See Gervaise Macquart.
L'Assommoir.
COUPEAU (ANNA, known as NANA), born 1852, was the only child of Coupeau
and Gervaise Macquart, his wife. Almost from infancy she was allowed to
run wild in the gutters of Paris, and even in childhood her instincts
were vicious. At thirteen years of age she was sent to learn
artificial-flower making in the establishment of Madame Titreville,
whose forewoman was Madame Lerat, Nana's aunt. She had been there some
time when she began to receive attentions from an elderly gentleman who
had noticed her going to work. Meantime her father and mother had taken
to drink so seriously that home life had become intolerable, and, after
one of innumerable quarrels, Nana ran away to her venerable admirer.
After a few months she tired of him and left, to spend her time amongst
the low-class dancing-halls, in one of which she was found by her
father, who brought her home, where she remained for a fortnight, and
then ran off again. From time to time she returned, but her visits
gradually became less frequent till they ceased. L'Assommoir.
At sixteen years of age she had a child by an unknown father, and two
years later was installed in a flat in Boulevard Haussmann by a rich
merchant of Moscow, who had come to pass the winter in Paris.
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