Nana was first published in 1880 and has been translated several times – see the translation page for details.
For images of other covers please look on the Images page.
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The Books of Émile Zola 
Some very risqué ones! If one didn’t know Nana’s profession before, a clue could be gleaned from some of these covers. I think Dover made one of the better choices.
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There are quite a few more as well but I try to avoid adding generic covers or low quality (I mean low picture quality not low aesthetic or moral quality 🙂 ) ones.
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Interesting to view these after just reading a blog post about why men don’t read books written by women, after a debut author’s experience at a book signing celebration where the men all asked her to sign it for their wives. This makes me wonder who used to read Zola at the time each of these covers were printed. Are the publishers aiming to attract men or women readers or are they working at a level beyond gender, assuming that he is read equally widely by both?
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Hi Claire. Well, I’m guessing that they’re using images of naked women to attract male readers whilst hoping that it doesn’t put off (or may also) attract female readers. I never really understand marketing techniques but I would guess that if a book had a naked (and/or erotic) picture of a male on it then it might put off male readers, who may fear being considered homosexual if they buy it, and may put off female readers who may fear that they’re buying, or are seen to be buying, pornographic material. At least, that may have been the case when the books were published in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s etc; maybe it’s not the case today. However, in the case of Nana the salacious covers are at least in keeping with the contents of the book.
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