3.5 starsI imagine a bewildered Émile Zola wandering into the crowds populating that new phenomenon that took Paris merchandising in the 19th century by storm - mass production and the birth of the superstore. He enters through the widely opened arms of polished French doors, having to blink tearily at the brilliantly lit chandeliers. Immediately, he is choked by perfumed mists diffusing the air and is submerged in whispers of fine French lace and ribbons, rows of rainbowed textures and fabrics on display, corsets and lingerie accosting his libido. He raises his gaze to the vaulted ceiling and catches the shrewd eye of Octave Mouret, hovering watchfully at the balcony of the second floor and nods a gentlemanly greeting. With this brief upward glance, Zola becomes distracted, shuttled through the cogs of this enormous commercial machine, through its undulating channels, eventually misplacing his wife in the melée - the latter having spied a lady friend in the direction of the fine dresses salon, where time becomes lost and space is infinite.This is The Ladies' Paradise: the department store where all the whimsies of a woman are catered to in one majestic place; where romance, excitement and fantasy materialize through the latest in fashionable outerwear and underwear, notions, potions, novelties, household goods and other en vogue excesses not wholly necessary for ordinary life, are sold. (Ok, it's Macy's on steroids on 'discount day'!).Eleventh in Les Rougon-Macquart cycle, the novel is about modern consumerism and utopian fantasy, a 19th century rags- to-riches story. Denise Baudu is a humble and impoverished shopgirl who finds work in the flourishing department store, The Ladies' Paradise, trying to make ends meet to support her two brothers, but colliding with the worst of human flaws. The novel chronicles the struggle between the traditional shop, the Old Elbeuf (the declining establishment owned by Denise's uncle), and the monster department store owned by the innovative Octave Mouret. A habitual seducer of women, Mouret's own insatiable passion is to conquer the 'woman', to hold her at his mercy, to intoxicate her with unwavering attentiveness and manipulate her desires within his establishment. The art of the seduction is not in the boudoir but in the caresses of silk and lace finery found at the most efficient of merchandising mechanisms, with the unique ability to offer national brands at substantial reductions.Zola is a mesmerist when describing the scene of the crowd which takes on a protagonist role of its own. He details economic reinvention and capitalism fueled by consumers' neurotic impulses to shop, the system of mass production and the consequences its development had in revolutionizing the retail industry, in a story decked out in illusion, seduction, luxury, romance, class division, obsession and greed.Any criticism I might offer would be Zola's neglect in providing reasons for Denise's rise in the department - what merited such promotions? In the BBC series, a very sketchy interpretation of the novel by the way, Denise is shown as an astute, bright and quick thinking sales girl whose original ideas won her elevation in the store. In the novel, however, Denise remains a mousy innocent, extremely mindful of her virtue, afraid of her own shadow, promoted not by any skill of her own, it appears, but by Mouret's regret that her reputation was often tarnished by her peers; secondly, by his own desire to conquer her, which eventually, more deeply turns to love. The Ladies' Paradise is one of Zola's lighter novels in Les Rougon-Macquart series, yet gives some pause for reflection, to take stock of one's wants, needs and their intrinsic values: truthfully speaking, what price is a lady's satisfaction?Other Zola novels read so far:Therese Raquin ****The Dram Shop ( L' assommoir )****The Beast Within *****Germinal *****
Strabordante, straripante, grandioso: sono gli aggettivi che mi vengono immediatamente da accostare al libro appena letto. Sono stata incerta fino all’ultimo sulle stelle da assegnargli perché da un lato la lettura è stata pesante, dall’altro mi ha comunque appassionato. La pesantezza è dipesa dalle accurate e approfondite descrizioni del grande magazzino Al paradiso delle signore, aperto al centro di Parigi, che Zola analizza con una ricchezza di particolari che viene da chiedersi quante ore abbia trascorso in mezzo ai nastri, trine, stoffe, abiti, cappelli, mantelli e merci di ogni svariato genere che sono vendute negli scaffali dei grandi magazzini (magari accompagnando la moglie a fare spese). A partire dal nome scelto, questo grande magazzino è una gioia per gli occhi; la ricchezza cromatica creata ad arte attraverso i più begli abbinamenti di stoffe di ogni genere e tipo, dai velluti alle sete, l’eleganza degli addobbi e degli arredi, l’efficienza dei commessi che vi lavorano, tutto è fatto per stupire, ammaliare e conquistare le donne, dalle nobildonne decadute ricche solo dell’orgoglio di casta, alle mogli di ricchi borghesi occupate a spendere i guadagni dei poveri mariti, fino alle giovanette di provincia che si ritrovano sperdute a Parigi senza lavoro, come capita alla protagonista Denise. Sotto lo splendore e il luccichio delle sete e dei merletti, il paradiso nasconde però la sua “anima nera”, che Zola sottolinea definendolo più volte come un enorme mostro che spalanca le fauci inghiottendo quanto incontra sul suo passaggio: la solidarietà umana, il rispetto, l’onestà scompaiono e viene fuori la natura bestiale di ciascuno. “Homo homini lupus”è la regola della vita nel microcosmo fatto di commessi e clienti del grande magazzino, cui corrisponde, in campo economico, la triste (ed equivalente) realtà del “mors tua, vita mea”, che costituisce la parte più triste ed anche la più attuale del romanzo, consistente nella scomparsa delle piccole botteghe di una volta portate avanti col sudore della fronte del titolare e della sua famiglia, gettate sul lastrico dalla concorrenza inattaccabile dei grandi magazzini, quella che oggi chiamiamo la grande distribuzione.L’amore tra la commessa Denise e Mouret, il milionario proprietario del supermercato, deciso a non farsi accalappiare da nessuna donna ma di essere soltanto il dominatore incontrastato del suo regno commerciale, ed alla fine folle d’amore per la vergine ritrosa, passa in secondo piano, anche perchè non è certo originale. Un merito riconosco alla fanciulla, verso la quale non ho avuto granchè simpatia: l’essere riuscita, grazie all’ascendente su Mouret, a introdurre nel Paradiso delle signore un inizio, importante, di tutela dei diritti delle donne lavoratrici, che venivano buttate in mezzo alla strada dal momento del matrimonio. Brava Denise!
