a b c d e Marzials, Frank Thomas (1911). "Zola, Émile Édouard Charles Antoine". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol.28 (11thed.). Cambridge University Press. p.1001. Pues bien señores y señoras lectoras, como diría aquel, J’accuse…! ¿Merece Naná nuestra censura, nuestro reproche? ¿No hacemos casi todos lo mismo en cierto modo? ¿No vendemos nuestro cuerpo, su fuerza o su habilidad o su inteligencia, por la mejor recompensa que podamos obtener? ¿No lo hacemos aunque no nos guste ni quién nos paga ni para qué, aunque incluso nos asqueen ambos? Tengo una familia que alimentar, de algo hay que vivir, decimos, o, si nos saltamos alguno de nuestros principios, para que otro se lo lleve crudo, mejor me lo llevo yo. ¿Por qué, entonces, lo encontramos todo más reprobable si interviene el sexo? ¿Por qué vender nuestro cuerpo es más censurable si es por sexo que por cualquiera otra de sus propiedades? ¿Qué tiene el sexo que todo lo ensucia, si, como también dice Allen, el sexo solo es sucio si se hace bien? Swardson, Anne (14 January 1998). "The Dreyfus Affair's Living History". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 7 September 2022 . Retrieved 7 September 2022. Because of Zola's article, ... the intellectual class was accorded the status it still holds as molder of public opinion. Increasingly we believe the world needs more meaningful, real-life connections between curious travellers keen to explore the world in a more responsible way. That is why we have intensively curated a collection of premium small-group trips as an invitation to meet and connect with new, like-minded people for once-in-a-lifetime experiences in three categories: Culture Trips, Rail Trips and Private Trips. Our Trips are suitable for both solo travelers, couples and friends who want to explore the world together. The Strange Death of Emile Zola". History Today Volume 52. 9 September 2002 . Retrieved 21 February 2017.

More than half of Zola's novels were part of a set of 20 books collectively known as Les Rougon-Macquart. Unlike Balzac who in the midst of his literary career resynthesized his work into La Comédie Humaine, Zola from the start at the age of 28 had thought of the complete layout of the series. Set in France's Second Empire, the series traces the "environmental" influences of violence, alcohol and prostitution which became more prevalent during the second wave of the Industrial Revolution. The series examines two branches of a family: the respectable (that is, legitimate) Rougons and the disreputable (illegitimate) Macquarts for five generations. The second and related major principle of science, according to Bernard, and Zola after him, is the belief in an “absolute determinism” in natural phenomena; in other words, there is no phenomenon, no occurrence in nature, which does not have a determining cause or complex of causes (3). An important aspect of this principle is that science shows us “the limit of our actual knowledge.” But such a recognition of what we can and cannot know is empowering: “as science humbles our pride, it strengthens our power” (22). A passage from Zola neatly sums up this part of his argument, whereby he situates literature within the general context of scientific advance: Nana first appeared near the end of Zola's earlier novel Rougon-Macquart series, L'Assommoir (1877), where she is the daughter of an abusive drunk. At the conclusion of that novel, she is living in the streets and just beginning a life of prostitution. Though more complex than The Fat and the Thin, 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. Naná, determinada por la combinación de su extracción social y su dilatada herencia licenciosa, gran axioma en la filosofía del autor, se hizo puta desde muy temprana edad. No de la calle, aunque utilice la posibilidad si un apuro lo requiere, sino una querida, esas segundas esposas más agasajadas que las primeras pues se decantan siempre por el mejor postor mientras que estas últimas se quedan tranquilas a cambio de pagarles a sus maridos con la misma moneda y seguir disfrutando de su estatus social.

But for the most part, she liked to display her rosy flesh in a spectacular bed for a man – whichever really. Bridger, David; Wolk, Samuel (1 January 1976). The New Jewish Encyclopedia. Behrman House, Inc. p.111. ISBN 978-0874411201.

Bernheimer, Charles (1999). Constable, Liz (ed.). Unknowing Decadence. pp.50–64. {{ cite book}}: |work= ignored ( help) One of the things that caused me a high level of discomfort with this novel, is that to me it felt (I suppose that part of the impressions I got might be due to the translation - it's often quite hard to gauge a translated work appropriately) as if the 'special' quality about Nana seemed to be presented as something animal, some animal charisma, something that resounded in her admirers in their most base natures, the most animal part of their psyche. I think that on an instinctual level, I saw her as symbolic of women who embrace their sexuality, and in this case, one of the women who uses her sexuality to gain power over men and destroy them. I don't think anybody, male or female, comes off very well in this novel. We sometimes say that realists provide us with a 'warts-and-all' depiction of reality, but I think Zola prefers to dwell on the warts in Nana—and he certainly doesn't restrict himself to the title character's. Zola, on the one hand, clearly had a somewhat pessimistic view of the ills of society, but I think—and this is pure speculation here—he found some kind of hope in being able to illuminate these ills so that they could be remedied or guarded against. Mitterand, Henri (1986). Zola et le naturalisme[ Zola and Naturalism]. Que sais-je? (in French). Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. ISBN 978-2-13-039642-0. OCLC 15289843.She had no qualms about moving only with private clients and when in need, she would resort to the more open market.

