Book Description: One of the founders of literary naturalism, Émile Zola thought of his novels as a form of scientific research into the effects of heredity and environment. He created characters, gave them richly detailed histories, and placed them in carefully observed, precisely described environments, and his readers watch as they wriggle and thrash toward their inevitable destinies. In Nana, the characters are a prostitute, who rises from the streets to become what Zola calls a “high-class cocotte,” and the men—and women—whom she loves, betrays, and destroys. Among the novel’s many ironies is the mutual envy felt by Nana and those around her. She yearns for their material possessions, while they admire her apparent independence and sexual self-confidence. And despite the chaos Nana causes, Zola imagines her as being essentially “good-natured,” a stupid, vain but beautiful creature who can’t help drawing people into her web. Not surprisingly, Nana’s portrait of a decadent world in which a prostitute amasses great wealth and power provoked protests from “polite society,” and it became one of Zola’s most controversial works. Today it is regarded as his masterpiece.
Finally finished the book...I'm afraid I found it rather hard going....but I did persevere and got there in the end. Hope this does not put other people off reading it. Sorry.
On it's way to KT-J tomorrow...
Journal Entry 5 by jellyfish67 at BOOK RING, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- United Kingdom on Monday, August 04, 2008
Released 4 yrs ago (8/5/2008 UTC) at BOOK RING, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- United Kingdom
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Oops, hope I got this right...book on it's way to KT-J now
Journal Entry 6 by KT-J from Bury, Lancashire United Kingdom on Friday, August 08, 2008
Received yesterday, thanks jellyfish67 for sending this on and perryfran for starting the bookring! Either Stubee or I will start this shortly, we seem to have received a few bookrings recently but we will get onto this as quickly as possible.
Journal Entry 7 by KT-J from Bury, Lancashire United Kingdom on Friday, September 19, 2008
Sorry for having this so long but I have to say I also found this hardgoing. I'm usually a quick reader but this seemed to take me ages to get through, I'm not sure if that's because the story didn't really grip me or just because it's quite a dense book.
Either way, I have to say this I didn't really find this that enjoyable. I didn't like any of the characters (I actually preferred the characters in Germinal) as they were all just vacuous and money/status obsessed. It was an intersting portrayal of the times though so I am glad that I persevered with it!
Thanks perryfran for sharing another 1001 book. I've passed this on to Stubee who will no doubt start this soon.
Journal Entry 8 by stubee from Bury, Lancashire United Kingdom on Friday, September 19, 2008
I must say I’m not looking forward to it though, it looks massive and as I’ve already given up on Zola’s Germinal so I’m not holding out much hope.
Cheers to Perryfran again for another 1001 read though - hopefully I'm wrong!
EDIT (21/09/2008): Started!
Journal Entry 9 by stubee from Bury, Lancashire United Kingdom on Monday, September 29, 2008
Completed. And I’m quite amazed that I was able to finish this so quickly, I was daunted at reading this novel but I found it quite easy to read from the outset and I must say I enjoyed the story. My feelings for Nana throughout the novel changed immensely, I started off by quite liking the young woman, then I pitied her and then towards the end I despised her. The rest of the characters at various parts annoyed me, maybe it’s just how society was in France during that period but the majority of the characters were bonkers! (Yes that’s a technical name.)
I’ve got tootsheeling address so this will be on its way to Germany shortly.
Once again thank you ever so much Perryfran for helping me cross off a few 1001 must read books off my list.
Got this today, thank you! And thank you, PerryFran for yet another great ring!!
I've got another ring ahead of this. I'll start it when I'm done the other.
6 NOV UPDATE - sorry, that last ring was a killer!! I'm on this one now. 29 DEC UPDATE - sorry, this ring is a killer too! Its reading VERY slowly. I'd like to stick with it but if the organizer would prefer I move it along, I'll concede defeat. (lol!) 28 JAN UPDATE - ok, I've given up on this one! I've PMed the next in line and will get it off as soon as I have the address. Sorry to have held it up for so long. I kept thinking I could get through it. Sadly, I didn't manage :o(
Definitely hard going - with not so novel a storyline. But, another one down - thank you perryfran. Will pass this on to Dave at our next meet-up on Thursday evening.
Finished most of this one while waiting for my car to be towed yesterday when it broke down coming back from Sydney. Quite dense and vivid in its discriptions. The end was where it really annoyed. Thanks again to Perryfran for sharing. Posting to Supertalya as soon as i confirm her address,
Journal Entry 15 by davemurray101 at Bookring, A Bookring -- Controlled Releases on Monday, May 18, 2009
Released 4 yrs ago (5/18/2009 UTC) at Bookring, A Bookring -- Controlled Releases
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sent to supertalya in the post today.
Journal Entry 16 by Supertalya on Tuesday, June 09, 2009
It's here, it's a doozy, but I plan on reading it on vacation! I couldn't get a hold of Liz.
I've finally finished this book! I started off really well but then had to take a break in the middle. Once I got toward the end my pace picked up with the pace of the book - it's quite a headlong rush to the end. I enjoyed this, which surprised me. I've tried reading Zola before and had to give it up. Now I may have to try again. I feel for some of the characters, though not for Nana. I understand the social point Zola was trying to make but she's still really annoying. I will PM HeresDeb this evening and get this in the mail ASAP. Happy new year, everyone!
Journal Entry 19 by ealasaidmae at St. Albans, West Virginia USA on Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Released 3 yrs ago (1/11/2010 UTC) at St. Albans, West Virginia USA
Sorry I received this book a little while ago and forgot to journal it. I am in the process of finishing up another book and will work on this one next. Thanks for sharing!
Update 2/10/2010: Just finished reading Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage by Elizabeth Gilbert (great book, btw) and am now ready to start reading this book.
Update 2/22/2010: This book is a doozy! I am still working on it but I found out that I could download it to my Kindle for free from feedbooks.com so I have downloaded it and will send the hardcopy on as soon as I hear back from the next person. This one seems like it is going to take awhile for me to work my way through so I rather not hold the hardcopy up. Thanks for sharing and I will make sure I update this post to share my thoughts about it as I finish reading it on my Kindle.
Update 2/28/2010: Still waiting to hear back from the next person in line.
This book is now part of the 1001-library. If you want to take this book from the library but don't know how to proceed, please refer to the 1001-library bookshelf.
Nana
