Père Goriot in Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)

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

3 likes · Like · see review

Sep 17, 2020 Maggie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, guardian-1000, boxall-1001, european, fiction, la-comedie-humaine

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This is my first foray into Balzac's The Human Comedy, and it is excellent. It starts with a description of Maison Vauquer, a boarding house run by the mercenary Madame Vauquer. It has three floors, with the first floor having the best rooms and the third floor having the worst. On the first floor live the rich Madame Couture and her young charge, the gentle Mademoiselle Victorine Taillefer who has been disowned by her own father. On the second live the old Monsieur Poiret, and the merchant Mons This is my first foray into Balzac's The Human Comedy, and it is excellent. It starts with a description of Maison Vauquer, a boarding house run by the mercenary Madame Vauquer. It has three floors, with the first floor having the best rooms and the third floor having the worst. On the first floor live the rich Madame Couture and her young charge, the gentle Mademoiselle Victorine Taillefer who has been disowned by her own father. On the second live the old Monsieur Poiret, and the merchant Monsieur Vautrin. On the third live the spinster Mademoiselle Michonneau, the retired vermicelli seller old Goriot, and the law student Eugene Rastignac.

The book has three main storylines. Eugène, a naive and ambitious student has moved from his loving home in rural France to Paris. He wants to ascend to the top of Parisian society, and quickly learns that being a lawyer won't get him there. He needs money and connections. Through his aunt, he gets into contact with his cousin Madame de Beauséant, who takes him under her wings. In the second storyline, Goriot, a man who made his own fortune by selling pasta and vermicelli, has two beloved daughters who, influenced by their husbands, regard him with contempt. He lives for his daughters, sacrificing himself and giving them money to try to buy their happiness. In the third, we have Monsieur Vautrin, a disguised crook. Eugène first tries to win the favour of Goriot's daughter Anastasie de Restaud, but makes the mistake of mentioning Goriot's name and is banned from the house by Monsieur de Restaud. Through Madame de Beauséant, he understands his error and next courts Goriot's other daughter, Delphine de Nucingen. He finds himself in a love triangle. Goriot is keen for Eugène to get together with Delphine so that Goriot can spend more time with Delphine, and ultimately buys a house for Eugène to encourage this. At the same time, Vautrin tries to matchmake Eugène and Victorine Taillefer, who is infatuated with Eugène, so that both Vautrin and Eugène can earn Victorine's inheritance through a scheme that involves killing Victorine's brother. Victorine's brother is killed, but Vautrin is betrayed to the police by Poiret and Michonneau. Eugène and Delphine get into a relationship. Both Anastasie and Delphine run into trouble with money as a result of their husbands and Anastasie's lover Monsieur Trailles. They appeal to Goriot, who bankrupts himself for them, then suffers a brain haemorrhage through his violent dismay at being unable to provide adequately for his daughters. At his deathbed, his daughters are prevented by their husbands from visiting him, and he dies realising the ingratitude of his daughters, but still desiring only to see them. Eugène and the servant Christophe are the only attendees at his funeral, and the novel ends with Eugène going to Delphine's house for dinner, disillusioned, with the aim of exacting revenge on Parisian society – "Now let us fight it out!"

When Vautrin is arrested, he says of his group of villains, "We bear less infamy on our shoulders than any of you do in your hearts". And he is right. Parisian society, as Balzac depicts it, is self-centred and ruthlessly ambitious. Almost every person is willing to step on somebody else in order to progress in society. Anastasie, Delphine, and their husbands are courteous to Goriot when he gives them money and refuse to even look at him after he makes a social faux pas and loses his wealth for his daughters' sake. Madame Vauquer counts every franc owed to her, monitors the bread her boarders eat and the bedsheets they use, and is exceptionally kind to her first-floor boarders and exceptionally cruel to her third-floor boarders, in particular Goriot. Balzac wrote the Human Comedy with the aim of realistically depicting every echelon of society, and the Parisians he writes of are morally vile with deceptively elegant exteriors.

In such a society, the ones who are different stand out. Chief of these is Goriot. Too passionately in love to manipulate society, he is exploited by his own daughters into poverty and death. Then there is Madame de Beauséant, wealthy and famous, and the only person in Parisian high society who shows Eugène kindness. In the last ball of the book, she has been betrayed by her lover who is marrying another lady, and Parisians turn out to witness her humiliation. A true lady, she remains calm and composed, but eventually leaves Paris, withdrawing from the society whose morals are so different from hers.

And then we have Eugène. Eugène spends the book finding his way through society and learning his priorities. He wants to progress in society, but he quickly learns that this innocent desire requires money. He goes through several temptations in his quest. He requests money from his poor family, is plagued by his conscience for this, and returns the money once he can. He courts two girls, Victorine and Delphine, and it is unclear, even to himself, how much of his actions are driven by love and how much by selfish ambition. Ultimately he rejects Vautrin's evil scheme despite the riches it promises him. By the end of the book, he remains without a sou, but his conscience is intact, and he is still in a position able to progress in society, though it is questionable whether his desire to do so in a righteous way is feasible.

Although Balzac's daughters tend to be lumped together as a pair of ungrateful girls, Anastasie and Delphine are actually different. Anastasie is more hard-heartedly self-centred. Delphine, on the other hand, shows tenderness for her father, and is able to respect Eugène when he demonstrates selflessness, such as when he gives Goriot a thousand francs. Goriot frequently asserts that his daughters are unfilial only because of the influence of their husbands. This is partly delusional, but the truth in it is shown when the daughters are prevented, at the end, from seeing their father on his deathbed by their husbands. Anastasie does eventually turn up, and she is the only person by his side when he eventually dies. She shows remorse, but it is too late.

Towards the end of the book, Goriot and his daughters, at various points, claim that their tragedies are Goriot's fault. It comes across as more evidence of the daughters' callousness, but there is truth in the claim. Goriot was so devoted to his daughters he unintentionally spoilt them. As he grovels for their affection, he comes across more as a dog or a suitor than a parent, and it is not difficult to understand why his daughters are unable to respect him. It is a caution about parenting, and about how a failure of good parenting can lead to the loss of money and virtues over from parent to child.

I read the Penguin version of this translated by Olivia McCannon. The translation is readable and expressive, and I enjoyed it. The notes were also informative. We are introduced to Balzac, who was overweight, coffee-saturated, and a workaholic who finished the book in forty days, sleeping two hours a night. He planned to write only about Goriot and his daughters, but in his almost manic style of working, he expanded the book into the masterpiece that it is, inserting so many corrections that his typesetters were exasperated. The notes explained many of the references, including locations, real people and customs, which was very helpful in a book that aims to depict Paris as it was. I wish the other works in the Human Comedy were published in formats like this, with helpful accompanying annotations. ...more

Like · see review

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.

Like · see review

May 29, 2008 Pam rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, 5-star-favorites, re-reads, book-club-choice, 2008

A French Victorian classic. Set in Paris in the late 1800's. I LOVE this book. Beautifully written, fantastic depth to the characters, honest conversations, great descriptions and on and on and on. ...more

Like · see review