The Ladies' Paradise

Written in 1883 by Emile Zola, The Ladies' Paradise is far removed from my usual reading list. I read it, honestly, because I'd started watching The Paradise on the BBC/PBS but became too annoyed by the simpering Denise to continue. Was Zola's Denise really this annoying or did Joanna Vanderham take the character to new heights?

What I discovered is that The Paradise is only loosely based on Zola's novel. The original Denise is, indeed, annoying, but for entirely different reasons than the BBC's Denise. Zola's Denise has arrived in Paris with two younger brothers following the deaths of their parents. Her extreme devotion to these boys, one of whom is not much younger than she is, borders on the absurd at times, although I imagine that her experience was not uncommon at the time. She takes a job at the Ladies Paradise where its creator and owner, Mouret, pursues her relentlessly and the rest of the staff gossips famously about their supposed relationship.

Interestingly, I found The Ladies' Paradise to ask many of the same questions that are frequently posed today: are bigger stores better? What happens to the mom-and-pop shops when an all-in-one retailer opens in their shadow? Do customers really know what they want? What of the relationships they've developed with the small retailers? Clearly, this novel is a case-in-point that the more things change, the more they stay the same. 

At the risk of criticizing one of the great authors of the nineteenth century, I will say that The Ladies' Paradise struck me as overly long. Zola sometimes spent pages describing the offerings of a single department - the patterns, strength, hues, and textures of a particular fabric, say, or the various cuts in which a garment is available - and I often skimmed these descriptions. I was also distracted by the passing of time. In some cases, the reader is told how many weeks or months (or years!) have passed, and in other instances, the reader is left to guess how when events occurred relative to one another.

Whatever my criticisms of the characters or story arc, it is always a joy to read anything set in Paris. Denise strolls under the chestnut trees, through the Tuileries, in neighborhoods near the Opera: Paris is as essential to The Ladies' Paradise as any shopgirl could ever be. Throughout the book, the modernization of Paris - the narrow, medieval streets giving ways to Haussman's wide boulevards - is a central feature of the story. Zola brings this process and the entire belle ville to life in a way any reader should appreciate. (But he still could have written less about silks and laces.)