Book rambles...
Oct. 16th, 2007 11:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieToday’s post is about one of my all time favorite novels, Emile Zola’s Ladies’ Paradise. I first read the novel in Russian translation when I was 13 or so. We were newly moved to a strange country where I didn’t speak the language, and we barely had any money. But reading LP made me very very happy. I have reread it since, through the years, and loved it just as much as ever.
I recently found it in excellent English translation (though I still prefer the Russian one) in my neighboring Borders, and yup, as good as ever. LP is both a social study of emerging consumerism and a love story which makes me weak in the knees the way few novels do.
(Btw, according to wikipedia, Zola loosely based both the store and the main characters on Le Bon Marché, apparently claimed to be the first department store in the world , and the family behind it, Aristide and Marguerite Boucicaut. Hmmm.)
LP is one of the novels in Zola’s enormous Rougon-Macquart cycle, a series of not-really-connected novels that follows the stories of the large, spread out Rougon-Macquart family. It is a very good framework for Zola to write novels dealing with every aspect of 19th century French life, from politicians, to revolutionaries, to a serial killer, to mine-workers, to whores (yes, Nana is also part of this cycle).
LP is named so after an enormous ladies’ department store which is the focus of the action. This is part expose of consumerism (very relevant today, with people dazzled into buying things they cannot afford), part a study of the costs of progress (Ladies Paradise is the future, and a better way of business, but it’s dragging small businessmen under), and a study of harsh working conditions (sales girls do not earn enough and have to resort to prostitution).
But who am I kidding? The above are what make it a great book. But what makes it a great book I adore are the two main characters: Octave Muret and Denise Baudu. And the love story. And what a love story it is. If I knew what a shipper was when I first read the book, I would have definitely declared myself an Octave/Denise shipper. I love nineteenth century novels, but too often, either the men are wish-fulfillment stereotypes, or the women meek and Victorian. Neither is the case here.
Denise is a strong, independent woman (think Jane Eyre, but without hang-ups about her looks or religiosity) but also self-contained. She is someone who comes up to Paris from the provinces with her two younger brothers. She plans to work in her uncle’s small cloth shop (she is a sales girl) but his business is poor because of the new and shiny Ladies Paradise store across the street. So Denise finds work there, instead.
Octave Muret is the older brother of the tormented priest hero Serge of The sin of Abbe Muret which is an awesome novel which features the most bizarre suicide method I’ve ever come across in literature, by Serge’s OTP. Of course, the title is ironic (what Serge thinks his sin is, is not the real transgression in the view of the author) as the novel is largely an idyll where Serge loses his memory (and thus his knowledge that he is a priest) and falls in love with an unworldly girl, Albine, who nurses him. Of course, after their love is consummated, his memory returns and he becomes a religious fanatic in expiation and bad things happen. OK, this is a huge sidetrack.
Anyway, back to Octave. Octave, who was also the protagonist of Pot-Boulle which ends some time (a few years?) before the start of Ladies Paradise (he also appears as a minor character in The Conquest of Plassans, which is about his parents) is the owner, creator and mastermind of Ladies Paradise store. A young man in his early thirties, Octave, who is a widower since the death of his older wife in an accident (a wife he liked and admired but didn’t love) spends his days perfecting the enormous consumer machine that is his store and his nights with a large assortment of women, all of whom he is nice to and none of whom he cares a jot for. Octave is a womanizer who doesn’t really respect women, but exploits them (for charms or profit). The closest he comes to a steady mistress is a socialite widow he finds helpful. He is no sweetheart: he is a womanizer, his business is crushing other neighboring businesses etc etc. But you cannot help but like him, as he is so full of energy, and enthusiasm and cynicism and cleverness. I think he just might be my favorite Zola hero because he doesn’t wallow.
So yes. Strong, independent heroine that has no interest in being anyone’s mistress and a cynical, women-are-manipulatable boss? Old old trope (though I have no idea if it was old when Zola was writing. Probably not). But not the way Zola writes it.
Throughout the novels, others reference the fact that one day, there will come a woman who will avenge his treatment of women on Muret and make him suffer. And oh boy, Denise is that woman. (Seriously, just remembering that bit in the novel where Muret is crying makes me squee). One of the things I like is that Denise is pretty enough but not striking. I think it’s her stillness and her ‘purity’ (for lack of a better word) that first interest Muret. Purity that has nothing to do with naiveté, or being cosseted away from realities of the world, or religiosity, is very very rare. Denise is good and strong because she chooses to be, because she is good. Not because she is an unworldly weakling.
And another thing is, she is clear-headed and intelligent. She is not caught up in either old ways, or shopping frenzy. She is an outsider, but an observant, not-prejudging one. I love that Octave and Denise talk. They have long conversations. I love that. In fact, it is she who suggests a number of improvements in the life of the work-force because she knows the details of their lives the way Muret never can.
