Under the thin skin of an intense respectability
there is a seething mass of depravity, and with ruthless art Zola has
laid his subjects upon the dissecting-table. Of plot there is little,
but as a terrible study in realism the book is a masterpiece.
An Bonheur des Dames.
Octave Mouret, after his marriage with Madame Hedouin, greatly increased
the business of "The Ladies' Paradise," which he hoped would ultimately
rival the _Bon Marche_ and other great drapery establishments in Paris.
While an addition to the shop was in progress Madame Mouret met with an
accident which resulted in her death, and her husband remained a widower
for a number of years. During this time his business grew to such an
extent that his employees numbered many hundreds, among whom was Denise
Baudu, a young girl who had come from the provinces. Mouret fell in
love with her, and she, after resisting his advances for some time,
ultimately married him. The book deals chiefly with life among the
assistants in a great drapery establishment, their petty rivalries
and their struggles; it contains some pathetic studies of the small
shopkeepers of the district, crushed out of existence under the wheels
of Mouret's moneymaking machine.
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