Nana — Émile Zola | Reader’s Companion | Coleman’s Notes CN-058

Enter the dazzling, disturbing world of Émile Zola’s Nana — a novel in which celebrity, sex, money, class and spectacle collide in the final years of France’s Second Empire.

Nana rises from an uncertain theatrical debut to become one of the sensations of Paris. Wealthy men compete for her attention, fortunes are spent, respectable families are destabilised and the distinction between aristocratic society and the demi-monde becomes increasingly difficult to maintain.

Coleman’s Notes® CN-058 guides you through the complete 14-chapter novel, combining detailed chapter analysis with an exploration of the historical and social world that makes Nana such a significant work of nineteenth-century French literature.

Go beyond the story to examine Zola’s Naturalism and the Rougon-Macquart project; Paris under Napoleon III; theatre and celebrity culture; women and the demi-monde; sexuality and power; money, credit and consumption; gender and the double standard; heredity and environment; the racecourse episode; and the extraordinary final connection between smallpox, war and the collapse of the Second Empire.

The companion also contains detailed character studies, symbols and motifs, eight extended Close Readings, narrative technique, historical and literary context, a Translation & Edition Guide, critical debates, comparative-study ideas, 50 Reading and Discussion Questions, and Quick Revision & Recall.

62 A5 pages

Digital Reader’s Companion — £10.95

Also available in Coleman’s Notes® French Literature Collection 1:

The Count of Monte Cristo • The Three Musketeers • Nana • Madame Bovary • Le Père Goriot

Collection price: £49.95

Five separately: £54.75

Save £4.80

READ • REFLECT • EXPLORE • UNDERSTAND