What do You think about The Ladies' Paradise (2008)?
loved this book! I have a mountain of other things to read but after seeing the BBC series created out of Émile Zola’s The Ladies’ Paradise I couldn’t resist bringing it home from the library. However, I also stumbled across Julian Barnes Levels of Life that day – and it was so beautiful and wise that I read and reviewed that first, and then I found myself with only a day to read all 480 pages of The Ladies’ Paradise and no, I couldn’t renew it because it’s in high demand at the library.By the time I had read the brilliant introduction by Brian Nelson and the first chapter I knew I had to finish the story without waiting for a copy by snail mail, so I resurrected the hated Kindle to buy a copy from You-Know-Who. And because I had fallen in love with Zola I succumbed to buying a Collected Works edition. How different could it be, I thought?Quite different. Not just ignorant proof-reading errors like shoot instead of chute and a disconcerting he instead of she in a crucial piece of dialogue, and the translation by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly (1853–1922) has a quaint way with words like jades and fanfaronade. There are also shades of meaning which matter, when a young woman’s rival is stout instead of buxom. But more importantly The Complete Works of Émile Zola lacks Brian Nelson’s introduction, which places this novel in a context which is still very relevant today. So, take my advice, if you are going to read anything by Zola – don’t do as I did, but do as I mean to do from now onwards: make sure you get hold of the five Oxford World’s Classics titles which have been translated by Brian Nelson, professor of French Studies at Monash University, Melbourne and editor of the Australian Journal of French Studies. Zola is famous for his series about the Rougon-Macquart family, which he used to express his pseudo-scientific belief that ‘human behaviour is determined by heredity and environment’ (p. vii). He wrote ten novels and a short story about this family using the descendants of the three children of an insane woman called Tante Dide to show that they were fated to live out their warped heredity. The offspring of the legitimate child prosper, while the fortunes of the illegitimate strand vary. The Macquarts are unbalanced and prone to violence as I saw in Germinal (see my review) while the Mouret family are ‘successful bourgeois adventurers‘ (p. viii). According to Nelson, The Ladies’ Paradise was a shift in outlook for Zola, who in the character of Octave Mouret focusses on a self-made man capitalising on opportunity in the new Paris. (Quite different to his story of the prostitute Nana, which I have in a nice old Folio Society edition on my TBR).But these biographical details aside, what captivated me about Brian Nelson’s introduction was the way he analysed the book as an exploration of the new 19th century consumerism and commodity culture. To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2013/05/31/th...
—Lisa
From BBC Radio 4 - Classical Serial:By Emile Zola.Dramatised by Carine Adler.Business, ambition and fashion all collide in Zola's colourful love story. Set in the hustle and excitement of the expansion of one of Paris' first department stores.Episode OneWhen innocent provincial girl Denise arrives in Paris, she quickly catches the eye of the notorious seducer of women, Octave Mouret. Despite her uncle's disapproval, Denise accepts a job at Mouret's ever expanding department store The Ladies' Delight.Episode TwoAfter her dismissal from The Ladies' Delight, Denise is determined to stay in Paris. She rents a room above old Bourras' umbrella shop and quickly sets about trying to find other work. With local shops closing as The Delight expands, the task proves more difficult than she imagined.http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tt3x1
—Laura
3.5 STARS So, who am I to give Emile Zola only 3 (3.5) stars? Well, look, he's a great writer but I can only read so many scenes about what the store looked like during the [fill in the blank] sale. I found the subject of this book--the birth of the department store and the concomitant birth of "shopping" as an activity--to be very interesting. The foreword to Ladies' Paradise was, for me, essential reading in terms of appreciating the novel. I had no idea that the modern department store was born and became so sophisticated in such a short amount of time. The historical aspects of the story were fascinating and impressive--love it or hate it, the man who came up with, and brilliantly executed, the idea of a "megastore" in the 19th century was a visionary. A couple of downsides to the way the story was told. First, as noted above, I got bored with the endless details of how the store was laid out, decorated, etc for this sale and that sale. I get it, I got it the first three times. Please, I don't need to hear about the arrangement of the umbrellas. Second, maybe I'm not being realistic about what life was really like in the 1800s but I find it hard to believe that virtuous women were forever weeping when confronted with the merest hint of sexuality. Their tender sensibilities so rocked by a man looking at them with desire that they wept bitter tears and so forth. This might be true but it might also be the fantasy of male writers/men. It made me want to punch the main character at times.
—Diane
