# Quote — Emile Zola, Nana

> 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.

- Author: [Emile Zola](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emile-zola.md)
- Book: [Nana](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emile-zola/nana.md)
- Original (fr): Tout d’un coup, dans la bonne enfant, la femme se dressait, inquiétante, apportant le coup de folie de son sexe, ouvrant l’inconnu du désir. Nana souriait toujours, mais d’un sourire aigu de mangeuse d’hommes.
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/%C3%89mile_Zola#Nana_(1880)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/emile-zola/nana/all-of-a-sudden

## More from this book

> 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.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emile-zola/nana/must-a-woman.md)

> 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.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emile-zola/nana/then-nana-started.md)

> 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.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emile-zola/nana/he-experienced-keen.md)