changeling67 | The Ladies' Paradise/Ulysses (Reply)

I started reading the Emile Zola novel The Ladies' Paradise back in July, but found it a bit dense and discarded it. As it is a key book in the core modernist module, I have had to revisit it. Basically, it is about sex and shopping in the late Victorian era in Paris. The need for greed and consumerism, the birth of the departmental store. Zola's descriptions of the hierarchy and characters are a little more complex that your regular vignette, so I tend to get lost a bit. Might look out for the film, so I can familiarise myself with it slightly quicker.

Not a big fan of the 'consumer warehouse' idea - I have always preferred smaller places and people with character. Plus, I get a bit fed up with having marketing ideas being dripfed via adverts and other displays. I already know how it all works, but I suppose Zola's work does at least underlines it historically.

I am also having to embark upon James Joyce's Ulysses - the 1922 version with all of its notes is an absolute tome. Think I will stick to Zola for now, though. Already had my glut of nonsense via 'postmodernism', now I have to doubleback and understand its predecessor 'modernism.'

I maybe gone for some time....