Summary Nana Emil Zola


Emile Zola
Nana
Anna Kupo, nicknamed Nana, daughter of the drunk laundrywoman Gervaise McCar, and the crippled worker Kupo, died in Paris in 1870, eighteen years of age from smallpox, having survived for several days her two-year-old son and leaving several dozens of her lovers in sorrow. However, her lovers comforted quickly. In addition, a war was looming with the Prussians. In the room where Nana was decomposing, whose beautiful, mad face turned into a purulent mask, now and then a cry was heard: “To Berlin, to Berlin, to Berlin!”
… She made her debut at the Bordnava Theater “Variety”, where the premiere of a parodic operetta about the triumph of Venus over cuckolds gathered all secular, literary and theatrical Paris. Nana had been talking about Nana for a week-she could not turn on the stage, she had a raspy voice, a complete girl devoid of all grace, conquered the hall from her first appearance on stage: not a talent, of course,

but a crazy call of flesh coming from her. This call brought all the men of the city to her feet, and she could not deny anyone, for she had sentimental haberdashery about love, debauchery had ceased to be her novelty almost from the age of fourteen, and the money of lovers was her only source existence. Unsagacious, living among untidiness and dirt, spending days in supernatural idleness Nana looked like a truly luxurious animal and as such was equally attractive to the tabloid journalist Foshri, the banker Steiner, the semi-luminous lions of Vandevr and La Falaude, the aristocrat of Count Muff. Soon to these admirers was added the seventeen-year-old Georges Yugon, the son of an aristocratic family, a perfect child, very, however, quick in comprehending forbidden pleasures.
… Countess Sabina Myuffa, married seventeen years, lived very virtuous and, truth be told, boring. Earl, a man of bilious and withdrawn, older than his wife, paid her obviously insufficient attention. Foshri, bored on the rostrum at Muff, begins to seriously think about how to achieve her location. This does not prevent Foshri from attending
the dinner that Nana gives, collecting the actors and actresses of her theater on it, but most importantly, the men besieging her apartment day and night. The conversation at dinner with Nana, though not much more lively, revolves around the same topics: war, politics, gossip. Gossip, however, prevails. All connections are visible, and the ladies calmly discuss with the men the dignity of their lovers. Having drunk, Nana falls into hysterics: like every whore, she starts demanding respect from the people and complains about her terrible life. Her complaints are replaced by equally hysterical confessions of love for her next knight – Dagne; present pay little attention to all this, absorbed by someone card game, and who – pouring champagne into the piano. In such entertainments, not only the intellectual but also the political elite willingly participates: the prince himself becomes a regular at the Variety Theater and, in intermissions, always visits Nana’s restroom, and even takes her away from the play in her own carriage. Myuffa, who accompanies the prince, goes mad with jealousy: he himself, having lived a restrained and strict life for forty years, is completely absorbed in an inexplicable passion for golden Venus, a beauty, an idiot. He vainly achieves Nana: appointing him a date, she took leave in the theater and went to Orleans. present pay little attention to all this, absorbed by someone card game, and who – pouring champagne into the piano. In such entertainments, not only the intellectual but also the political elite willingly participates: the prince himself becomes a regular at the Variety Theater and, in intermissions, always visits Nana’s restroom, and even takes her away from the play in her own carriage. Myuffa, who accompanies the prince, goes mad with jealousy: he himself, having lived a restrained and strict life for forty years, is completely absorbed in an inexplicable passion for golden Venus, a beauty, an idiot. He vainly achieves Nana: appointing him a date, she took leave in the theater and went to Orleans. present pay little attention to all this, absorbed by someone card game, and who – pouring champagne into the piano. In such entertainments, not only the intellectual but also the political elite willingly participates: the prince himself becomes a regular at the Variety Theater and, in intermissions, always visits Nana’s restroom, and even takes her away from the play in her own carriage. Myuffa, who accompanies the prince, goes mad with jealousy: he himself, having lived a restrained and strict life for forty years, is completely absorbed in an inexplicable passion for golden Venus, a beauty, an idiot. He vainly achieves Nana: appointing him a date, she took leave in the theater and went to Orleans. the prince himself becomes a regular at the Variety Theater and, in intermissions, always visits Nana’s lavatory, or even takes her away from the play in her own carriage. Myuffa, who accompanies the prince, goes mad with jealousy: he himself, having lived a restrained and strict life for forty years, is completely absorbed in an inexplicable passion for golden Venus, a beauty, an idiot. He vainly achieves Nana: appointing him a date, she took leave in the theater and went to Orleans. the prince himself becomes a regular at the Variety Theater and, in intermissions, always visits Nana’s lavatory, or even takes her away from the play in her own carriage. Myuffa, who accompanies the prince, goes mad with jealousy: he himself, having lived a restrained and strict life for forty years, is completely absorbed in an inexplicable passion for golden Venus, a beauty, an idiot. He vainly achieves Nana: appointing him a date, she took leave in the theater and went to Orleans.