And she could have become a Comtesse or a Marquise and thus vie with someone such as the Comtesse de Castiglione, the lover of Napoleon III.I read Zola's novel when I spent a summer working in Paris, just at the time when I had left childhood behind but was still too young to understand the limitations of my knowledge and experience. Smiling condescendingly at teenagers, I was barely twenty-two myself, and Nana shook my world. After I had finished the novel, Paris looked, smelled and tasted differently. Layers and layers of hidden life, of secret suffering and vice, seemed to appear overnight. I was in Paris because I loved art and literature, and wanted to make that my profession at some point. Reading Nana made me see the other side of the beautiful medal of artistic achievement: my idealism gave way to a deep crush on the marginalised characters lurking in the side lanes of the big official literary avenues. I still think of Nana each time I visit Paris, just like I think of Oliver Twist whenever I am in London. As he described his plans for the series, "I want to portray, at the outset of a century of liberty and truth, a family that cannot restrain itself in its rush to possess all the good things that progress is making available and is derailed by its own momentum, the fatal convulsions that accompany the birth of a new world." François Zola was an influential French novelist, the most important example of the literary school of naturalism, and a major figure in the political liberalization of France. Literary historian Alain Pagès believes that is likely true [42] and Zola's great-granddaughters, Brigitte Émile-Zola and Martine Le Blond-Zola, corroborate this explanation of Zola's poisoning by carbon monoxide. As reported in "L'Orient-Le Jour", Brigitte Émile-Zola recounts that her grandfather Jacques Émile-Zola, son of Émile Zola, told her at the age of eight that, in 1952, a man came to his house to give him information about his father's death. The man had been with a dying friend, who had confessed to taking money to plug Emile Zola's chimney. [43] Scope of the Rougon-Macquart series [ edit ] The decomposing Venus is a pretty accurate summary of the novel as a whole, puncturing the romantic notion of a sweet and tender prostitute out of sheer necessity. The decomposing hypocritical society goes along with it, illustrating the random roles people play, depending on their social and marital status. What remains?

To make matters worse, Nana can't even be credited with really having used her brain (or possessing anything of the sort)- she is simply a thoughtless, base, ball of cunning. Her selfish exploitation of other humans seems to be of an instinctive, thoughtless variety, like the scorpion who stings simply because it is in the creature's nature. In 1888, he was given a camera, but he only began to use it in 1895 and attained a near professional level of expertise. [15] Also in 1888, Alexandrine hired Jeanne Rozerot, a 21-year-old seamstress who was to live with them in their home in Médan. [16] The 48-year-old Zola fell in love with Jeanne and fathered two children with her: Denise in 1889 and Jacques in 1891. [17] After Jeanne left Médan for Paris, Zola continued to support and visit her and their children. In November 1891 Alexandrine discovered the affair, which brought the marriage to the brink of divorce. [ citation needed] The discord was partially healed, which allowed Zola to take an increasingly active role in the lives of the children. After Zola's death, the children were given his name as their lawful surname. [18] Career [ edit ] Zola early in his career Zola is known to have been an inspiration to Christopher Hitchens as found in his book Letters to a Young Contrarian (2001). [58] Lukács, György (1950). Studies in European Realism: A Sociological Survey of the Writings of Balzac, Stendhal, Zola, Tolstoy, Gorki and Others. Translated by Bonee, Edith. Foreword by Roy Pascal. London: Hillway Publishing. OCLC 2463154.Nana opens with a night at the Théâtre des Variétés in April 1867 just after the Exposition Universelle has opened. Nana is 18 years old, but she would have been 15 according to the family tree of the Rougon-Macquarts Zola had published years before starting work on this novel. Zola describes in detail the performance of La blonde Vénus, a fictional operetta modeled after Offenbach's La belle Hélène, in which Nana is cast as the lead. All of Paris is talking about her, but this is her first stage appearance. When asked to say something about her talents, Bordenave, the manager of the theatre, explains that a star does not need to know how to sing or act: "Nana has something else, dammit, and something that takes the place of everything else. I scented it out, and it smells damnably strong in her, or else I lost my sense of smell." Just as the crowd is about to dismiss her performance as terrible, young Georges Hugon shouts: "Très chic!" From then on, she owns the audience. Zola describes her appearance only thinly veiled in the third act: "All of a sudden, in the good-natured child the woman stood revealed, a disturbing woman with all the impulsive madness of her sex, opening the gates of the unknown world of desire. Nana was still smiling, but with the deadly smile of a man-eater." Although more often than not, she preferred to keep her male friends just guessing, or waiting… and they often get their dark suits dirty with her face and body powders...