IN PARADISE WITH ZOLA

Because it was recommended here, I had a go at reading Au Bonheur des Dames by Zola (in the English translation The Ladies' Paradise by Brian Nelson, Oxford World's Classics). I associate Zola's writing with grim stories in grim settings, e.g. coal miners being oppressed by their masters. This, however, is a lighter example ... and as in his other books, a real social observer.

It is all about a huge department store in Paris in the late nineteenth century. He shows how it is a great capitalist machine and the owner-manager, M. Mouret, exists to exploit its female customers. He caters to their whims, their fashions and rubs his hands while the cash registers ring up the profits. It is very sensuous e.g. describing all the satins and silks, the lace and leather.

A great character writer, e.g. "Madame Aurélie, meanwhile, did not know how to withdraw decently .... furious that her husband had not invented a pretext for calling her; but he was never any good for serious things, he would have died of thirst beside a pond." Wonderful stuff!