The Ladies' Paradise

Description

Encapsulating, with luxurious detail, the phenomenon of consumer societyA obsessed with image, fashion and instant gratificationA The Ladies'Paradise depicts the growth of capitalism through the workings of a new economic entity, the department store. The novel centres around the story of the young Denise, who is seeking work in Paris, and Octave Mouret, the aspirational director of the shopping emporium.

Emile Zola (1804-1902) is the foremost representative of the Naturalist school, and is best remembered for Therese Raquin and his twenty-novel cycle, The Rougon Macquarts.

'Nothing gets a crowd going like sex and shopping. Emile Zola was one of the first to describe this new consumerist link in his novel The Ladies' Paradise.' The Times 'Perhaps the most famous novel about shopping is Emile Zola's The Ladies' Paradise - For Zola, the department store was a metaphor for the triumph of capitalism - but he also saw it as the place where women were duped and enslaved into the new habit of consumerism.' The Guardian 'It's an excellent edition!' P.D. Smith