ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns the dual significance of 'elaborate ornamentation' and examines the moments of clothing-related description which can be deemed excessive and the implication of such moments of descriptive excess for the Zolian text. It focuses on the clothing as a literary device. It is in part also influenced by Philippe Hamon's contention that description has often been seen by literary critics as a moment when the author/ reader pact may be troubled or when the coherence of plot or character may break down. The critical language used in discussions of Naturalism demonstrates an often unwitting emphasis on images of dress and undress on the part of the theorist. The 'robe' can be seen as something of a dead metaphor for clothing, since here it also refers simply to the river's colour. Emile Zola's descriptions of sexually transgressive women confuse the materials they wear with the skin hidden by their clothes.
