ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the difference between the two versions of the Zola, the French version published in volume form and the drastically – surgically – altered one in the London Journal, enables meditation on attempted strategies of control that the male editor and proprietor of the Journal exercised over what their female clientèle were to read. Au Bonheur des Dames is the story of the creation of one of those department stores like the Bon-Marché or the Louvre, which have overturned and renewed commerce. The commercial competition that Denise ponders and assists in was predominantly an androcentric activity. She may help Mouret and adopt masculine traits, but all the patrons of the competing shops are men, while la clientele are women. According to late Darwinian theory, men competed with each other for women. The other illustration, a picture entitled ‘An evil counsellor for Denise’, shows Pauline talking to the heroine in the conventional garret of a poor seamstress.
