Père Goriot is, as much as anything, a character study of several residents of a Paris boarding house during the Bourbon Restoration. The title character is a retired vermicelli manufacturer sliding deeper and deeper into poverty as his two daughters, a comtesse and a baroness, divest him of everything he owns of value to fund their lavish lifestyles. The protagonist of the novel is actually the young law student Eugène de Rastignac, son of a noble but poor provincial family. Eugène’s sympathy for Old Goriot grows as he learns more of Goriot’s circumstances and of his love for his daughters. Goriot welcomes Eugène into his affections and encourages his affair with the younger daughter, the baroness de Nucingen. It’s also a tale of Eugène’s gradual corruption under the influence of the crook Vautrin. It’s an interesting glimpse of Parisian society at that point in time. I would have enjoyed it more without the melodrama. ( )

Historia trata sobre una heroína, hija de un acaudalado inversionista, la cual se ve asediada por dos familias burguesas que buscan su mano. Ella permanece fiel a su verdadero amor, su primo Charles. Asfixiada por las convenciones sociales y por la avaricia de su padre, su temperamento sumiso se rebela por amor. Pero ese mismo amor que la ayuda a madurar es tambien el causante de su soledad, la monotonia y la melancolia que enmarcan su esteril existencia.

I became furious at Pere Goriot for being such a chump. I don't see the value of this book. ( )

Balzac was a French writer of the first half of the 19th century, with an unconventional way of describing and exposing the conventions of contemporary France. This book is actually two novels. "Pere Goriot" is the story of Eugene de Rastignac, a poor but ambitious social-climber who falls in love with the married daughter of a boarding-house mate, Pere Goriot. Goriot is a man whose entire being consists of father-love and sacrifice for his two daughters, who have married wealthy if not well. Eugene sees Delphine as not only his love, but a means toward the social success he craves. He is nearly led from his chosen path by Vautrin, another housemate who has recognized and rejected the hypocrisies of society, choosing to live only by his own lights as he sees them. When Eugene at the end sees the cruelties of high society for what they are, it leads to as satisfying a conclusion as I have seen in some time. "Eugenie Grandet", a somewhat depressing story about the young daughter of a wealthy miser and how her naivete is shattered by the avarice of those around her, is a less satisfying tale and leaves the reader feeling as sad and disillusioned as Eugenie. ( )