Product Description

Eugène wants to get on in the world. So he has come to Paris, where the streets teem with chancers, criminals and social climbers – and everyone is out for what they can get. When he finds a place to stay at a shabby boarding house, he sees a potential plan to make a fortune: the two beautiful, aristocratic women who mysteriously come at night to visit the lonely old lodger Goriot. Could they bring him the status and acceptance he craves? In the city nothing is as it seems though. Soon Eugène gets out of his depth in a world of greed and obsession that he could never have imagined. One that can only end in terrible tragedy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #127813 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

About the Author
Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) French journalist and writer, regarded as one of the creators of realism in literature. Balzac's huge production of novels and short stories are collected under the name La Comédie Humaine

Customer Reviews

An elegantly written parable on greed
This is the first novel by Balzac that I've read and I can only wonder why it took me so long to read his work. The story deals with greed and fillial ingratitude and the social education of an ambitious student ready to be seduced by the glamour and extravagance of Parisian high society. The student finds out that someone somewhere is paying the price for all the elegance and luxury that he craves.

Balzac is an extremely clever writer with a very acute understanding of human nature and a genius for swiftly drawing characters that are fully realised and complex. I don't think he is a heavy or a difficult read, he's precise and he doesn't preach. Description of places and people is concise but richly evocative, at the same time the story shoots along dynamically, you want to know what will happen in the end. An extremely rewarding read and a near perfect example of the art of the novel.

Read it in French if you can, but make sure you read it
A fantastic exposition of the Human character this is a 'must read' for anyone with a love of 19th century literature.

Very long and detailed descriptions of character and setting make it a typical period piece. in fact much of the descriptive is lost in its translation from French, but that is no reason not to enjoy the book.

The story revolves around 'Eugene' a student and his involvement with two worlds, the world of his rather shabby boarding house and the world of Paris Society in the early nineteenth century.

Balzac explores how these worlds are fatally intermingled, but yet disparate, in the fortunes of Eugene.

Unlike the modern suspense writers one is never quite sure what will happen at the end, the mastery of plot is superb and the end is both tragic and fulfilling.

Read it in French if you can, but make sure you read it

Pere Goriot, a pleasant surprise
I have just read this book for a class and it was an interesting story of Eugene and his conflict with himself and society. I was surprised at how palatable it was considering it is a period novel. The themes are universal and the book leaves you questioning the world around you. I strongly recommend that people read this book and to not be intimidated by it.