Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

  • The Ladies' Paradise

  • Au Bonheur des Dames
  • By: Émile Zola
  • Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
  • Length: 18 hrs and 19 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (6 ratings)

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Ladies' Paradise

By: Émile Zola
Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £22.99

Buy Now for £22.99

Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Zola’s The Ladies’ Paradise (Au Bonheur des Dames, 1883) plays out in a colossal and opulent Parisian department store of the same name. Its owner, Octave Mouret, builds his innovative, upmarket women’s fashion empire at the expense of the city’s smaller, traditional shops.

A self-declared manipulator of women, Mouret not only plays on his female customers’ personal insecurities and social aspirations to keep his takings high, but also exploits his mostly female staff who work long hours in harsh conditions. After a difficult start, one young recruit, Denise Baudu, ends up giving Mouret much more than he bargained for.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
Public Domain (P)2021 Naxos AudioBooks UK Ltd.
Classics
Show More Show Less
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Belly of Paris cover art
Thérèse Raquin cover art
Blood, Sex and Money cover art
Oblomov cover art
Buddenbrooks cover art
The Lady with the Dog cover art
Cousin Bette cover art
Idylls of the King cover art
Sentimental Education cover art
Adam Bede cover art
Light in August cover art
The Golden Bowl cover art
The Decameron cover art
Jezebel’s Daughter cover art
Oracle Bones cover art
My Brilliant Friend cover art

What listeners say about The Ladies' Paradise

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.co.uk reviews

Amazon reviews
Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Tone

Phenomenal social commentary. Not his best novel.

A long deeply descriptive detail of the birth of the one stop Department store and its impact on society, traditional small retail businesses and general employment practices.

Like Tolstoy, Zola is known for his long, sweeping descriptive prose. Zola paints his background of detailed aspects of life in mid 19th century France and the Industrial and commercial revolution.
Often set within a story of human nature, strife, exploitation, love and tragedy.

The Paradise is long on description, perhaps too much for my liking and less plot and story driven.
A good social commentary on the evolution in the retail trade but not the best novel in the RM series.

Report this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!