The Ladies' Paradise: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Ladies' Paradise, credited to Émile Zola, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Ladies' Paradise by Émile Zola. (Translated by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly.) Read in English by Kristin Gjerløw Zola's original French publication, Au Bonheur des Dames ("The Ladies' Delight"), published 1882, is the eleventh novel in his Rougon-Macquart series. This English translation by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly, was published in 1886. It's a glitzy, fast paced Parisian drama depicting life at the world's first department store, revealing its many innovative marketing concepts, fashion, glamour, lust, greed, courage, deception, human foibles, and the vision and financial risk-taking that led to a world transformation in shopping -- one that set all the little shop keepers on their heads. All this is contrasted by our heroine Denise, a young sales woman who struggles through financial hardship, back-stabbing friendships, and incredible temptations with a quiet courage that helps her rise to the top. As she passes through fire and emerges from it unscathed, we get Zola's masterful depiction of social upheaval and feminine resistance to evil. In 2012 the BBC used the novel as the basis for an eight-part television series set in northern England titled The Paradise. A second season followed in 2013. The novel was also was adapted into a play, The Ladies' Delight, for BBC Radio 4, premiering in September 2010. ~ Solo by Kristinjg, Edited by Michele Fry, Summary by Michele Fry

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Ladies' Paradise
• Author credits: Émile Zola
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 34
• Listed recording duration: 16:11:05

Catalogue topics

• paris
• fashion
• France
• Zola
• architecture
• entrepreneur
• mercantile history
• shopping

Opening tracks: first 24 of 34

1. 01 - Chapter 1, Part 1 — 29:46
2. 02 - Chapter 1, Part 2 — 31:22
3. 03 - Chapter 2, Part 1 — 34:07
4. 04 - Chapter 2, Part 2 — 27:43
5. 05 - Chapter 3, Part 1 — 28:37
6. 06 - Chapter 3, Part 2 — 31:20
7. 07 - Chapter 4, Part 1 — 28:37
8. 08 - Chapter 4, Part 2 — 23:04
9. 09 - Chapter 4, Part 3 — 23:27
10. 10 - Chapter 5, Part 1 — 19:46
11. 11 - Chapter 5, Part 2 — 26:52
12. 12 - Chapter 5, Part 3 — 25:40
13. 13 - Chapter 6, Part 1 — 31:47
14. 14 - Chapter 6, Part 2 — 28:39
15. 15 - Chapter 7, Part 1 — 29:41
16. 16 - Chapter 7, Part 2 — 31:21
17. 17 - Chapter 8, Part 1 — 28:24
18. 18 - Chapter 8, Part 2 — 25:51
19. 19 - Chapter 9, Part 1 — 20:43
20. 20 - Chapter 9, Part 2 — 28:32
21. 21 - Chapter 9, Part 3 — 26:22
22. 22 - Chapter 10, Part 1 — 29:25
23. 23 - Chapter 10, Part 2 — 27:26
24. 24 - Chapter 10, Part 3 — 19:54

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.