topics: |  fiction | french

When the 15 year old Nana, an erstwhile prostitute, is to appear on the Parisian
Theatre des Varietes, the manager is asked whether she can act or sing - he
says, "Nana has something else, dammit, and something that takes the place of
everything else. I scented it out, and it smells damnably strong in her, or
else I lost my sense of smell."  Later, when she comes on stage in a
negligee,

    All of a sudden, in the good-natured child the woman stood revealed, a
    disturbing woman with all the impulsive madness of her sex, opening the
    gates of the unknown world of desire. Nana was still smiling, but with
    the deadly smile of a man-eater.

    [the men's] faces were tense and serious, their nostrils narrowed, their
    mouths prickly and parched'. Soon every man was under her spell, as backs
    arched and hair bristled. [MALE GAZE]

Nana is presented as evidence of Zola's theory favouring nature over
- she is "the golden fly" rising out of the underworld to feed on
society--a predetermined product of her origins.