And I love that this is one of those rare novels where the heroine refusing to become the hero’s mistress doesn’t annoy me or make me roll eyes at scruples or what. Denise has a very hard-headed realization that if she agrees to Octave’s advances, no matter his love or what not, she will become just one of a stable for him, quickly. She will have him, but on her terms. And yet she loves him, and she is attracted to him. She is tempted to give in. I love her, seriously. Love.
And of course, how human, that yes, Octave is in love with her, but he wants her more and more because he cannot have her (guy is super-type-A personality, after all). Part of his misery is because he loves her but thinks she does not love him, but part is sheer (and oh so human) desire to get his way.
I love the ending of the book so much, where he finally proposes marriage and by her response he thinks this is not enough, and nothing he can say or do will make her want him, and the million he so much wanted to achieve earning in one day is on the table, utterly disregarded by him (sort of a symbolic ‘you need a heart not just riches’ thing) and then she basically breaks down and admits she loves him. EEEEE. Awesomeness.
My favorite scene, though, is the one when his most steady mistress, Madam Desforges, who thinks Denise is Octave’s mistress, has her come in and pin her dress (apparently salesgirls used to do that) in Octave’s presence and the whole scene is basically designed to humiliate Denise but it totally backfires and…eeeee.
*mush*
Basically, I love that book.
LP is actually one of the three RM novels I truly love (though I like most of them). The other two on my ‘mad love’ list are The Dream and La Fortune des Rougon.
The Dream is about Angelique, an unworldly lace worker in a small church town, and her forbidden love with the Monsignor’s only son, Felicien (Felicien is from an ancient noble family. His father joined the Church after the death of his wife, Felicien’s mother). Their love is pure and true (unusually for Zola, both Angelique and Felicien are true-hearted innocents) but it is opposed by Monsignor (for more complicated reasons than you might think) and Angelique’s parents (who themselves feel cursed because they married without their parents’ permission). And unworldly, devout, grateful to her adopted parents Angelique refuses to wed Felicien without their permission. Not that Felicien is going to give up, but can the state of such innocence, love and purity continue to exist? There is a reason why the novel is named The Dream. It’s romantic and tragic and reads like a hyper-real fairy tale. And I sob at the end every time.
La Fortune des Rougon is the first novel in the cyle, which is about both the beginning of the family success and the destruction of idealism of revolution. I read it first when I was 10, I think. I had no idea about half of it, but loved it. Quite a different experience to reread when adult, but still excellent.
Go read!
Oh, and note on book names. I have used French names for some of them because I don’t know the English ones as I read them in Russian.
I recently found it in excellent English translation (though I still prefer the Russian one) in my neighboring Borders, and yup, as good as ever. LP is both a social study of emerging consumerism and a love story which makes me weak in the knees the way few novels do.
(Btw, according to wikipedia, Zola loosely based both the store and the main characters on Le Bon Marché, apparently claimed to be the first department store in the world , and the family behind it, Aristide and Marguerite Boucicaut. Hmmm.)
LP is one of the novels in Zola’s enormous Rougon-Macquart cycle, a series of not-really-connected novels that follows the stories of the large, spread out Rougon-Macquart family. It is a very good framework for Zola to write novels dealing with every aspect of 19th century French life, from politicians, to revolutionaries, to a serial killer, to mine-workers, to whores (yes, Nana is also part of this cycle).
LP is named so after an enormous ladies’ department store which is the focus of the action. This is part expose of consumerism (very relevant today, with people dazzled into buying things they cannot afford), part a study of the costs of progress (Ladies Paradise is the future, and a better way of business, but it’s dragging small businessmen under), and a study of harsh working conditions (sales girls do not earn enough and have to resort to prostitution).
But who am I kidding? The above are what make it a great book. But what makes it a great book I adore are the two main characters: Octave Muret and Denise Baudu. And the love story. And what a love story it is. If I knew what a shipper was when I first read the book, I would have definitely declared myself an Octave/Denise shipper. I love nineteenth century novels, but too often, either the men are wish-fulfillment stereotypes, or the women meek and Victorian. Neither is the case here.
Denise is a strong, independent woman (think Jane Eyre, but without hang-ups about her looks or religiosity) but also self-contained. She is someone who comes up to Paris from the provinces with her two younger brothers. She plans to work in her uncle’s small cloth shop (she is a sales girl) but his business is poor because of the new and shiny Ladies Paradise store across the street. So Denise finds work there, instead.
Octave Muret is the older brother of the tormented priest hero Serge of The sin of Abbe Muret which is an awesome novel which features the most bizarre suicide method I’ve ever come across in literature, by Serge’s OTP. Of course, the title is ironic (what Serge thinks his sin is, is not the real transgression in the view of the author) as the novel is largely an idyll where Serge loses his memory (and thus his knowledge that he is a priest) and falls in love with an unworldly girl, Albine, who nurses him. Of course, after their love is consummated, his memory returns and he becomes a religious fanatic in expiation and bad things happen. OK, this is a huge sidetrack.
