Le Père Goriot

Père Goriot is a novel by French author Honoré de Balzac that was published in serial form between 1834 and 1835. The novel tells the story of three intertwined characters, Goriot, Vautrin, and Rastignac. The book is part of Balzac’s novel sequence, La Comédie humaine, and is one of the author’s most celebrated works, exploring themes of Wealth and Social Class in Restoration France, The Corruption of Parent-Child Relationships, and The Hypocrisy of 19th-Century French Society. It has been adapted for film and stage several times in the past two centuries.

This guide is based on the 2009 Oxford World Classics edition.

Plot Summary

Père Goriot is set in Paris in 1819 during the Bourbon Restoration. The novel begins at the rundown boarding house Maison Vauquer, owned by a miserly old widow named Madame Vauquer. Three of the tenants are central characters in the story. The first is an elderly man named Goriot, who dotes on the other tenants and his daughters even though he is beset by a mysterious and unknown sorrow. He is subject to ridicule because he lost his fortune long ago and now struggles to survive.