The Ladies’ Paradise: Chapter 13 Summary & Analysis

One day in November, the Baudus’ servant finds Denise at work and tells her that Geneviève wants to see her. Recently, Colomban ran off with Clara, leaving a fake suicide note for the Baudus. His disappearance made Geneviève’s condition worse. Denise leaves work and goes to the Vieil Elbeuf. Baudu had recently mortgaged the building, and it is in such a state of disrepair that it looks ready to collapse. Denise finds Madame Baudu sitting in the shop, her eyes glazed with tears. Madame Baudu says that Baudu is upstairs with Geneviève.

Baudu comes downstairs and says that Geneviève is sleeping. He sits down and silence falls. Then he starts muttering, saying that he raised Colomban as his own son, and that he was excellent salesman. Colomban betraying him for a dreadful woman is like someone telling him that God doesn’t exist. Baudu blames himself for Colomban’s demise, saying that he should have married him and Geneviève right away. Denise tells him not to blame himself, confessing that Colomban had been ready to run away for a long time. Baudu says that the Ladies’ Paradise has killed his business and is now killing his daughter.

Geneviève wails that she is afraid of being left alone, and Denise and Baudu hurry upstairs. Geneviève lies in bed, her thin body wasted away by consumptive fever. She is in the room in the back so she can’t see the Ladies’ Paradise. She lights up when she sees Denise, who embraces her and asks if she needs anything. Geneviève stares at Baudu until he leaves the room. Geneviève then clasps Denise’s hand and asks if Colomban is still with Clara. Denise says that Colomban now stalks Clara, who has grown tired of him. Trying to give hope, Denise says that Colomban might come back to Geneviève.

Geneviève says that she knows it is all over. She throws off her blankets and shows Denise her thin, naked body. She says that she is no longer a woman, and that it would be wrong to want Colomban. She asks Denise to tell Colomban that she forgives him. Denise kisses her and tells her not to lose heart. Baudu comes back upstairs, and Denise leaves.

The next morning, Geneviève dies. Her funeral is held on a gloomy day. Her child-sized coffin is covered with white roses. The small tradespeople—the “monster’s victims”—attend, walking through the mud past the Ladies’ Paradise, dressed in black. Jean also attends and seems struck with grief by the tragedy. Denise leaves Pépé with his caretaker.

While everyone waits for the hearse to arrive, Denise hears Bourras ask another tradesman to look over his shop while he attends the funeral. Denise notices that his shop has fallen into a state of decrepitude, crushed between the Ladies’ Paradise and displaying a few rotten umbrellas. Bourras grumbles as he watches the hearse bump into one of the Ladies’ Paradise’s vans trying to get to the coffin. The procession starts, leading the coffin past the Ladies’ Paradise to the service, and then back past it to the cemetery. Baudu follows the hearse with heavy, mechanical steps.

Tired and depressed, Denise gets into a funeral carriage. When the carriages halt, struggling to get around the Ladies’ Paradise’s scaffolding, Bourras climbs in beside her. He complains about the crowded street and the rumored 100-million-dollar turnover of the Paradise. He comments that Geneviève’s funeral is nothing but a “string of failures;” the tradesmen are defeated, and even Robineau is almost bankrupt. Bourras thinks the world is going mad because many stores are now selling a variety of things.

Denise feels that the funeral procession is like a herd of cattle tramping towards a slaughterhouse. Bourras says that, after many lawsuits, he has kept the Ladies’ Paradise at bay. Mouret is still after him, but he won’t stop resisting, even though he has fallen into poverty. Denise tries to convince Bourras to accept Mouret’s offer, but Bourras tells her to mind her own business.

The carriages stop at the cemetery, and Denise and Bourras get out. After a brief ceremony, the coffin is lowered into the grave. Bourras looks at the crowd of sickly tradespeople and says they should all jump in the grave too. Denise takes the Baudus and Jean back to Baudu’s, where she hears that Jean is in the throes of despair over a woman. Denise chokes back tears at the sight of Madame Baudu and Baudu sitting in their crumbling shop, crushed by grief.

That evening, Mouret sends for Denise to talk about children’s fashion. Trembling with pity and grief, Denise tells him about her day. On hearing Bourras’s name, Mouret rants about Bourras’ filthy hovel, and his foolishness for rejecting Mouret’s generous offers. Denise stays quiet, thinking of sentimental rather than practical things. Mouret offers his condolences to the Baudus but says that they brought their troubles on themselves. If it wasn’t the Ladies’ Paradise that ruined them, it would have been another big shop, for the idea is now popular. Mouret says that “the corpse of old-fashioned business” must be swept out of the “sunny streets of modern Paris.”

