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). 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. 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. The present volume is divided into a critical essay, formed of six chapters, and an extensive ‘dossier’ (pp. Éléonore Reverzy’s guide to Nana joins Roger Clark’s critical companion (2004) as an alternative resource for those studying Zola at undergraduate level.
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