“Nana” (1880) is Emile Zola’s ninth novel from the “Rougon-Macquart” cycle, devoted to members of one family who lived during the Second Empire—the period of Napoleon III’s dictatorship. In it, the theme of female prostitution is explored through the life of a small “lorrette” (a kept woman), and then a cocotte—whose charms drove the highest officials of the Second Empire mad. The narrative is built as a continuation of the novel “La Betienne” (The Trap).