# Quote — Emile Zola, Nana

> The air there was heavy with the somnolence which accompanies a long vigil, and the lamps cast a wavering light, whilst their burnt-out wicks glowed red within their globes. The ladies had reached that vaguely melancholy hour when they felt it necessary to tell each other their histories.

- 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/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/emile-zola/nana/the-air-there

## 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)