‘Nana’ d’Émile Zola (review)

Éléonore Reverzy’s guide to Nana joins Roger Clark’s critical companion (2004) as an alternative resource for those studying Zola at undergraduate level. The present volume is divided into a critical essay, formed of six chapters, and an extensive ‘dossier’ (pp. 157–229). The opening chapter is dedicated to establishing Nana’s fictional genealogy, via the less familiar Anna Coupeau of L’Assommoir, whilst the two subsequent chapters position the promiscuous figure of Zola’s ‘monde à part’ against contemporaneous medical, sociological, political and, all importantly, literary discourse on prostitution. By tracing the literary lineage of the late nineteenth-century ‘fille de joie’, Reverzy examines Zola’s imaginative reworking of the figure – ‘celle qu’il nomme fermement “la putain” en 1868’ (p. 76) – and explores the ways in which the naturalist portrayal of the prostitute parodies the models from which it inherits, namely, the libertine plot (Manon Lescaut) and the romantic idealisation of the courtesan (Sue, Hugo). For all the interest of Reverzy’s contextual and intertextual manoeuvring, the postponement of extensive analysis of the novel proper to the latter half of the essay is striking. Ironically, for a book about Nana there is a considerable amount of foreplay. In chapters 4–6, however, there is both a more penetrating analysis of the novel and a foregrounding of its most emblematic moments – Nana’s opening appearance in La Blonde Vénus, the mirror scene, and the heroine’s ultimate decomposition – close readings of which allow the author to engage in more thematically-organised discussions of desire, contamination, gender and religion. Reverzy’s reading of the striptease as a self-referential gesture towards the structure of narrative development and in turn the scopic and epistemological fascination of the male reader certainly covers familiar critical territory, and yet the expansion of the study towards ‘ces grands moments du roman à forte charge méta-poétique’ (p. 156), in which the reading of Nana is itself allegorised, provides for some of the work’s most engaging moments. Despite its emphasis on accessibility for the uninitiated reader, the volume is not without interest for zolistes. The ‘dossier’ puts at the reader’s disposal an array of paratexts, which serve to map out both Nana’s genesis and reception. Key biographical information and preparatory documents, including substantial extracts taken from Zola’s ‘Ébauche’, together with passages from his correspondence are brought together in a highly useful manner. The scandal surrounding Nana’s appearance, meanwhile, hot on the heels of the theatrical adaptation of L’Assommoir, is explored through a range of extracts from journalistic reviews as well as Zola’s own response to the work’s reception in an article published in Le Voltaire. For the reader seeking to familiarise himself with the key critical voices of recent Zola studies, extracts from contemporary readings of the novel are helpfully provided (e.g. Noiray, Mitterand, Baguley), each chosen for their ‘éclairage différent sur Nana’ (p. 209). Reverzy’s bibliography provides excellent up-to-date suggestions for further reading, which, together with the author’s thorough referencing throughout the study, successfully encourage the scholarly reader to delve deeper.