[Pocket Edition] World Literature Masterpieces Library - Nana

Author: (French) émile Zola
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-11-01
Features: Nana is a significant work by the renowned 19th-century French writer émile Zola, created between 1871 and 1893. It is part of the world-famous Lourdes-Macquart series, a collection of 20 long novels. The protagonist, Nana, is an abandoned illegitimate daughter who once roamed the streets, became a courtesan, and later rose to fame as an actress for her role in The Golden Venus. She became a plaything for the nobles and aristocrats of Parisian high society. Indifferent and cynical, she sold her charms, maneuvered among her pursuers, and exhausted their wealth, using this as revenge for society's injustices. Nana remains one of the most famous five long novels in Zola's 20 naturalist family history novels, The Lourdes-Macquarts. The novel depicts the rise and fall of a young, frivolous, and extravagant courtesan, Nana, in her brief life, vividly portraying the incredibly decadent and dissolute lifestyle of the French upper class during the Second Empire. It foreshadows the decline and fall of the Second Empire.