You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
“Great depravity leads to great piety.”
Such an entertaining read. How can you not like this book? Sure, its misogyny is over-the-top, but the male characters don’t look so great, either.
Toward the end of the book are the inklings of the excess and “perversion” of the Decadent movement to come in France a few years later:
“Woman dominated him with the jealous tyranny of a God of wrath, terrifying him but granting him moments of joy as keen as spasms, in return for hours of hideous torments, visions of hell and eternal tortures. He stammered out the same despairing prayers as in church, and above all suffered the same fits of humility peculiar to an accursed creature crushed under the mud from which he has sprung.”
(Ugh, don’t you hate it when that happens?!)
Such an entertaining read. How can you not like this book? Sure, its misogyny is over-the-top, but the male characters don’t look so great, either.
Toward the end of the book are the inklings of the excess and “perversion” of the Decadent movement to come in France a few years later:
“Woman dominated him with the jealous tyranny of a God of wrath, terrifying him but granting him moments of joy as keen as spasms, in return for hours of hideous torments, visions of hell and eternal tortures. He stammered out the same despairing prayers as in church, and above all suffered the same fits of humility peculiar to an accursed creature crushed under the mud from which he has sprung.”
(Ugh, don’t you hate it when that happens?!)
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Fantastic story about wealth, indulgence, sexuality and society. It's what you would expect from Zola, naturalism; super dark, a little disgusting and completely enchanting. The text is dense and the descriptions meander (to be mild). If you like Hawthorne or Melville or Dickens you'll like this.
I think Nana might be my new unhealthy, kind-of-terrible-but-I-love-her-anyway, feminist, literary hero...
I think Nana might be my new unhealthy, kind-of-terrible-but-I-love-her-anyway, feminist, literary hero...
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I can imagine the outrage this novel (probably one of those racy French novels kept out of the hands of proper Victorian ladies) provoked at the time of publication with its explicit portrait of an actress-cum-prostitute. Zola didn't write to titillate; he himself was outraged (as usual) at a society that was bored, wasteful and decadent, caring only for its own pleasure, thinking nothing of the future, its own excesses causing its collapse.
I went back and forth wondering whether Zola was blaming Nana or the men for the destruction of marriages, careers, and morals; and my best guess is the blame is on both, a perfect storm of receptiveness of these upper-class men to the raw sexuality of one woman, a woman who is her body only. Though Zola is a naturalist, Nana is not realistic with these superwoman powers of hers. She is described as a literal man-eater (consumer); but her partners are willing, or as willing as slaves to their own sexual natures can be. In the second half of the book the depiction of Nana reminded me of the stories told about Marie Antoinette by her enemies, though Nana is without pedigree, being the offspring of two alcoholics from the slums of Paris (see [b:L'Assommoir|760673|L'Assommoir|Émile Zola|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1178127955l/760673._SY75_.jpg|741363]).
Though more complex than [b:The Fat and the Thin|103841|The Fat and the Thin (Les Rougon-Macquart, #3)|Émile Zola|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1349079183l/103841._SY75_.jpg|10242], this is my least favorite Zola so far (I've read three others), mostly because I don't care for descriptions of luxury and opulence, though I understand their purpose here. The lives of the aristocratic men worshiping at the altar of this theatrical and concupiscent Venus were not only uninteresting to me, but most of them blended together, which I'm sure was intentional but made the story repetitive.
Zola throws the reader into the scenes in his usual cinematic way; his powers of observation are prodigious. Some of the symbolism is obvious, but the writing is wonderful and this translation is earthy. Zola wrote this to parallel the French Empire, but the reader today will see parallels with our own cult of (sexual) celebrity. (There's even a woman named Gaga.)
I went back and forth wondering whether Zola was blaming Nana or the men for the destruction of marriages, careers, and morals; and my best guess is the blame is on both, a perfect storm of receptiveness of these upper-class men to the raw sexuality of one woman, a woman who is her body only. Though Zola is a naturalist, Nana is not realistic with these superwoman powers of hers. She is described as a literal man-eater (consumer); but her partners are willing, or as willing as slaves to their own sexual natures can be. In the second half of the book the depiction of Nana reminded me of the stories told about Marie Antoinette by her enemies, though Nana is without pedigree, being the offspring of two alcoholics from the slums of Paris (see [b:L'Assommoir|760673|L'Assommoir|Émile Zola|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1178127955l/760673._SY75_.jpg|741363]).
Though more complex than [b:The Fat and the Thin|103841|The Fat and the Thin (Les Rougon-Macquart, #3)|Émile Zola|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1349079183l/103841._SY75_.jpg|10242], this is my least favorite Zola so far (I've read three others), mostly because I don't care for descriptions of luxury and opulence, though I understand their purpose here. The lives of the aristocratic men worshiping at the altar of this theatrical and concupiscent Venus were not only uninteresting to me, but most of them blended together, which I'm sure was intentional but made the story repetitive.
Zola throws the reader into the scenes in his usual cinematic way; his powers of observation are prodigious. Some of the symbolism is obvious, but the writing is wonderful and this translation is earthy. Zola wrote this to parallel the French Empire, but the reader today will see parallels with our own cult of (sexual) celebrity. (There's even a woman named Gaga.)
challenging
funny
reflective
slow-paced
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes