Nana

Published in 1880 as part of the Rougon-Macquart cycle, this novel follows Nana Coupeau, a working-class Parisian who becomes a star of the Varietes and then a courtesan under the Second Empire. She ruins the devout Count Muffat and a string of bankers, officers, and journalists who circle the theatre and her later mansion. Backstage gossip, race meetings, and salons show a society spending itself on display. Nana's rise is set against the last years of Napoleon III's regime. The book is a naturalist study of sex and money in public life, not a private romance.

Bound in purple moire silk. Variant bindings in lilac artificial silk and in red cloth. Glassine dust-jacket and grey slipcase.