# Quote — Emile Zola, Nana

> Amid that company of gentlemen with the great names and the old upright traditions;, the two women sat face to face, exchanging tender glances, conquering, reigning, in tranquil defiance of the laws of sex, in open contempt for the male portion of the community. The gentlemen burst into applause.

- Author: [Emile Zola](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emile-zola.md)
- Book: [Nana](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emile-zola/nana.md)
- 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/))
- Topics: [women](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women.md)
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/emile-zola/nana/amid-that-company

## 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)