ABSTRACT
Origins and originals prove as central to Emile Zola's 1880 novel Nana and certain of its adaptations as they are in the L'oeuvre. This chapter introduces the reader to Nana as she performs the part of Venus on stage. Whilst Zola dissects the theatre in Nana, arguably it cannot ultimately be pinned down. The theatre proves to be as permeable and shifting a space as the museum and the salon. Having explored the problematic performative reflection of Nana delivered by literal mirrors in the novel, it is necessary also to consider the multiple reflections of Nana offered by the wide range of doubles the text positions around her. Zola writes of Nana's disappearance: Whilst the cinematic and television versions of Nana are numerous, for the purposes of this chapter on Zola and origin, Jean Renoir's 1926 silent adaptation and Edouard Molinaro's 2001 film for television are of key importance.
