Recounts the development of the modern department store in late nineteenth-century Paris. The store is a symbol of capitalism, of the modern city, and of the bourgeois family; it is emblematic of consumer culture and the changes in sexual attitudes and class relations taking place at the end of the century. Octave Mouret, the store's owner-manager, masterfully exploits the desires of his female customers. In his private life as much as in business...

"A funny, fast-paced, and poignant take on Franco-African history, as told through the eyes of three African security guards in Paris. All over the city, they are watching: Black men paid to stand guard, invisible amongst the rich white flaneurs--and yet the only ones who truly see. From Les Grands Moulins and the sales at Camaieu to a Sephora on the Champs-Elysees, Ferdinand, Ossiri, and Kassoum, two generations of Ivoirians, seek their way as undocumented...

Orwell's own experiences inspire this semi-autobiographical novel about the adventures of a broke British writer as he works as a dishwasher in Paris and stays in homeless shelters in London.