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Ladies’ Choice: Prehistory and Sexual Selection in Au Bonheur des dames

ABSTRACT Criticism of Au Bonheur des Dames has traditionally framed the novel’s Darwinian dynamics in terms of socioeconomic natural selection. We explore another facet of Darwinism in the novel: sexual selection. The urban modernity of Au Bonheur des Dames belies Zola’s concern with deep time. We consider courtship and seduction in the novel in the context of nineteenth-century theories of evolution. Darwin’s The Descent of Man revised the theory of natural selection to account for aesthetics in mate selection. With its focus on fashion and mating, Au Bonheur is a laboratory for Zola’s ideas about competition and display in human coupling.