Au Bonheur des Dames: (The Ladies' Delight) (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

This novel is all about the first department store in Paris, built at the height of the Hausmanisation of Paris when all the property developers and speculators were making fortunes.The store is a cathedral to consumerism and introduces the new delights of browsing, impulse buying, window shopping, seasonal indulgences, taking goods home on approval, no more haggling, and very interestingly the rise of shoplifting.Having worked briefly in the retail trade I found it a facinating account of the department store as a small town, giving a clear eyed look at owners, shop workers and customers alike. The descriptions of the displays of goods on sale and the way that the owner decides on how to entice the customers is fascinating.The rise of shopping by catalogue and the servicing of the flood of orders is also very powerful.
There is a sadness as old Paris is pulled down and small shopkeepers, who had specialised in say, umbrellas and walking sticks disappear. Price wars break out and loyalties of all kinds are tested.Various romances and love stories are woven into the plot and sex is treated very casually, Zola makes no fuss about this, it just happens. Part of his realistic approach to the novel? I thoroughly enjoyed it and will now read the entire 20 books in the series.

Mixed feelings here. Really, as a work of literature, it's worth four stars, but, for the average reader, I'd give it three stars, and I'll explain why. There are lots of good things about 'Au Bonheur Des Dames', so I'll get the negatives over first.

Too many characters introduced too quickly, so that even when halfway through I felt a bit confused, and hadn't really got a 'handle' on the characters (bar Mouret, Denise and a couple of others). Too many women shoppers, too many shop personnel.

Some of the descriptions of the fabrics sold by the store - Au Bonheur des Dames - go on a bit! A friend who is a brilliant needlewoman loved it; for her it was like savouring a decadent dessert, with lots extra helpings, but for me - too much! I got the impression Zola himself was quite besotted with the calicos, the lace, the silks.

The story is very simple (I won't give any spoilers, but don't read the Introduction to the book if you don't want to know how it ends!), and it's fairly obvious where it's all going - could have been a few more twists and turns.
It was a bit of a slog in places. Bit of a struggle to get to the end, and felt grateful for it being enlivened by the account of shop-lifting!

HOWEVER...very interesting from a documentary, historical point of view; I learned a lot from this book. And some wonderful writing - a few examples later.

It was fascinating to find out that, even in Zola's time, big department stores pushing out long-established small shops was a big issue, although of course in those days the small shopkeepers had no income support or state pensions to help support them - if they lost their businesses they could literally be out on the street. However, in those days, as in these days, it was the most stubborn and resistant to change - those who simply railed against the big stores and refused to change their own businesses in any way to adapt to change the competition - who suffered the most. It was fascinating to read how the sales girls who didn't live in town actually slept at the store, how assistants could be sacked on a whim when business was slow, eg for having a 'horrible face' for being 'three minutes late', etc. Anyone interested in retail will be interested to see described here the 'innovative' (at that time) sales strategies of department stores, eg put x department behind other departments so that people have to walk through those to get to it - the aim being for their eyes to be caught by other goods on the way. How the intent was to 'confuse' shoppers so that they couldn't find their way out easily! The 'loss leaders' that would attract the customers away from other traders selling the same goods and into the store. Piling up cut-price goods around the entrance so people would crowd around them, giving people outside the impression the store was more crowded than it was, to attract them. The descriptions of the displays were amazing - a 'Swiss chalet' made up of different-coloured gloves, displays of parasols covering the ceiling, falling in 'garlands'. And the size of the place (modelled I believe on a store called 'Bon Marche') - 2000 employees - two-thirds the size of Selfridges, with reading rooms, a free buffet etc!

Zola's women...in this book, there were many female characters, but only three sorts. They were either incredibly silly and covetous (lives revolving around 'the latest lace, my dear!'),(the women shoppers), there to be manipulated by the retailer, jealous and scheming (Madame Desforges), or...saints (Denise). Nothing inbetween.

The descriptions of the fabrics and the store - as I've said, a few too many perhaps. But also some wonderful writing. Three quotes for you:

Mouret, when first realising he had 'feelings' for Denise - the shop assistant he'd taken little notice of previously and had in fact told off for looking unkempt, although 'bemused' by her - when looking at her he 'felt an undefinable feeling of surprise and fear, mingled with tenderness'...'he felt as though a favourite bird had just drawn blood with its beak while he was playing with it.'

When Madame Desforges (Mouret's spurned lover) tried to humiliate Denise by leaving her to wait in the antechamber while her soiree with Mouret and others was going on: 'At that she left and her black silk dress brushed against the door with a sound like the slithering of a viper in the undergrowth.'

Zola writing of Mouret's 'Bonheur des Dames': 'His creation was introducing a new religion, and while the churches were gradually emptied by the wavering of faith, they were replaced in souls that were now empty by his emporium'.

If you are a Zola devotee, or if you have in interest in fabric, or retail, you will love this book. If not, it's still definitely worth reading, but approach it as a historical documentary rather than a novel.

A delightful tale of true love, jealousy and every day life in 19th century Paris. It's a war between small, family led shops and the big, profit orientated superstore! Among that young Denise is caught between her uncle and his family and her own feelings for the charismatic superstore owner Mr Mouret. Then everything seems to turn against Denise leaving her without a home or a job. Of course, you'll have to read it to find out what happens at the end!