Romance, Black Widow, Second Empire, Les Rougon-Macquart, Prostitution Nana is a novel by the French naturalist author Émile Zola. Completed in 1880, Nana is the ninth installment in the 20-volume Les Rougon-Macquart series, the object of which was to tell 'The Natural and Social History of a Family under the Second Empire', the subtitle of the series. Nana tells the story of Nana Coupeau's rise from streetwalker to high-class cocotte during the last three years of the French Second Empire. N