November 2025 Au Bonheur des Dames: (1883) (The Ladies Paradise) Ch 5-10

Thoughts/ideas

I just have a premonition (after reading chapter 5) that something really bad is going to happen to Denise. As she continues to resist Mouret, that feeling is becoming stronger. Mouret is becoming more obsessed with Denise's virginity (purity?).

Zola does such a great job of making one feel that they are actually there when Mouret launches his grand sale. His description of the frenzied shoppers makes it sound like a near religious experience. Zola also gives us a small and perhaps unreliable look into Mouret's psyche, where he believes his store is an art form and women his inspiration.

Denise seems to be the primary, if not lone moral holdout thus far. She refused to sleep with others to enhance her finances. Much of this section is taken up with the contrast of the old world (Badau's shop) and the new world (Mouret's empire).

I find the infighting and jealousies among the employees rather scary. They are also very cavalierly treated by the management: the scenes in the obligatory dining hall almost put me off my food. And then that wholesale firing of salespeople during the slack season in July/August!

Something I find odd is the treatment of Denise’s brothers. They pop up and vanish again like jack-in-the-boxes. I admit that I don’t pay close attention to the timelines and chronology, but they have been in Paris for almost three years now and little Pépé should be starting school, shouldn’t he? And I have no idea if Jean is actually learning his trade or working anything like the kind of hours that Denise puts in, we only hear about his affairs that she pays for.

>4 MissWatson: I agree, not very well developed. Wonder if we will see them in another book, as well as Denise?

>5 Tess_W: Apparently not. I looked at a French website which lists all the characters, and they did not reappear.