It was here that Georges Yugon, who had run away from his mother, found Nana, whom Nana, in the fits of shining romance, calls Zizi and Bebe. Sophisticated young man, who, however, has an incomparably greater experience, Nana enjoys playing the children’s love-friendship. There are joint admiration of the moon and the shedding of Zizi by intolerably vulgar nicknames with a passing dressing of him in his favorite nightgown. Georges, however, has to be hidden, for Nana is visited in Orleans by both Steiner and Count Muiff. Sabina Myuffa, meanwhile, lends herself at last to the courtship of Foshri, but the Count does not care much: he is all consumed by Nana. He is not stopped even by Foshri’s harsh, harsh article about Nana, entitled “The Golden Fly”. It’s hard to argue with Foshri: Nana is indeed a golden fly sucking death from the carrion and infecting Paris. While Muffa in Nana’s apartment is reading this article, the hostess admires herself in front of the mirror, swings all over her torso, probes the mole on her hip and a strong chest. No matter how devastating a poison, no matter how golden beast Muyff saw in it, he wanted it, and he wanted all the more, the more he realized its monstrous depravity and stupidity. Nana tells him that Sabina, having lived with the count for nineteen years, now cheats on him with Foshri. After striking her, the count runs out, and Nana allows her maid Zoe to let the next one in. After waking the whole night in the rain, Muffa returns to her and faces the nose to Steiner’s nose. Shteiner brought money – a thousand francs, which Nana asked him the day before. Extremely irritated by the intrusiveness of both, Nana, in general, extremely easily passing from tears to laughter, from sentimentality to anger, exposes both. Everyone’s bored with it. The exiled and completely destroyed count returns home. At the door he meets his wife, who just arrived from her lover. After expelling the count and the banker, Nana realizes that a luxurious apartment will have to be replaced with a more modest home. With the actor “Variety” fountain – a rare monster – she settles in a more modest home. First time their life flows almost idyllic, then the Fountain starts to beat her, and she is ready to find in this kind of pleasure, but everything has a limit: Nana needs an outlet. Such an outlet becomes for her friend – a slut called Atlasnaya, who, without much pleasure giving himself to men and preserving the innocently-innocent look, finds much more joy in lesbian joys. However, one day, visiting the public house where the Satin slept, Nana was caught in a raid and barely carried her legs. Looking for reconciliation Earl of Myuff fell to her as well as possible. She easily persuaded him to ensure that the role of a decent woman in the next premiere of Bordnava went to her, and not her eternal rival, Rosa Mignon. Myuffa bought this role from Bodnev for fifteen thousand francs – he is now ready for anything. It was at his expense that Nana became a “top-flight cocotta”. She moved to a luxurious mansion on the avenue de Villiers, bought by the count, but she did not leave either Georges, who from time to time condescendingly accepted, nor the Atlas, in whose arms she was attached to the unknown vice. This does not prevent her from getting carried away by George’s brother, Philip Jugorn, Rosa Mignon is not her eternal rival. Myuffa bought this role from Bodnev for fifteen thousand francs – he is now ready for anything. It was at his expense that Nana became a “top-flight cocotta”. She moved to a luxurious mansion on the avenue de Villiers, bought by the count, but she did not leave either Georges, who from time to time condescendingly accepted, nor the Atlas, in whose arms she was attached to the unknown vice. This does not prevent her from getting carried away by George’s brother, Philip Jugorn, Rosa Mignon is not her eternal rival. Myuffa bought this role from Bodnev for fifteen thousand francs – he is now ready for anything. It was at his expense that Nana became a “top-flight cocotta”. She moved to a luxurious mansion on the avenue de Villiers, bought by the count, but she did not leave either Georges, who from time to time condescendingly accepted, nor the Atlas, in whose arms she was attached to the unknown vice. This does not prevent her from getting carried away by George’s brother, Philip Jugorn,
At the races in the Bois de Boulogne, Nana, surrounded by men, becomes the real queen of Paris: a red mare named “Nana” is on display. Doubtful pun “Who rides on Nana?” causes general ecstasy. The red mare is put almost everything, and she wins the race with brilliance: Nana is taken home almost on her hands. The van master at the races was ruined, but Nana does not touch it. Vandevr scandals in a race society, arguing that the result of the jump is rigged, Eliminated from society, he set fire to his stable and burned there with all the horses. This made Nana think about death for the first time and get scared of her. And soon she had a miscarriage – she did not believe in her pregnancy for two months, explaining everything with ill-health, and almost died. The ruined Count Muffa spends all her time with her. His daughter Estella is married to Dagne, but the countess looks younger and better than her daughter: her connection with Foshri is no secret for anyone. The count has long felt like a stranger in his own house. At the wedding of Estella and Dagne, he looks old and pathetic. Dagne seizes the moment to run right before the triumph to Nana and, as he puts it, hand her her innocence. Both are extremely amused by this adventure.
Nana reigns over the city. Philip Yugon, appointed regimental treasurer, brings her all the state money and goes to jail. His younger brother was stabbed with scissors right in Nana’s mansion after she said she would never marry him. The Earl of Myuff is going mad with jealousy, until Nana, one after another, ravages more and more lovers. Having found her ugly old man, the Marquise de Chouard, the count finds the strength to escape from the monster that broke his life: ruined, he returns to his wife, who by that time broke with Foshri, and completely surrenders to religion. Nana soon disappears from Paris – according to rumors, she visited Russia, was on the maintenance of some prince, but did not get along with him and returned to Paris. Her child dies here – the abandoned, forgotten by her Louise, the motherly tenderness to which she so loved to show. The next day she suddenly falls ill with smallpox. Her death coincides with the outbreak of war. Almost none of the girlfriends and lovers Nana dares to approach her body – too strong fear of becoming infected.
She lays alone in the hotel, where she came immediately after her return. Her face – a continuous abscess – is turned upward, her right eye has failed, her nose is pus, her cheek is covered with a red crust. Fine red hair halo above the frozen mask.


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Summary Nana Emil Zola