Father Goriot

Father Goriot, published in 1835, is one of the keystone novels in Balzac’s La Comédie Humaine. Set in a Paris boarding house, it tells the tragic story of the aging Goriot, who sacrifices everything for his ungrateful daughters, and the ambitious young law student Rastignac, who learns to navigate the corrupt world of high society. Balzac’s detailed realism, psychological insight, and critique of social ambition mark this novel as a masterful exploration of family, power, and societal decay in 19th-century France.