The Ladies’ Paradise: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

Denise and her brothers Pépé and Jean walk into Paris after arriving on a train (in the third-class carriage) from rural France. Denise is 20 and thin, Jean is 16 and handsome, and Pépé is five. They are frightened and lost. They stop pedestrians to ask for directions to the Rue de la Michodière—the street where their uncle Baudu lives. They are wearing mourning clothes because their father has recently died.

Suddenly, Denise stops on the corner of the Rue de la Michodière. They are standing in front of a drapery shop, and the windows burst with color. It is 8 a.m. and the streets are empty, but the drapery shop buzzes “like a beehive.” Above the huge glass doors, two gilded women with bare breasts unfurl a scroll that reads “the Ladies’ Paradise.” Jean comments that this shop is grander than the drapery shop in Valognes where Denise worked for two years.

A lump rises in Denise’s throat and she feels excited. The Ladies’ Paradise occupies five storefronts and a second floor where salesgirls are bustling about. Furs and fabrics are piled at the front door. Under a lean-to of umbrellas in a display window, silk stockings and gloves are strewn among roses. A brilliant spectrum of silks, satins, and velvets is arranged in another window. Denise exclaims at the low price of the beautiful goods. She stares at this “chapel of woman’s beauty:” a display of mannequins in fur- and feather-lined outfits with price tags stuck in the mannequins’ necks. The stylish outfits are multiplied at every angle in mirrors placed behind them.

Jean gazes at the Ladies’ Paradise and blushes. Pépé clings to Denise, anxious for affection. A white-haired man staring angrily at the Ladies’ Paradise glares at them. Denise and Jean, remembering their uncle, look up and notice that this man is standing before a shop named Au Vieil Elbeuf—the name of Uncle Baudu’s shop. It is a low-ceilinged shop with dingy paint and prison-like windows. Denise, Jean, and Pépé approach their uncle’s shop. After their mother and father died in quick succession from a fever, Baudu wrote to Denise that she and her siblings could stay with him. However, this was over a year ago and Denise now feels bad to spring a visit on her uncle unannounced.  

Denise approaches the white-haired man and introduces herself. Baudu is stunned, and repeatedly asks why they have come. Denise explains that her father left them no money, having spent it all on his dye shop. She and Jean worked for a year but were unable to scrape by. However, Jean developed a skill for ivory carving and has an internship lined up in Paris that offers room and board. Denise does not mention that they left partly because Jean was having an affair with a nobleman’s daughter. Baudu comments that he had warned Denise’s father that the dye shop would fail. He casts another angry glance at the Ladies’ Paradise and then welcomes his niece and nephews inside.

Denise, Jean, and Pépé hesitate in the threshold of Baudu’s shop, unsettled by the gloom inside. The shop is blackened by smoke, stacked with dark piles of fabric, and smells of chemicals. Baudu introduces his wife, Madame Baudu, and his daughter Geneviève. Geneviève stares at Denise’s small parcel, and Denise explains that she left their trunk at the train station. Bluntly, Baudu explains that business is not going well. The Baudus raised five boys, three of whom died and two of whom left home, leaving only Geneviève to help with the store. Moreover, Baudu has invested all his money in a dilapidated house in the country. Baudu says that he has nothing for Denise. Denise says that they will go away, but Baudu softens and says they can spend the night.

Madame Baudu says that Pépé can stay with Madame Gras, a woman who runs a children’s boarding house. Baudu plans to take Denise to Vinçard—a man who is looking to hire a salesgirl—after lunch. Meanwhile, no customers come into the shop. Denise caresses Pépé and assures Madame Baudu that Pépé is well-behaved. A maid appears and Baudu calls everyone to lunch, including his assistant Colomban. Baudu serves veal in exactly equal portions. Denise finds the gloomy dining room depressing.

Baudu asks why Denise didn’t marry anyone in her hometown. Denise laughs at the idea, thinking how she has no money, has two siblings to care for, and is not pretty. Baudu says that Geneviève and Colomban will be married in the spring when business is better. It is tradition in his family for the girls to marry an assistant who takes over the business. Baudu says that, although Colomban’s father drank and chased women, Colomban is a hard worker.

Denise looks at Geneviève and Colomban sitting close together. The inevitability of their marriage meant that they don’t desire each other. Instead, they fell in love “like a flower in a cellar” from being cramped in the shop together their whole lives, and eventually Geneviève will realize this. Denise says that love makes everything possible, and then Baudu passes around jam—a luxury saved for guests.

