Au Bonheur des Dames [SEP] narrative location
widower, Octave has expanded the business into an international retail powerhouse occupying, at the beginning of the book, the greater part of an entire city block.
Plot summary.
The events of "Au Bonheur des Dames" cover approximately 1864-1869.
The novel tells the story of Denise Baudu, a 20-year-old woman from Valognes who comes to Paris with her younger brothers and begins working as a saleswoman at the department store "Au Bonheur des Dames". Zola describes the inner workings of the store
goods hitherto sold in separate shops. The narrative details many of Le Bon Marché's innovations, including its mail-order business, its system of commissions, its in-house staff commissary, and its methods of receiving and retailing goods.
"Au Bonheur des Dames" is a sequel to "Pot-Bouille". Like its predecessor, "Au Bonheur des Dames" focuses on Octave Mouret, who at the end of the previous novel married Caroline Hédouin, the owner of a small silk shop. Now a