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Clara Prunaire
Madame Desforges is a widowed aristocrat and Mouret’s mistress. She is 35 years old, but, in her fear of aging and losing her attractiveness to men, she pretends that she is only 29. She increasingly fears that Mouret is only interested in her because he wants to get close to Baron Hartmann, her wealthy benefactor whom she often persuades to finance her younger lovers. Madame Desforges pretends that she is above the Ladies’ Paradise—a place where high- and low-class women shop together—but goes to every sale and makes surreptitious purchases. She grows incredibly jealous when she discovers that Mouret has feelings for Denise and stages a meeting between Mouret and Denise at her house in which she embarrasses them both. However, she embarrasses herself most of all, and Mouret terminates his relationship with her. She then starts up a relationship with Bouthemont and persuades Baron to finance his department store, the Quatre Saisons. For a time, it seems probable that Madame Desforges will be the woman whom Bourdoncle warns will get her “revenge” against Mouret, but she only amounts to what she was in the beginning—a woman who finances young men’s business ideas to get them to sleep with her.
Madame Desforges Quotes in The Ladies’ Paradise
The The Ladies’ Paradise quotes below are all either spoken by Madame Desforges or refer to Madame Desforges . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2
Quotes
“You know, they’ll have their revenge.”
“Who will?”
“The women, of course.”
[…] With a shrug of his shoulders [Mouret] seemed to declare that he would throw them all away like empty sacks on the day when they had finished helping him make his fortune.
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Chapter 11
Quotes
There were all sorts, hussies as well as decent girls. What is more, their moral standard was rising. In the past they had had nothing but the dregs of the trade, poor distracted girls who just drifted into the drapery business; […] in short, when they wanted to behave properly, they could; […] The worst thing of all was their neutral, ill-defined position, somewhere between shopkeepers and ladies. Plunged into the midst of luxury, often without any previous education, they formed an anonymous class apart.
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“I want her, and I’ll get her! And if she escapes me, you’ll see what a place I’ll build to cure myself. It’ll be quite superb! You don’t understand this language, old fellow: otherwise, you’d know that action contains its own reward. To act, to create, to fight against facts, to overcome them or be overcome by them—the whole human health and happiness is made up of that!”
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Madame Desforges Quotes in The Ladies’ Paradise
The The Ladies’ Paradise quotes below are all either spoken by Madame Desforges or refer to Madame Desforges . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2
Quotes
“You know, they’ll have their revenge.”
“Who will?”
“The women, of course.”
[…] With a shrug of his shoulders [Mouret] seemed to declare that he would throw them all away like empty sacks on the day when they had finished helping him make his fortune.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11
Quotes
There were all sorts, hussies as well as decent girls. What is more, their moral standard was rising. In the past they had had nothing but the dregs of the trade, poor distracted girls who just drifted into the drapery business; […] in short, when they wanted to behave properly, they could; […] The worst thing of all was their neutral, ill-defined position, somewhere between shopkeepers and ladies. Plunged into the midst of luxury, often without any previous education, they formed an anonymous class apart.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“I want her, and I’ll get her! And if she escapes me, you’ll see what a place I’ll build to cure myself. It’ll be quite superb! You don’t understand this language, old fellow: otherwise, you’d know that action contains its own reward. To act, to create, to fight against facts, to overcome them or be overcome by them—the whole human health and happiness is made up of that!”
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
