-wife Anna Karina), was named Nana, presumably in reference to this novel. Jean-Luc Godard (French ʒɑ̃lyk gɔˈdaʀ (born on December 3 1930 is a French and Swiss Filmmaker and one of the founding members of the Nouvelle Vague Vivre sa Vie Film en Douze Tableaux ("To Live One's Life A Film in Twelve Scenes" is a 1962 film directed by Jean-Luc Godard. Anna Karina (born Hanne Karin Blarke Bayer; September 22, 1940) is a Danish -born French Film Actress.

Iconography

• Édouard Manet, who was much taken with the description of the "precociously immoral" Nana in Zola's L'assommoir gave the title "Nana" to his portrait of Henriette Hauser. L'Assommoir (1877 is the seventh novel in Émile Zola 's twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. The painting was rejected by the hanging committee for the Paris Salon of 1877.

• Niki de Saint Phalle, when asked about her own Nanas, is reported to have stressed that it was not an intellectual connection to Zola that she was aiming at, but more a kind of "fusion" with the opulent forms of Rubens. Niki de Saint Phalle, born Catherine-Marie-Agnès Fal de Saint Phalle ( October 29 1930 &ndash May 22, 2002) was a French This in a way ties in with Paulus' description of Blanche d'Antigny, the principal model for Nana: Not a beauty in the classical Greek sense. Blanche d'Antigny ( May 9 1840 - June 30 1874) was a French singer and actress whose fame today rests chiefly on the fact that But what a complexion! What an opulence of forms! A Rubens!!

Miscellany

• Nana became popular, in spite of or, as some say, because of the opprobrium it garnered.

• Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen tells of Anna Coupeau's death at the hands of Edward Hyde, and the subsequent investigation by C. Auguste Dupin of the murder. Alan Moore (born November 18 1953 in Northampton) is an English Writer most famous for his influential work in Comics, including the acclaimed The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a Comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill. Edward Hyde may refer to Edward Hyde 1st Earl of Clarendon (1609-1674 English historian and statesman Edward Hyde 3rd Earl of Clarendon C Auguste Dupin is a fictional Detective created by Edgar Allan Poe.

References

• Becker, George J. Master European Realists of the Nineteenth Century. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co. , 1982.
• Paulus: Mémoires, (online)
• Zola, Émile. Nana. Colette Becker, ed. Paris: Dunod, 1994. Selections translated by Chris St. Pierre.
• Zola, Émile: Nana, translated with an introduction by George Holden, Penguin Classics, London 1972

External links

• Nana, available at Internet Archive. The Internet Archive ( IA) is a Nonprofit organization dedicated to maintaining an on-line Library and archive of Web and Scanned books.
• Nana, available at Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to Digitize, archive and distribute Cultural works (French)