by Émile Zola
Part of Les Rougon-Macquart, book 9
First published 2002
Nana stands on the stage of a Parisian variety theater. The voluptuous blonde lacks any trace of theatrical talent. The audience knows it. She knows it. But Nana possesses something else entirely. Born in the gutters as a washerwoman's daughter, she wields her sensual appeal like a weapon. She climbs from poverty to become the most sought-after courtesan in Parisian society. Men worship her as an idol. Bankers sacrifice their entire fortunes for her attention. Aristocrats abandon their dignity at her feet. Young men take their own lives over her. Nana walks over their broken dreams without a second glance. Her appetite for luxury and excess knows no bounds. She blooms like a flower in a swamp, beautiful and destructive, embodying a civilization in decline.
Genres: fiction, drama, historical-fiction, 20th-century, adult-fiction, 19th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotional
Tropes: rags-to-riches, social-climber
Setting: Paris
Period: 19th-Century
473 pages · Paperback · Berlin Aufbau-Taschenbuch-Verl
Content warnings: explicit-sexual-content