Nana

Author: émile Zola
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-07-01
Features: This book is one of the five most famous long novels from Zola's twenty naturalist family saga novels, Les Rougon-Macquart. The novel depicts the rise and fall of a young prostitute, Nana, who is frivolous, extravagant, and lives a short life, painting a vivid picture of the hedonistic and decadent atmosphere of the French upper class during the Second Empire. In terms of creative technique, the novel has surpassed the framework of naturalist theory and reached a masterful level of realism. The book tells the story of an abandoned illegitimate daughter, Nana, who wanders the streets, becomes a streetwalker, and later achieves success on stage, becoming a celebrated star in Parisian arts. However, she is still played with and mistreated, and in the end, she ages and falls ill, dying in poverty and misery.