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Welcome back to The Invisible College, my series of literature courses for paid subscribers. The introduction to and schedule for the 2026 season is here. The 2024 and 2025 archives are here. This episode, of which the first 10 minutes are free, is about Émile Zola’s Nana. We first discuss Zola’s life and influence on the French model of the activist writer-intellectual as well as his naturalism and scientific theory of the “experimental” novel. Then we test these ideas against his classic novel of an actress-courtesan’s rise in the corrupt society of Second Empire France, a novel aesthetically and politically divided between its naturalist commitment to showing the determinations of heredity and milieu, on the one hand, and, on the other, its conspicuous myth-making of the modern woman as world-devourer. Please like, share, comment, and subscribe! The slideshow corresponding to the episode can be downloaded behind the paywall: