Au Bonheur des Dames
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Au Bonheur des Dames (The Ladies' Delight) or (The Ladies' Paradise) is a 1883 novel by Émile Zola, the eleventh in his Les Rougon-Macquart series, about Denise who moves to Paris with her two brothers when her father dies.
In this novel, Zola portrays - among other things - life in Paris at the end of the 18th century. In particular, it offers a portrait of the economy of this period. It recounts the rise of the modern department store in late nineteenth-century Paris. The store is a symbol of capitalism, of the modern city, and of the bourgeois family: it is emblematic of changes in consumer culture and the changes in sexual attitudes and class relations taking place at the end of the century. The accuracy of portrayals was enriched by Zola's extensive research of "Le Bon Marché", at the time the largest department store in Paris.
Typical of Zola's novels, "Au Bonheur des Dames", the physical location of the fictional store in the novel is worth noting. Located along the "Avenue du 10 Decembre" equidistant from the Opera Garnier (Under construction in the storyline of the novel) and the Palais Brogniard (The Parisian stock market) the department store "Au Bonheur des Dames" is meant to highlight the confluence of 'feminine' shopping and 'masculine' finance. Both the stock market and the theatre are central elements in other novels in the Rougon-Macquart series.