Nana (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

de Émile Zola (auteur), Luc Sante (introduction), Burton Rascoe (traduction), Luc Sante (introduction et notes)

Maison d'édition : Barnes & Noble Classics

juin 2009

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Résumé

Nana, by Emile Zola, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:

New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars
Biographies of the authors
Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events
Footnotes and endnotes
Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work
Comments by other famous authors
Study questions to challenge the readers viewpoints and expectations
Bibliographies for further reading
Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate

All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each readers understanding of these enduring works.

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.

Luc Sante is the author of Low Life, Evidence, and The Factory of Facts and coeditor, with Melissa Holbrook Pierson, of O.K. You Mugs: Writers on Movie Actors.

Auteur

Émile Zola (auteur)

Emile Zola (1840-1902) est un des écrivains les plus populaires, les plus lus et les plus traduits de la littérature française. Romancier, il devient le chef de file de l'école naturaliste, dont l'intention est de mettre la fiction au service de la science, plus particulièrement de la physiologie. Journaliste, il écrit abondamment, pour Le Figaro et L'Aurore, entre autre. C'est dans ce dernier titre qu'il publie le célèbre "J'accuse" par lequel il s'en prend ouvertement à l'Armée, coupable d'avoir condamné à tort le capitaine Dreyfus en connaissance de cause - et fait de sa comparution en justice pour diffamation un moyen de révéler plus largement les dessous de l'affaire. Condamné, il s'exile le soir même du verdict à Londres, où il reste un an. Il meurt accidentellement dans son appartement parisien alors qu'il a entamé un nouveau cycle romanesque, Les Quatre évangiles, resté inachevé. Le jour des funérailles, Anatole France déclare : "Il fut un moment de la conscience humaine."

Auteur(s) : Émile Zola