After lunch, Denise stands in the door and watches the Ladies’ Paradise open. A mob has gathered in front. As people begin to shop, the outfits and materials seem to come to life. The bustle of sales at the counter seems to create heat and light, and the buyers move as if caught in the wheels of a machine. Denise feels both afraid and tempted by the Ladies’ Paradise and is repulsed by Baudu’s old-fashioned shop. She remarks at the success of the Ladies’ Paradise, and Madame Baudu turns white. Geneviève looks suspiciously at Colomban, who is slyly enraptured by the Paradise. Baudu changes the subject by leaving with Denise for Vinçard’s. He sends an assistant for Denise’s trunk.

Denise and Baudu find Vinçard in his shop conversing with two men, Robineau—an assistant from the Ladies’ Paradise—and Gaujean, a silk manufacturer. Vinçard, who’s trying to sell Robineau his shop, blames how slow business has been recently merely on his health. Robineau interrupts him to say small shops are being ruined by the presence of the Ladies’ Paradise. Gaujean rejoins that big stores are ruining France’s textile industry, and that the Ladies’ Paradise is exploiting people: they promised Robineau a promotion and never gave it to him. Insulted, Robineau says he’ll think about Vinçard’s offer.

Baudu asks Vinçard if he is hiring a salesgirl. Vinçard says he hired someone two hours ago. Feigning apology, Robineau chimes in that they are hiring at the Ladies’ Paradise and advises Denise to visit Madame Aurélie, the Paradise’s buyer, in the morning. Baudu exclaims against it, but Denise feels a mixture of fear and pride. She thanks Robineau, and she and Baudu leave. Baudu mutters that it is Denise’s choice.

On the way back to Baudu’s shop, Baudu and Denise pass Bourras, an umbrella carver with a tiny, dilapidated shop squashed between the Ladies’ Paradise and a tall mansion. Bourras tells Baudu that someone from the Paradise wrote his landlord requesting to buy his shop. Furious, Bourras swears that this man will never take his shop from him. Trembling, Baudu leads Denise back to The Vieil Elbeuf. There, Denise’s trunk has arrived but Jean has disappeared. The Baudus are appalled to hear that Denise was offered a job in the Ladies’ Paradise.

The Baudus and Denise sit down for dinner. Baudu tells Denise the story of the Ladies’ Paradise. Octave Mouret—an adventurer and womanizer—showed up in Paris and married Caroline Hédouin, the widowed daughter of the Deleuze brothers, who founded the Ladies’ Paradise. Madame Baudu says that Mouret killed Madame Hédouin; she fell in a hole on the building site, staining the foundation of the Ladies’ Paradise with her blood. Baudu explains that when Caroline was alive, Mouret persuaded her to buy up all the storefronts. Mouret wants to overturn all of Paris, but Baudu thinks that he invested too much money and is heading for a terrible crash.

Baudu speaks disdainfully of how the Ladies’ Paradise carries everything, like a bazaar, and how it treats their customers and employees like commodities. In contrast, Colomban knows the art of the old trade: one should not sell a lot but instead should sell at a high price. The people at the Ladies’ Paradise have no love of family, and they always eat out. Privately, Baudu is afraid that the Ladies’ Paradise will force him to leave his tiny world where he is comfortable. Baudu insists that it is unfair for a shop to start selling everything, and to put small, specialized shops out of business. It is appalling that the Paradise sells gloves and umbrellas.

Baudu confesses that, if Vinçard sells his shop, they all may as well leave. He dreams briefly of starting a union of small retailers. Then he boasts that, although the Ladies’ Paradise has taken some of his business, he doesn’t need to use tricks to sell. Geneviève names Baudu’s loyal customers. Madame Baudu explains how the Paradise grew overnight, whereas Baudu’s has been the same for generations. Denise can see that Madame Baudu has tied her life to the little shop.

Baudu lapses into silence, regretting his outburst. He feels that his family, unlike Mouret, has never had any luck. Also, he bought a retirement house in the country that cost him more to repair than it earned him from renters. Baudu presses Denise about working at the Ladies’ Paradise. She deflects and goes to stand in the doorway. It is dark and the rain makes muddy water flow right into the gloomy shop. This image of “old Paris” depresses Denise.

Across the street, the lamps at the Ladies’ Paradise are being lit. Denise is drawn towards the humming “machine.” She sees the salesclerks counting money among a profusion of lace. Against the “chapel-like” background, the merchandise seems to clothe women hurrying through the rain to festivities. Denise is seduced, and she dreams of a future full of unimaginable things. She feels hope and joy. Behind her, Baudu points at Bourras, who is standing in the rain staring at the Ladies’ Paradise. All the Baudus gather and watch the Ladies’ Paradise—the thing that is destroying them. Baudu guesses that Denise will go in the morning to ask for a job, and Denise says she will.