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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
Nana où notre pauvre « mouche d’or » est un personnage que j’ai aimé suivre, autant pour ses brefs moments de « victoire » sur la vie que pour observer la fatalité mordante qui pesait sur son destin, élément propre au cycle des Rougon. Une destiné évidemment funeste qui héréditairement se devait de pendre au dessus de sa tête telle une épée de Damoclès. Mon intérêt initial et habituel était bien sûr celui de suivre un personnage féminin, d’autant plus qu’ici il revêtait un véritable poids mystique et symbolique. La Vénus qu’est Nana représente non seulement les femmes de la vie de l’écrivain mais également Le Second Empire et la déchéance de son peuple. Je trouve aussi que ce livre est un parfait exemple pour faire comprendre le male gaze (les anachronismes sont ma spécialité). En montrant « une meute derrière une chienne qui n’est pas en chaleur et qui se moque des chiens qui la suivent » Zola étudie la façon dont Nana est réduite à l’objet du désir ( peu importe qu’elle ne sache pas jouer au théâtre tant qu’elle est sur scène nue) presque dès son enfance et finit fatalement par en faire sa destiné. Elle devient ainsi le gouffre par lequel l’homme peut accéder à sa déchéance. Je mets cependant 3 étoiles car la vivacité et l’impact du texte se perdait selon moi par moment malgré bien sur le poids symbolique de chacune des scènes, une longue déchéance (c’est le cas de le dire, longue...) parfois redondante dans ses retournements de situation .
Sometimes the characters were too many and underdeveloped and I felt some of the events were too hasty. However, I like the ending and the ups and downs of her life.
challenging
reflective
sad
slow-paced
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I did not enjoy this book at all. I found it to be disgusting and completely pointless. Perhaps some of its supposed appeal is lost in translation but I am highly skeptical of that. The characters are almost completely ill-defined except for their depraved sexuality. Zola does nothing to make the reader care one whit about the title character. The only reason that I finished this book was because I had already gotten 100 pages in before the depravity because almost intolerable. I skimmed the remainder of the book.
It goes without saying (but I still will say it) that I do not recommend this book at all.
It goes without saying (but I still will say it) that I do not recommend this book at all.
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Zola's kind of the big man on campus when it comes to naturalist literature, a response to the ridiculousness and over-sentimentality of romanticism. "Nana" tells the story of a street urchin's rise from the sewers of Paris to upper echelons of high class society.
Through the use of her body on the stage as well as in the bed, Nana is able to suck men dry of their pocketbooks, spitting out their used bodies and eagerly inviting in the next. At no point does it appear that Nana is even aware or complicit in this animalistic desire for flesh and greed. Counts and businessmen spend their entire fortunes on the young lady; some end up destitute, some end up in jail, some commit suicide. But Nana feels no moral obligations to these men. She's gonna get hers. Her life in the gutters is long in the past, her only obsession is to be seen as a "respectable lady" in Paris, something she more or less accomplishes at the height of her powers.
But Zola never paints Nana as three dimensional human being. We only understand her most animal desires. These desires are the downfall of the men who come to her and to Nana herself. Zola criticizes this era of France with being overly obsessed with sex and the power that comes along with it. It seems that he blames the end of Napoleon III's reign mostly on this, in fact.
Zola lacks empathy for his titular character. In the end, she dies covered in sores and grotesqueness from disease, like "The Picture of Dorian Gray", her base sins manifesting themselves on her body. Nana only wanted to escape the terrible upbringing that surrounded her. The only thing she had to offer the world was her beauty. Even if she was amoral regarding the men she cast aside, I don't think it would harm the book to give her a touch of sympathy for the life that she's had to lead. Instead, Zola's entire last chapter pertaining to her death doesn't really ever focus on her. Paris has moved on, society has moved on, Zola has moved on. The prostitute's reign over Paris was short-lived and the revolution is already upon us.
Through the use of her body on the stage as well as in the bed, Nana is able to suck men dry of their pocketbooks, spitting out their used bodies and eagerly inviting in the next. At no point does it appear that Nana is even aware or complicit in this animalistic desire for flesh and greed. Counts and businessmen spend their entire fortunes on the young lady; some end up destitute, some end up in jail, some commit suicide. But Nana feels no moral obligations to these men. She's gonna get hers. Her life in the gutters is long in the past, her only obsession is to be seen as a "respectable lady" in Paris, something she more or less accomplishes at the height of her powers.
But Zola never paints Nana as three dimensional human being. We only understand her most animal desires. These desires are the downfall of the men who come to her and to Nana herself. Zola criticizes this era of France with being overly obsessed with sex and the power that comes along with it. It seems that he blames the end of Napoleon III's reign mostly on this, in fact.
Zola lacks empathy for his titular character. In the end, she dies covered in sores and grotesqueness from disease, like "The Picture of Dorian Gray", her base sins manifesting themselves on her body. Nana only wanted to escape the terrible upbringing that surrounded her. The only thing she had to offer the world was her beauty. Even if she was amoral regarding the men she cast aside, I don't think it would harm the book to give her a touch of sympathy for the life that she's had to lead. Instead, Zola's entire last chapter pertaining to her death doesn't really ever focus on her. Paris has moved on, society has moved on, Zola has moved on. The prostitute's reign over Paris was short-lived and the revolution is already upon us.
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes