"Here, there was the continuous purring of a machine at work, the customers shovelled in, heaped in front of the displays and dazzled by the goods, before being hurled against the cash desks. And it was all organized and regulated with mechanical precision, a whole nation of women caught up in the power and logic of the turning cogs." (Chapter 1, p. 16)

"And his passions were like an advertisement for the shop: you might have thought that he was embracing the whole of the fair sex in a single caress, the better to bewitch them and keep them at his mercy." (Chapter 2, p. 33)

"A shrug of the shoulders seemed to indicate that he would discard them all like empty wrapping paper, once they had helped him to make his fortune." (Chapter 2, p. 34)

"'We'll lose a few centimes on each item, I admit. So what? A fine disaster that will...