The Sunday Salon: Lessons Learned

Good morning and Happy May! April was not an especially productive reading month here by the lake. In fact, it was the least productive since I began blogging, but it was a month that taught a few valuable lessons.

There were several firsts for me this month:

• My first read-along (Wuthering Heights Wednesdays).
• My first Classics Circuit Tour (Zola - Paris in the Spring)
• My first book tour (South of Broad for TLC Book Tours)

Lesson #1

I am a social reader. This read-along thing is a lot of fun! Sure, I could blast through Wuthering Heights in a week, write a review, carry on a conversation in the comments, and be perfectly happy.

But, it's really fun to read three chapters a week and see all the posts appear on Wednesdays. We may focus on different plot points, have varying impressions or questions, or make some interesting (and often funny) comparisons. Jerry Springer was mentioned several times last week!

Thinking back to January, Woolf in Winter served the same purpose. The group read four Woolf novels and posted on one every other Friday. Although I only read Mrs. Dalloway, it was an amazing experience to read (and comment on) all the other posts that day! It certainly enhanced both my understanding and enjoyment.

In the past, challenges have filled this 'social' need, but that came primarily through sign-up and wrap-up posts. The read-alongs are much more fun - for me anyway. That said, I will be ending my 'no challenges in 2010' resolution soon. Bellezza tells me the Japanese Literature 4 Challenge will begin in June rather than July, and I have four books all ready to go.

Other events, such as Claire's Angela Carter Month and Rachel reading her way through Richard Yates novels, have also been very memorable... and social.

Persephone Reading Week, hosted by Verity and Claire, starts tomorrow! I still regret being away on vacation for last August's edition. Doreen by Barbara Noble will be my Persephone of choice for the week. Are you participating?

Lesson #2

I don't like deadlines. I've never really posted with a deadline in mind. Blogging has been all about fun. This month there were six. The four for Wuthering Heights Wednesday weren't bad... I'm sure people would have 'talked to me' even if I posted on Thursday.

Posting for The Classics Circuit and TLC Book Tours added pressure to have a review done on schedule. I don't write a review immediately upon finishing a book. It sort of percolates until 'inspiration' strikes.... and I haven't found a way to speed that process up!

I should mention that I loved The Classics Circuit tour last month! With participants reading many different books by the same author, the scope of discussion was very broad and interesting.

Maybe reading the books further ahead of time and setting an earlier deadline for myself would help.

Lesson #3

I'm uncomfortable with giveaways, and don't like gimmicks or limitations. I'm hosting one now in conjunction with the South Of Broad tour, but (at the publisher's request) it is open only to residents of the US and Canada. I apologize to my international readers.

There you have it - the April lessons. Now what will I do with this new self knowledge? More read-alongs, skip the giveaways, and, given my slow reading speed, carefully consider commitments with a deadline.

Any other suggestions?

The Ladies' Paradise by Emile Zola

The Ladies' Paradise

by Emile Zola

Oxford World Classics, 2008

(originally published 1883)

translated by Brian Nelson

432 pages

Novel, social commentary, business manual... however you classify The Ladies' Paradise by Emile Zola, this 125 year old classic possesses a surprisingly contemporary feel as it chronicles the rise of the modern department store in Paris.

The novels opens with Denise, a recently orphaned shopgirl from the country, arriving in Paris with two younger brothers in tow hoping for assistance from her Uncle Baudu. Baudu, owner of a small family-run business, operates his shop literally in the shadow of The Ladies' Paradise and balances precariously on the brink of failure. He is full of anger and resentment toward the store and it's owner Octave Mouret, "master of the terrible machine".

In the old days, when trade was trade, drapery meant materials and nothing else. Nowadays their only aim is to expand their business at the expense of their neighbours and to eat everything up. (page 24)

Denise, however, is "bewildered and attracted" by the giant shop, while feeling an "instinctive repugnance for [her uncle's] icy little place where the old-fashioned methods of business still prevailed." Since her uncle cannot offer her a position, she secures employment at The Ladies' Paradise.

Mouret employs surprisingly modern and sophisticated marketing techniques to build his "machine" (huge sales, dazzling displays, publicity and marketing gimmicks, a return policy) in an attempt to attract the women of Paris.

Of supreme importance... was the exploitation of Woman... It was Woman the shops were competing for so fiercely... They had awoken new desires in her weak flesh; they were an immense temptation to which she inevitably yielded... And if, in the shops, Woman was queen, ... she reigned there as an amorous queen whose subjects trade on her, and who pays for every whim with a drop of her own blood.... and, behind her back, when he [Mouret] had emptied her purse and wrecked her nerves, he was full of the secret scorn of a man to whom a mistress has just been stupid enough to yield. (page 76-77)

Zola is a master of description. There are many gorgeous, almost sensual, passages detailing the wares at The Ladies' Paradise.

In the middle of the department an exhibition of summer silks was illuminating the hall with the brilliancy of dawn, like the rising of a start amidst the most delicate shades of daylight - pale pink, soft yellow, clear blue, a shimmering scarf of all the colours of the rainbow. There were foulards as fine as a cloud, surahs lighter than the down blown from trees, satiny Peking fabrics as soft as the skin of a Chinese virgin... (page 252)

As the department store grows, small businesses suffer and die. Zola skillfully portrays their struggle through the Baudus. Simultaneously, thousands gain employment at The Ladies' Paradise. The store provides housing, meals, and social activities for its employees, thus promoting the formation of a "vague" new social class.

From their daily contact with rich customers, nearly all the salesgirls had acquired airs and graces, and had ended up by forming a vague class floating between the working and middle classes; and often, beneath their dress sense, beneath the manners and phrases they had learned, there was nothing but a false superficial education, picked up from reading cheap newspapers, from tirades in the theatre, and from all the latest follies from the Paris streets. (page 155)

Underneath the social commentary and marketing strategies, intriguing story lines can also be found - competition and gossip among the salespeople, the decline of the Baudus and other small shopkeepers, love affairs, Denise's struggle to provide for her brothers and advance her career, and, most importantly, Mouret's growing fascination with Denise.

The Ladies' Paradise is a fabulous book and will likely be among my favorites this year. Therese Raquin was a favorite last year, and Emile Zola has earned a spot on my "favorite authors" list.

This review is part of The Classics Circuit: Paris in the Spring Emile Zola Tour. The entire schedule can be found here. Visit the Classics Circuit website for information on upcoming tours and links to previous stops.

Teaser Tuesdays: The Ladies' Paradise

"At this time of night, the Ladies' Paradise, with its furnace-like glare, seduced her completely. In the great metropolis, dark and silent under the rain, in this Paris of which she knew nothing, it was burning like a beacon, it alone seemed to be the light and life of the city. She dreamed of her future there, working hard to bring up the children, and of other things too, she knew not what, far-off things which made her tremble with desire and fear." (page 28)

The Ladies Paradise

by Emile Zola

The Ladies' Paradise chronicles the development of the modern department store in late 19th century Paris. If the first chapters are any indication, I'm going to love this! Emile Zola will be touring with The Classics Circuit next month.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.