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Nana

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Nana

By: Émile Zola
Narrated by: Walter Zimmerman
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About this listen

Emile Zola, along with fellow novelists Honoré de Balzac and Gustave Flaubert, was an early realist in French literature. In novels such as Flaubert's Madame Bovary and Zola's Nana, sex and violence were examined with vivid clarity. These realists soon adopted the word naturalism to describe their writings.

Zola's novels were attacked and even banned for their frankness and sordid detail, causing quite a bit of controversy in their day, with their strong emphasis on the unpleasant and unglamorous side of life. The underbelly of 19th century life was a theme for several of its authors, notably Dickens in English. Because of its film versions (which are considerably toned down) and its controversial subject matter, Nana is Zola's best known novel. It is the story of a prostitute in Paris just before the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.

Public Domain (P)1987 Jimcin Recordings Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction
All stars
Most relevant
I too found that the narration a little jarring at first, but as I became accustomed to it, I got over it. Overall, this is an excellent rendering of the work of a writer who is too often overlooked in the English-speaking world (I find it incredible that many of his novels are out of print in English).

Excellent

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I was not very happy with Walter Zimmerman reading. It was not dramatised enough and accents were made on wrong parts of the sentence, which would make me loose the thought of the author before I would manage to realise that the sentence could have been read differently.
It is a brilliant and very moving story, that evokes deep feelings and makes you think. It even made me cry once.

Reading is not that great

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I too found that the narration a little jarring at first, but as I became accustomed to it, I got over it. Overall, this is an excellent rendering of the work of a writer who is too often overlooked in the English-speaking world (I find it incredible that many of his novels are out of print in English).

Excellent

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Tried several times but unable to get more than 1/3 through - WZ was good with War & Peace but this seemed like a slow, computer translation with all the wrong emphases and pauses

Badly read

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What disappointed you about Nana?

Nothing. Nana is one of the great 19th century novels

How could the performance have been better?

The performance is shocking. A great book read as though it is a shopping list without regard to punctuation, feeling or dramatic awareness. Simply dreadful.

Shocking reading

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