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Product Description
This is the tragic story of a father whose obsessive love for his two daughters leads to his financial and personal ruin. It is set against the background of a whole society driven by social ambition and lust for money. The detailed descriptions of both affluence and squalor in the Paris of 1819 are an integral part of the drama played out by a wide range of characters, including the sinister but fascinating Vautrin. Unquestionably one of Balzac's finest novels, Pére Goriot still has the power to move the modern reader.
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MADAME VAUQUER, nee de Conflans, is an old woman who for the past forty years has run a family boarding house in the rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve,* between the Latin Quarter and the Faubourg Saint-Marceau. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
MADAME VAUQUER, nee de Conflans, is an old woman who for the past forty years has run a family boarding house in the rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve,* between the Latin Quarter and the Faubourg Saint-Marceau. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Père Goriot forms part of Balzac's life-work, La Comédie humaine, and he placed it in the section Scenes of Private Life. It tells the story of Eugène de Rastignac, a young man who comes to Paris to study law. His widowed mother has gone out of her way to provide his means of support at great cost to herself and his two sisters, and it is her hope that Eugène will make his way in the world and restore their fortune.
I enjoyed Balzac's description of Eugène's new home, the Maison Vacquer, a cheap boarding house, where Eugène and a small cast of other key characters live in a near-penury only mitigated by the communal breakfasts and dinners where a semblance of polite society is maintained (along with a sprinkling of back-biting and sarcasm).
One of the residents of the Maison Vacquer is an elderly, retired vermicelli-maker, Père Goriot, who has spent his wealth in launching his two daughters into society. At least his expenditure has partly achieved its aim, for one of the daughters, Delphine, is married to a wealthy German banker and the other, Anastasie, is now the Countess de Restaud. Unfortunately, the two women now wish to have almost nothing to do with their father, their husbands having rejected him and they being far too occupied with their own concerns to trouble themselves about the old man's predicament.
Balzac weaves several themes into the book. Eugène is almost as self-absorbed as Goriot's two daughters and when he sees opportunities to enter society himself he has no hesitation in writing home to his mother requesting 1200 francs to pay for the clothes and accessories he will need. Even his two sisters receive letters asking them to send him their life-savings. The only surprise to the reader is the joy with which they respond; pride in their brother's progress in the great city overcoming any personal problems arising from their financial sacrifice.
Eugène gets increasingly involved with the Goriot girls, neglects his studies and goes through various joys and sorrows. The other characters who lodge in Maison Vacquer form a backdrop to the story, each with their own stories, providing comedy and drama as the story progresses. Madame Vacquer's downfall is only what she deserves and Eugène's confidante and mentor Vautrin gets his own well-deserved come-uppance, and the two daughters experience the consequences of seeing the last of their father's money disappear into the bottomless well of their debts and high-spending.
A superb novel of 19th century Parisian life, and an excellent introduction to Balzac's work.
I enjoyed Balzac's description of Eugène's new home, the Maison Vacquer, a cheap boarding house, where Eugène and a small cast of other key characters live in a near-penury only mitigated by the communal breakfasts and dinners where a semblance of polite society is maintained (along with a sprinkling of back-biting and sarcasm).
One of the residents of the Maison Vacquer is an elderly, retired vermicelli-maker, Père Goriot, who has spent his wealth in launching his two daughters into society. At least his expenditure has partly achieved its aim, for one of the daughters, Delphine, is married to a wealthy German banker and the other, Anastasie, is now the Countess de Restaud. Unfortunately, the two women now wish to have almost nothing to do with their father, their husbands having rejected him and they being far too occupied with their own concerns to trouble themselves about the old man's predicament.
Balzac weaves several themes into the book. Eugène is almost as self-absorbed as Goriot's two daughters and when he sees opportunities to enter society himself he has no hesitation in writing home to his mother requesting 1200 francs to pay for the clothes and accessories he will need. Even his two sisters receive letters asking them to send him their life-savings. The only surprise to the reader is the joy with which they respond; pride in their brother's progress in the great city overcoming any personal problems arising from their financial sacrifice.
Eugène gets increasingly involved with the Goriot girls, neglects his studies and goes through various joys and sorrows. The other characters who lodge in Maison Vacquer form a backdrop to the story, each with their own stories, providing comedy and drama as the story progresses. Madame Vacquer's downfall is only what she deserves and Eugène's confidante and mentor Vautrin gets his own well-deserved come-uppance, and the two daughters experience the consequences of seeing the last of their father's money disappear into the bottomless well of their debts and high-spending.
A superb novel of 19th century Parisian life, and an excellent introduction to Balzac's work.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a classic book based in Paris in the 19th century. It's theme is a basic one of a young man's aspirations within a society where money and connections count. Apart from the story line, the book gives a fascinating insight into Paris at that time with areas, streets and particular addresses being mentioned. You get a real feel for the what it was like to move around the city at that time. I enjoyed it.
Format:Paperback
The book itself is an undisputed classic, and for good reason. This Oxford World's Classics edition is fantastic and a worthy purchase.
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