The next night, guests gather at a salon in the home of Comte Muffat, over which his wife Sabine presides. Even for her, though, the volume of visitors becomes overwhelming. Having many male visitors is no strange phenomenon to Nana, who is a sex worker as well as an actress. The next day, Nana gradually realizes she was an even bigger hit than she thought as her apartment is flooded with male visitors coming to call on her. Most of the book’s recurring characters are present for this debut, either as Nana’s fellow actors or as audience members, including wealthy banker Steiner, journalist Fauchery, 17-year-old Georges Hugon, and a chamberlain to the Empress, the Comte Muffat de Beuville. Although she does not sing or act particularly well, the whole audience is captivated by her beauty, especially when she takes the stage practically naked in the third act. This study guide uses the 2020 Oxford World’s Classics edition, translated from the original French by Helen Constantine.Įighteen-year-old Nana makes a magnificent debut as Venus at the Théâtre des Variétés, a Parisian theater. Ultimately, Zola uses her story as an indictment of the excesses of the Second Empire, including what he saw as excessive female sexual freedom. However, in ascending the social ladder, she drags down every lover she has financially and spiritually. Initially depicted in another of the series’ novels, L’Assommoir, the character of Nana rises from a childhood as the daughter of a lower-class family beset by alcoholism and starvation to become the most elite and popular courtesan in all of Paris. Nana, one of the most famous novels in the Rougon-Macquart series, was both popular and controversial at the time of its publication because of its frank descriptions of bodies and sexuality.
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