That night, Denise barely sleeps. She wonders whether death is an essential part of life. She dreams of Geneviève’s grave and the small shops crumbling to the ground. She feels an immense sorrow but knows that every revolution involves sacrifice, and that all progress occurs over “the bodies of the dead.” However, she wants to alleviate her family’s suffering and decides to ask Mouret for help; although he is a womanizer, she believes that under his exploitative affections is a true warmth. The next day, Mouret agrees to compensate the Baudus and Bourras when they finally surrender to the Ladies’ Paradise. In the meantime, Denise visits the Baudus often, trying to cheer up Madame Baudu, who seems to be dying.

One day, Denise is leaving the Baudus when she sees a crowd gathering in panic. An omnibus had just run into a man. The anxious driver says that the collision wasn’t his fault; the man walked into the street and threw himself under the wheels. Denise approaches the man—who is still alive—and recognizes Robineau. Denise gives the police Robineau’s information. A stretcher is sent for. Denise goes on ahead, hoping to warn Madame Robineau of the shock in store for her.

Denise finds Madame Robineau, who is pregnant and looks tired. Recently, the Paris-Paradise outshone all rival silks and ruined Robineau’s business. Madame Robineau tells Denise that Gaujean had just showed Robineau some overdue bills earlier that morning. Denise then tells her about the accident and says that Robineau is being brought on a stretcher.

Madame Robineau rushes to the door just as Robineau is being brought in on the stretcher. He has regained consciousness, and he weeps when he sees his wife. Denise closes the shutters to give them privacy. They embrace each other, and Robineau confesses his attempted suicide; he felt defeated after Gaujean showed him the bills. Robineau loses consciousness again and Madame Robineau grasps Denise, weeping that Robineau wanted to take his life because he failed her. Robineau opens his eyes, and Madame Robineau says that she doesn’t care about money. She cares only that they are together.

A doctor comes and determines that one of Robineau’s legs is broken. Gaujean appears and tells Robineau that he is officially bankrupt. Robineau says that he and Gaujean, both being young, should have accepted modern business. Robineau is carried to the bedroom and Madame Robineau kisses Denise, glad to be done with business altogether. Gaujean admits to Denise that she was right about modern business, and says he is trying to get back in with the Ladies’ Paradise.

One day in January, Madame Baudu dies. For the last few days of her life, she sat motionless in bed. She hadn’t let Baudu draw the curtains but had stared at the Ladies’ Paradise with her eyes full of tears. The ruined tradespeople gather again for a funeral. Baudu follows the hearse with the same mechanical walk.

Denise is overwhelmed by these tragedies. On top of it all, Jean is immersed in another affair, and she had to send Pépé away to school. Then, Bourras goes bankrupt and is forced to give Mouret his shop for 500 francs after having refused the 100,000. When the demolition begins, the police are forced to remove Bourras, who refuses to leave.

The next morning, Denise finds Bourras standing outside his shop. She can see her old room through the window and is filled with pity for all the suffering in the world. There is a terrible cracking noise and the shop collapses. Bourras cries out and gapes at the debris. The Ladies’ Paradise had gained its ultimate triumph. Denise gently assures Bourras that he will be taken care of. Bourras draws himself up proudly and says he won’t accept charity from his murderer. He says goodbye and walks away through the crowd.

Denise watches him go, and then goes to see Baudu who now spends his days pacing the mildewed and deserted Vieil Elbeuf. Denise asks Baudu if he heard Bourras’s house collapse. Baudu nods, gazing at the empty bench where his wife and daughter used to sit. Denise says that Baudu can’t stay here, and that he must figure out what to do. Baudu continues to pace. Denise says that the Ladies’ Paradise has a job for him. Baudu pitifully asks how he could do such a thing. Denise pictures Baudu working in the Ladies’ Paradise and feels sick with pity. She asks him to forgive her, then leaves him to his weary pacing.

That night, Denise can’t sleep. She is moved to tears by the suffering around her but accepts it as a part of the struggle for existence. She shudders to think how she has become a powerful part of the “monster.” Despite the destruction that his “brutal mechanism” causes, its grandeur makes her love Mouret more.