Zola's “Ladies Paradise” and the “creative destruction” theory

Zola's Ladies Paradise may be read as a romance. A poor young woman is hired as a salesperson by a tycoon who is launching the first department store, the "ladies paradise", in mid-19th century Paris. After several twists and turns, inventive enough for having inspired several modern-day filmmakers, they fall in love and marry. Behind this love story, however, the novel is also to be read as a deep reflection on economic progress, showing, in particular, how a major innovation may fulfil the dreams of some, the mid- and high-bourgeoisie customers or the newly hired white-collars and salespersons, while destroying the life of others, the traditional neighbouring merchant families outcompeted by the new store. Published the year of Marx's death, the novel echoes his concerns about the social consequences of capitalist growth. Despite the tragic description of shops and families displaced by the swelling department store, however, hope and faith in the future set the tone of the novel, unlike Zola's usual sombre painting of the society around him. Far-sightedly, this novel foresees the theory that would be famously put forward 70 years later by the economist Joseph Schumpeter, according to which economic "creative destruction" is the essence of capitalism and the root of economic progress.