Nana

One September evening, Muffat walks into Nana’s townhouse and finds her having sex with Georges. He is enraged, but she manages to calm him and avoid a split. Though Nana is as popular and admired as ever, her household is in complete chaos. She spends thoughtlessly, produces massive amounts of food waste, and does not notice that all of her servants are stealing from her regularly. She is planning her most absurd luxury yet: an ornate gilded bed, a throne for her lovers to worship her nakedness.

Philippe proposes to her, but she dismisses this as a ridiculous idea, as he could not fund her lifestyle. Shortly after, Madame Hugon receives word that Philippe has been arrested for stealing from his military regiment. Georges is gone too. Madame Hugon decides to pay Nana a visit.

Finding herself overwhelmed with bill collectors, Nana decides to accept some clients from the procuress Madame Tricon, a last resort she often takes advantage of in times of financial distress. On her way out the door, she runs into Georges, who begs her to marry him instead of Philippe. Annoyed, she tells him he has no right to expect anything from her. When she returns from her client, Georges is still in her bedroom. When she again refuses his offer of marriage, Georges stabs himself twice with a pair of scissors—just as his mother walks through the door, followed shortly by Muffat. Later, Zoe tries to clean the bloodstain off the floor, but cannot get it out. Nana hears that Georges is recovering slowly at Les Fondettes.

Meanwhile, Muffat’s personal life and Nana’s household have descended into even greater chaos. Sabine is sleeping with a rotating cast of men while Muffat feels guiltier than ever about his affair. Nana begins openly shoving her other affairs in his face, calling him disgusting. Her servants’ turnover is at an all-time high, and even Zoe plans to leave. Nana’s procession of lovers grows; she now picks up random men from the street. She has also taken up with other female lovers; in response, Satin throws loud, wild scenes. Nana takes Steiner back and ruins his newly-regained wealth in spectacular fashion, immediately afterward doing the same to La Faloise and Fauchery.

Nana starts to sexually degrade Muffat. She makes him talk like a baby and move like an animal. She even makes him wear his chamberlain uniform, then take it off, spit on it, and trample it underfoot.

One day, Muffat gets back earlier than expected from a trip to Normandy, where he had to sell his last remaining parcel of land to meet Nana’s financial demands. When he opens the bedroom door, he finds Nana on her new bed-throne with his father-in-law, the Marquis de Chouard. This is Muffat’s breaking point. He falls on his knees and starts praying for forgiveness. Miraculously, Monsieur Venot shows up at this precise moment and takes Muffat into his arms. Sabine has run off with a buyer from a draper’s shop, but the news barely fazes the shellshocked Muffat, who begs Venot, “Take me away … I have reached the end of my strength” (356).

Though he is financially ruined, Muffat picks up what pieces he can of his former life. Sabine eventually returns and he welcomes her back, excusing her actions as the effects of Nana’s influence. Estelle sues him for squandering her inheritance, and he is ejected from his position at court because of his and Sabine’s scandalous behavior. Despite this mounting tragedy, he is at peace, having finally broken free of Nana’s spell.

In the days following the breakup with Muffat, Nana learns that Zoe is leaving her, and Satin is in a hospital on the brink of death. Labordette appears and tells her that Georges has died, either of his stab wounds or some new suicide attempt. The news sends Nana into a spiral; she protests that she is not to blame for all these tragedies, exclaiming that all the ruined men in her orbit chose their downfall. After this diatribe, she feels better and immediately begins fantasizing about an even bigger, grander life. She sets out to visit Satin, “dressed in all her finery, clean, strong, and looking quite new, as though she had never been used” (362).