| Uniform title |
Au bonheur des dames. English
|
| Physical description |
xxxii, 428 pages ; 20 cm. |
| Series |
Penguin classics. |
|
Penguin classics.
|
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references. |
| Summary |
Through charm, drive, and diligent effort Octave Mouret has become the director of one of the finest new department stores in Paris, Au Bonheur des Dames. Supremely aware of the power of his position, Mouret seeks to exploit the desire that his luxuriantly displayed merchandise arouses in the ladies who shop, and the aspirations of the young female assistants he employs. Charting the beginnings of the capitalist economy and bourgeois society, Zola captures in lavish detail the greedy customers and gossiping staff, and the obsession with image, fashion, and gratification that was a phenomenon of nineteenth-century French consumer society. Of all Zola's novels, this may be the one with the most relevance for our own time. |
| Language notes |
Translated from the French edition, originally published France: s.n., 1883. |
| Other author |
Buss, Robin.
|
| Subject |
Department stores -- France -- Paris -- History -- 19th century -- Fiction.
|
|
Seduction -- France -- Paris -- History -- 19th century -- Fiction.
|
|
Women sales personnel -- France -- Paris -- History -- 19th century -- Fiction.
|
|
Seduction.
|
|
Paris (France) -- Social conditions -- 19th century -- Fiction.
|
| Variant Title |
Parallel English title: Ladies' delight. |
| ISBN |
0140447830 paperback £7.99 |
|