Anyway, back to Octave. Octave, who was also the protagonist of Pot-Boulle which ends some time (a few years?) before the start of Ladies Paradise (he also appears as a minor character in The Conquest of Plassans, which is about his parents) is the owner, creator and mastermind of Ladies Paradise store. A young man in his early thirties, Octave, who is a widower since the death of his older wife in an accident (a wife he liked and admired but didn’t love) spends his days perfecting the enormous consumer machine that is his store and his nights with a large assortment of women, all of whom he is nice to and none of whom he cares a jot for. Octave is a womanizer who doesn’t really respect women, but exploits them (for charms or profit). The closest he comes to a steady mistress is a socialite widow he finds helpful. He is no sweetheart: he is a womanizer, his business is crushing other neighboring businesses etc etc. But you cannot help but like him, as he is so full of energy, and enthusiasm and cynicism and cleverness. I think he just might be my favorite Zola hero because he doesn’t wallow.
So yes. Strong, independent heroine that has no interest in being anyone’s mistress and a cynical, women-are-manipulatable boss? Old old trope (though I have no idea if it was old when Zola was writing. Probably not). But not the way Zola writes it.
Throughout the novels, others reference the fact that one day, there will come a woman who will avenge his treatment of women on Muret and make him suffer. And oh boy, Denise is that woman. (Seriously, just remembering that bit in the novel where Muret is crying makes me squee). One of the things I like is that Denise is pretty enough but not striking. I think it’s her stillness and her ‘purity’ (for lack of a better word) that first interest Muret. Purity that has nothing to do with naiveté, or being cosseted away from realities of the world, or religiosity, is very very rare. Denise is good and strong because she chooses to be, because she is good. Not because she is an unworldly weakling.
And another thing is, she is clear-headed and intelligent. She is not caught up in either old ways, or shopping frenzy. She is an outsider, but an observant, not-prejudging one. I love that Octave and Denise talk. They have long conversations. I love that. In fact, it is she who suggests a number of improvements in the life of the work-force because she knows the details of their lives the way Muret never can.
And I love that this is one of those rare novels where the heroine refusing to become the hero’s mistress doesn’t annoy me or make me roll eyes at scruples or what. Denise has a very hard-headed realization that if she agrees to Octave’s advances, no matter his love or what not, she will become just one of a stable for him, quickly. She will have him, but on her terms. And yet she loves him, and she is attracted to him. She is tempted to give in. I love her, seriously. Love.
And of course, how human, that yes, Octave is in love with her, but he wants her more and more because he cannot have her (guy is super-type-A personality, after all). Part of his misery is because he loves her but thinks she does not love him, but part is sheer (and oh so human) desire to get his way.
I love the ending of the book so much, where he finally proposes marriage and by her response he thinks this is not enough, and nothing he can say or do will make her want him, and the million he so much wanted to achieve earning in one day is on the table, utterly disregarded by him (sort of a symbolic ‘you need a heart not just riches’ thing) and then she basically breaks down and admits she loves him. EEEEE. Awesomeness.
My favorite scene, though, is the one when his most steady mistress, Madam Desforges, who thinks Denise is Octave’s mistress, has her come in and pin her dress (apparently salesgirls used to do that) in Octave’s presence and the whole scene is basically designed to humiliate Denise but it totally backfires and…eeeee.
*mush*
Basically, I love that book.
LP is actually one of the three RM novels I truly love (though I like most of them). The other two on my ‘mad love’ list are The Dream and La Fortune des Rougon.
The Dream is about Angelique, an unworldly lace worker in a small church town, and her forbidden love with the Monsignor’s only son, Felicien (Felicien is from an ancient noble family. His father joined the Church after the death of his wife, Felicien’s mother). Their love is pure and true (unusually for Zola, both Angelique and Felicien are true-hearted innocents) but it is opposed by Monsignor (for more complicated reasons than you might think) and Angelique’s parents (who themselves feel cursed because they married without their parents’ permission). And unworldly, devout, grateful to her adopted parents Angelique refuses to wed Felicien without their permission. Not that Felicien is going to give up, but can the state of such innocence, love and purity continue to exist? There is a reason why the novel is named The Dream. It’s romantic and tragic and reads like a hyper-real fairy tale. And I sob at the end every time.
La Fortune des Rougon is the first novel in the cyle, which is about both the beginning of the family success and the destruction of idealism of revolution. I read it first when I was 10, I think. I had no idea about half of it, but loved it. Quite a different experience to reread when adult, but still excellent.
Go read!
Oh, and note on book names. I have used French names for some of them because I don’t know the English ones as I read them in Russian.
