Nana

Nana by Émile Zola (1880)

Nana opens on a Paris theatre awaiting the debut of Nana as Venus in Bordenave's operetta The Blonde Venus, a first night that draws journalists, boulevardiers, aristocrats and courtesans alike. Léon Fauchery and Hector de la Faloise circulate among figures such as Bordenave, the crude, boastful manager; the banker Steiner; Mignon, who manages his wife Rose (Bordenave's leading actress and singer); the Count de Vandeuvres; the kept women Lucy Stewart, Caroline Hequet, Blanche de Sivry and Gaga; and Count Muffat de Beuville with his wife the Countess Sabine and father-in-law the Marquis de Chouard. Anticipation for Nana runs high though no one seems to actually know her. Once onstage, Nana proves a poor singer and actress but captivates the house through sheer physical presence, especially when she appears nearly nude as Venus in the final act, provoking open desire even in the reserved Count Muffat. The performance is a triumph despite its mediocrity as theatre. The next morning finds Nana in her sparsely furnished, financially precarious apartment, tended by her maid Zoé. She juggles debts, a demanding "old miser" and a "nigger" (Walachian) lover who pay her irregularly, and worry over her young son Louiset, boarded with a nurse who withholds him pending payment. Her aunt, Mme Lerat, visits, and Nana secures three hundred francs from the procuress Mme Tricon for an assignation. A stream of admirers—Steiner, the Marquis de Chouard, Count Muffat (soliciting charity for the poor), a besotted schoolboy named Georges Hugon—crowd her flat seeking access, most of whom she dismisses through Zoé, while Labordette, a discreet fixer devoted to the demimonde, escorts her to dinner and the theatre. The narrative then shifts to the Muffats' formal Tuesday salon, a stiff, aristocratic gathering including Mme du Joncquoy, Mme Chantereau, Léonide de Chezelles, the pious old family friend Théophile Venot, and Mme Hugon with her son Georges. Amid decorous talk of European royalty, religion, and music, Vandeuvres and Fauchery quietly organize invitations to a supper at Nana's the next night, recruiting Steiner, La Faloise, and others while Count Muffat, prompted by Venot's watchful presence, firmly refuses to attend despite Fauchery's and Vandeuvres's urging. Fauchery privately notes Nana's uncanny resemblance to the countess and speculates idly about her chastity. The following night, Nana hosts an extravagant catered supper in her cramped drawing room, attended by a chaotic mix of actresses, courtesans, journalists, and gentlemen, including Bordenave (injured and carried in), Rose Mignon, Lucy Stewart, Blanche, Caroline, Gaga, Vandeuvres, Steiner, Fauchery, Daguenet, Georges, and an unidentified wealthy stranger. Conversation ranges over lovers, children, royalty, and gossip, growing increasingly drunken and unruly; Foucarmont, a naval officer, passes out; feuds simmer between Rose and Lucy over Fauchery; and Nana, stung by Muffat's absence and a room full of squabbling, self-interested guests, briefly rages before being coaxed back by Vandeuvres, who advises her not to let Steiner escape her. She decides definitively on Steiner as her next protector, sealing the "bargain" after he draws blood on a hairpin hidden in her dress. As dawn breaks, the party disintegrates into drunken excess—someone pours champagne into the piano—before Nana, Steiner, and Blanche head off to drink milk in the Bois de Boulogne. The final section shifts to backstage at the Variétés during a later performance of the Blonde Venus, where actors Simonne, Prullière, and old Bosc wait in the greenroom before a performance, with talk that "the prince" may be in attendance that night.

By Émile Zola · First published 1880 · Genre: Literary Fiction, Naturalism, Drama · 14 chapters · 204,008 words

First lines

At nine o'clock in the evening the body of the house at the Theatres des Variétés was still all but empty. A few individuals, it is true, were sitting quietly waiting in the balcony and stalls, but these were lost, as it were, among the ranges of seats whose coverings of cardinal velvet loomed in the subdued light of the dimly burning luster. A shadow enveloped the great red splash of the curtain, and not a sound came from the stage, the unlit footlights, the scattered desks of the orchestra. It was only high overhead in the third gallery, round the domed ceiling where nude females and children flew in heavens which had turned green in the gaslight, that calls and laughter were audible above a continuous hubbub of voices, and heads in women's and workmen's caps were ranged, row above row, under the wide-vaulted bays with their gilt-surrounding adornments.

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French literature · Naturalism · Realism · 19th century · Parisian life · Prostitution · Theatre · Music hall · Courtesan · Femininity · Gender roles · Social class

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