Father Goriot

Honore de Balzac was a French novelist. He would become one of the creators of Realism in literature. His "Human Comedy" spanned more than 90 novels and short stories in an attempt to comprehend and depict the realities of life in modern bourgeois France .



Père Goriot (a.k.a. Father Goriot or Old Goriot) is widely considered to be Balzac's greatest work, an assessment which is difficult to refute. Though this incredibly prolific author habitually churned out novels and stories of four-star quality or better, with this masterpiece he truly hit one out of the park.



The novel opens with a detailed description of the Maison Vauquer, a squalid boarding house in a shabby neighborhood, populated by poor students on their way up and poor retirees on their way down. Here dwells Joachim Goriot, a retired pasta manufacturer, whom his housemates refer to, more derisively than affectionately, as "Father Goriot". Once incredibly wealthy, Goriot is slowly reducing himself to a state of destitution by gratifying the expensive whims of his two daughters, who court his adoration for their financial gain while simultaneously shunning him out of shame for the very poverty which they have caused. Goriot strikes up a friendship with fellow boarder Eugène de Rastignac, a law student from the provinces who sets himself upon the arduous task of landing a rich and influential mistress to aid him in climbing the ladder of Parisian society. As he fumbles his way through the labyrinthine conventions of the higher class, Eugène soon discovers that an increase in social status is not necessarily accompanied by an increase in wealth, and he struggles for a means of supporting his new lifestyle. Another inhabitant of the Maison Vauquer, Monsieur Vautrin, a shady character of unknown origin, tempts Eugène with a quick, expeditious means of attaining great wealth, causing the young man to question his deepest held values and reassess his personal ethics.