Nana is the story of the title character, Nana Coupeau, a low-class prostitute living in the last years of the Second French Empire. Nana becomes an influential courtesan and ruins a string of wealthy and powerful men, toying with their affections only to destroy them through financial ruination, humiliation, and psychological abuse. At the novel's conclusion she dies a slow and horrific death of small pox, mirroring the decay of the Second French Empire.
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