Père Goriot in Never too Late to Read Classics

Jan 13, 2016 Chrissie rated it really liked it

Shelves: relationships, 2016-read, love, audible-us, victorian, classics, hf, france

ETA: I simply must add something! How to do this without giving a spoiler? Below I have only hinted at what made this book move from three to four stars. Something happens about 2/3 of the way into the story. It has to do with the hidden criminal, also mentioned below. One of the boarders leads to the discovery of that criminal. It is the behavior of the other boarders toward the criminal and the betrayer that made me love the book. The book doesn’t have a rosy ending, so that makes it real, but ETA: I simply must add something! How to do this without giving a spoiler? Below I have only hinted at what made this book move from three to four stars. Something happens about 2/3 of the way into the story. It has to do with the hidden criminal, also mentioned below. One of the boarders leads to the discovery of that criminal. It is the behavior of the other boarders toward the criminal and the betrayer that made me love the book. The book doesn’t have a rosy ending, so that makes it real, but neither does it leave you in total despair. Not many authors can achieve such.

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Let me describe the writing first. It is dated, wordy and at times almost flowery. Due to its old-fashioned style, the book was published first in 1834 and 1835 in serial format, you must read or listen very carefully. The writing is chock full of details. The opening meticulously describes a lodging house on Rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève, in the quartier of the Faubourg Saint Marcel. A sordid, mediocre area. Dirty and dark, in the shadows of the looming Dôme du Val-de-Grâce and the Dôme du Panthéon. Its residents struggling to survive. Then the descriptions take you inside the lodging house Mason Vauquer, room by room. The widow who manages the house, the lodgers, there are seven, down to their clothing, facial attributes, behavioral quirks, social standing and aspirations. We learn of each one's past, or at least we are told what may have been their past lives. That all is not revealed or known is hinted at. Your curiosity grows. It is these characters and a few others that the story revolves around. At dinners, paying diners from the neighborhood fill the seats up to 18 or 20, circling the table, joking and talking, arguing. At breakfast the cook, the handyman and the cat and the seven boarders in their bathrobes and slippers; this was a "Parisian family" as any other. I have been in houses like the one described. I could picture the wall paper, the tiles, the tall windows, the attic, the creaky boards. I could smell the dampness, the musty air. I like descriptive writing. Do you?

The book opens with that setting. I was made curious. I wanted more. Others may be bored.

Then the story develops around the seven boarders and what each is up to. There is a father who loves his two daughters. There is an aspiring law student from southern France. There is a criminal in hiding. There are secrets. Who will betray whom? The story is about love and money and social standing, about how to succeed. What it does best is describe life in Paris around 1819 (i.e. during the Bourbon Restoration). It is not about history. It is about a time and place. It is about people and how we behave, then and today. Balzac was critical of his times. He sought to describe it realistically, honestly. I think he succeeds magnificently. Some betray others. Some don't see what is before their eyes. Some value friendship and shared experiences.

The audiobook narration by Walter Covell is mediocre. Sure, it is not hard to follow and you can hear the lines. There is zero spark. It is flat. Pick another narrator if you can.

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Mar 26, 2019 Tom Britz rated it it was amazing

A true classic, Pere Goriot, is arguably Honore de Balzac's best book. It is a sad story of a man's sacrifices for his daughters, seen through the eyes of a young law student. The student, through an aunt, is allowed access into the high society of Paris.
The novel shows what high society of Paris in the year 1819 was like, warts and all.
I intend on returning to Balzac's "Human Comedy" soon. I recommend this highly. ...more

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Mar 14, 2020 Karen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001, translation-2020

I had not read a book by Balzac prior to reading this book, and it won't be the last. ...more

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Mar 03, 2008 Laura rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, french-literature

Le Père Goriot is an 1835 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850), included in the Scènes de la vie privée section of his novel sequence La Comédie humaine. Set in Paris in 1819, it follows the intertwined lives of three characters: the elderly doting Goriot; a mysterious criminal-in-hiding named Vautrin; and a naive law student named Eugène de Rastignac.

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