Agra
A city of northern India, whose carpet lay at the center of Zola's carpet hall.
Today: Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
Opening day of the great sale
Émile Zola, Au Bonheur des Dames (The Ladies’ Delight), a novel, 1883; from the Paris printing of 1895 · published 1883 (written 1882; the story is set in October 1864)
A terre, les tapis recommençaient, une jonchée de toisons grasses : il y avait, au centre, un tapis d'Agra, une pièce extraordinaire à fond blanc et à large bordure bleu tendre, où couraient des ornements violâtres, d'une imagination exquise; partout, ensuite, s'étalaient des merveilles, les tapis de la Mecque aux reflets de velours, les tapis de prière du Daghestan à la pointe symbolique, les tapis du Kurdistan semés de fleurs épanouies; enfin, dans un coin, un écroulement à bon marché, des tapis de Gheurdès, de Coula et de Kircheer, en tas, depuis quinze francs.
On the floor the carpets began again, a litter of thick fleeces. In the center lay a carpet from Agra, an extraordinary piece with a white ground and a wide border of soft blue, where purplish ornaments ran in exquisite designs. Everywhere else, marvels were spread out: carpets from Mecca with a velvety sheen, prayer rugs from Daghestan with their symbolic point, and carpets from Kurdistan scattered with flowers in full bloom. Last, in one corner, lay a cheap tumble of carpets from Gheurdès, Coula, and Kircheer, piled up, from fifteen francs.