24 quotes
She offered herself to him with that quiet expression which is peculiar to a good-natured courtesan.
Nana (1880)
A ruined man fell from her hands like a ripe fruit, to rot on the ground by himself.
Nana (1880)
At every mouthful Nana swallowed an acre.
Nana (1880)
The courtesans, as Vandeuvres used to say, avenged public morality by emptying his money bags.
Nana (1880)
Both women, looking different ways, kept shrugging their shoulders, and asking themselves how the deuce the other could tell such woppers!
Nana (1880)
Must a woman know how to act and sing? Oh, my chicken, you're too stoopid: Nana has other good points, by Heaven!—something which is as good as all the other things put together.
Nana (1880)
Wasn't it true that the moment two women were together in the presence of their lovers their first idea was to do one another out of them? It was a law of nature!
Nana (1880)
The rage for debasing things was inborn in her. It did not suffice her to destroy them, she must soil them too.
Nana (1880)
Great disorders lead to great conversions. Providence would have its opportunity.
Nana (1880)
All of a sudden, in the good-natured child the woman stood revealed, a disturbing woman with all the impulsive madness of her sex, opening the gates of the unknown world of desire. Nana was still smiling, but with the deadly smile of a man-eater.
Nana (1880)
Foucarmont had twice fought duels, and he was in consequence most politely treated, and admitted into every circle.
Nana (1880)
He experienced keen pleasure mingled with remorse, the kind of pleasure known only to Catholics who, in the midst of sin, are goaded by the fear of hell.
Nana (1880)
Then Nana started on la Faloise at once. He had for some time been longing for the honour of being ruined by her in order to put the finishing stroke on his smartness.
Nana (1880)
Existence is so bitter for every one of us! Ought we not to forgive others much, my friend, if we wish to merit forgiveness ourselves?
Nana (1880)
He was a young dandy, and his habiliments, even to his gloves, were entirely yellow.
Nana (1880)
She had not taken her hat off, and she wore a dark dress of an indecisive colour midway between puce and goose dripping.
Nana (1880)
The Russians had a great taste for her owing to her embonpoint.
Nana (1880)
The curtain fell on an apotheosis, wherein the Cuckold's Chorus knelt and sang a hymn of gratitude to Venus, who stood there with smiling lips, her stature enhanced by her sovran nudity.
Nana (1880)
Like those antique monsters whose redoubtable domains were covered with skeletons, she rested her feet on human skulls. She was ringed round with catastrophes.
Nana (1880)
You know, I'm disgusted when dirty little boys run after old women.
Nana (1880)