{"product_id":"the-ladies-paradise-9780520078673","title":"The Ladies' Paradise","description":"Zola's prophetic celebration of unbridled commerce and consumerism, \u003ci\u003eThe Ladies' Paradise\u003c\/i\u003e (\u003ci\u003eAu bonheur des dames, \u003c\/i\u003e 1883) recounts the frenzied transformations that made late nineteenth-century Paris the fashion capital of the world. The novel's capitalist hero, Octave Mouret, creates a giant department store that devours the dusty, outmoded boutiques surrounding it. Paralleling the story of commercial triumph is the love story between Mouret and the innocent Denise Baudu, who comes to work in The Ladies' Paradise. She provides the crucial link between Mouret and the three essential social groups in the novel: the female clientele, the shopgirls, and the petit bourgeois shopkeepers of the neighborhood.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut the store itself plays the leading role. Zola celebrates capitalism, commerce, and consumerism with a kind of prophetic optimism, calling this novel \"a poem of modern activity.\" The work's interest for readers in feminist, cultural, and social history and theory is made abundantly clear in the introduction by Kristin Ross, and the fiction is reproduced in its colorful, 1886 English translation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e?mile Zola\u003c\/b\u003e is the ever-popular author of \u003ci\u003eNana, Germinal\u003c\/i\u003e, and many other novels. \u003ci\u003eThe Ladies' Paradise\u003c\/i\u003e is the eleventh book in his Rougon-Macquart series, the \"Natural and Social History of a Family under the Second Empire.\" \u003cb\u003eKristin Ross\u003c\/b\u003e is Associate Professor of French Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of California Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50844579430674,"sku":"9780520078673","price":35.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_76acf3ac-e42a-4601-bb07-d5604774b56d.jpg?v=1737325936","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-ladies-paradise-9780520078673","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}