Overview: Prompted by his theories of heredity and environment, Zola set out to show Nana, "the golden fly", rising out of the underworld to feed on society--a predetermined product of her origins. Nana's latent destructiveness is mirrored in the Empire's, and they reflect each others' disintegration and final collapse in 1890. Built around the book's scientific skeleton is a powerful, sensual atmosphere and a rich use of words which elevate the novel beyond the realistic platform into a "poem of male desires." Part of Zola's famed Rougon-Macquart series of novels, this is the portrait of the scandal of Parisian society--Nana, a goddess of love who ruthlessly uses her sexuality to obtain wealth and to send her ruined lovers to the gutter from which she ascended.
Adaptations (1)
Nana was adapted into a 1934 film.
Nana1934 · film · 90 min · dir. Dorothy Arzner, George Fitzmaurice · IMDb ↗IMDb5.971%Young Parisian Nana wards off of a boozed-up military officer at a local restaurant, and fellow diner Gaston Greiner is so impressed with her pluck that he decides to make her a performer at his musical theater. Soon, Nana is a star, and the girlfriend of Greiner and two other men. But when he learns that she's been getting around, Greiner fires her. As she tries to reclaim her singing job while dodging yet another suitor, her treachery might get the better of her.
