Resumen
Resumen de Naná
Para quién es
For readers who love big social novels, nineteenth-century Paris, and stories about money, desire and power. It also rewards anyone curious about Zola and his sharp eye for a whole age.
De qué trata este libro
A woman who cannot sing steps onto a stage, and a whole theatre falls at her feet. That is Nana, the ninth novel in Émile Zola's Rougon-Macquart cycle, published in 1880. She grows from the Paris slums into the most talked-about woman in the city. Zola studied the stage and the world of courtesans to show a society glittering outside and rotting within. Nana has no talent and no plan, yet men spend their fortunes on her.
En este resumen
- 1A woman who cannot sing conquers a theatreFree
- 2Backstage, the rich men line up
- 3Nana builds a house out of other men's money
- 4Count Muffat is pulled between two houses
- 5A country house and a very young man
- 6Love, blows and a fortune wasted
- 7The race that carries the aristocrats with it
- 8What the novel is really about
- 9How Zola tells it, and the images that recur
Idea clave 1 de 9
A woman who cannot sing conquers a theatre
The novel opens in April at the Théâtre des Variétés. The house is packed for the first night of an operetta, The Blonde Venus. Rumor says a new star named Nana will play the lead. Everyone knows her name, but nobody can say what she has done.
Zola fills the hall with journalists, bankers and young men about town.
When Nana appears, her voice is thin and false, and the audience laughs. Then she laughs too, and the laughter grows louder. Dressed in almost nothing, she holds every eye. She wins not by art but because the men want her. The director Bordenave calls his theatre a brothel, and the night proves him right.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about Naná
What is Nana by Zola about?
It follows Nana, a poor Parisian girl who becomes a celebrated courtesan in the Second Empire. Men of wealth and rank spend fortunes on her, and the novel shows how their desire and vanity eat away their lives.
Is Nana connected to L'Assommoir?
Yes. Both books belong to Zola's Rougon-Macquart cycle, which follows one family through the Second Empire, and Nana grows up in the slums that book describes.
What does the golden fly mean in Nana?
The golden fly is the image from Fauchery's newspaper article. It describes Nana as a creature born in filth who rises into the light and poisons the men who touch her, standing for social decay.
When is Nana set and was it a true story?
It was published in 1880 and set in Paris in the late 1860s, near the end of the Second Empire. Nana is invented, but Zola drew on careful research into the theatres and courtesans of his day.
Is Nana hard to read?
The big scenes, such as the theatre and the race, are vivid and easy to follow.