This classic piece was my introduction to Balzac. This canny Frenchman is a close and knowing observer of human nature. The hopes, desperation, greed, and cynicism so rampant every day in our world, are fully on display here.

The tale is told through the viewpoint of Rastignac, a 21 year-old law student and newcomer to Paris. Rastignac's ambitions are the common ones, to be rich, fashionable, and carefree, and to take a mistress. These ambitions shift over the course of the story. He becomes enamored of Pere Goriot, understanding what a virtuous man he is. Balzac shows us the destructiveness of 19th-century Paris society: Goriot's two worldly daughters waste his means over time and leave him impoverished. Goriot himself, however, is as much a supporter of worldly amibitions as anyone, but it bankrupts him and at length, at least indirectly, kills him.

Here is post-Napoleon Paris, described closely if not lovingly by Balzac. This author's fame as a canny observer of human nature and human folly is richly deserved. If you haven't yet taken up Balzac, this is an outstanding place to start. Go for it! ( )

1194. Pere Goirot, by Honore de Balzac (read 5 Nov 1972) The good experience I had with the preceding Balzac novel led me to look forward greatly to reading this, but I was surprised by how stupid the story was. It tells of an old man who loves his two daughters so much that he pauperizes himself --not for their good, but for their bad! He helps their boyfriends (both married), buys them jewels, etc. It is just the most moronic story. Eugene Rastignac is a student of 22 who is also an obnoxious person, whining money out of his poor family so he can buy stupid luxuries and impress stupid women. I cannot say anything good aboout the book except that it was easy to read. But the story, the characters, everything made me contemptuous. I decided to read no more Balzac--and I have not. [In August 2008 I did read Cousin Bette. and again decided I need read no more Balzac.] ( )

A young man’s drive to succeed in 19th century Paris is tempered by his search for love. ( )

This was my first foray into Balzac and it certainly won't be my last. It is, in a way, less a story of old Goriot himself (an old man, almost destitute, living in a run-down boarding house on the seedier side of Paris, visited occasionally by two beautiful young women who he claims are his daughters) as it is of Eugene Rastignac, the young student who shares the boarding house with Goriot and a host of richly drawn supporting characters. Balzac creates a masterful description, evocative and vibrant, bringing the high society and low underbelly of Paris alive for the reader. He is ascerbic and satirical in his portrayal of life at both ends of the social scale and makes astute observations about the human condition in general through his well-realised cast of characters and the moral dilemmas they face. Often this is executed with sharp humour, relevant in its application to certain elements of modern-day human interaction.

It is an easy read and the style is both contemporary and accessible to the modern-day reader despite the age of the work. It is a great book, a portrait of human failings, of self-interest, of consuming passions and of the cynicism of romantic attachments. I would highly recommend it. ( )

What a splendid, yet daunting, vision Balzac must have had when he set out to write his extraordinary body of work, "La Comédie Humaine", a collection of almost 100 novels and plays. If "Père Goriot" is indicative of his oeuvre, then I have a lot of reading to do - I found this book compelling.
Many of the characters could be any of the selfish, materialistic, social climbers who have contributed to the global financial crisis that we are all enduring today. For Balzac holds up a mirror to ourselves and if we care to examine the reflection, we can see all the vanities, the petty squabbles, the emptiness of much of what passes as contemporary life. Why is depression the most rapidly increasing mental illness in Western societies despite the rampant consumerism that sees us with 'stuff' we don't need?
Balzac certainly shows us the darker side of human nature but he also gives Rastignac and the medical student the empathy that leaves us with a sense of hope that not everyone is tarnished by egoism, that both good and evil are part of the human condition and it is up to us to choose which one we should follow.
The tragedy of Père Goriot is not unusual - the blind, unselfish love that creates its own destruction is a familiar story as anyone who has suffered unrequited love can attest. And what is Vautrin but the embodiment of the immoral conmen of today, whether they be politicians, drug lords, or businessmen intent on feathering their gaudy nests with no regard for anyone else.
Balzac's descriptions of Paris, the poverty existing so close to luxury, are illuminating and realistic- the odours of Madame Vauquer's boarding house can almost be smelt. This is a wonderful, timeless book, as is so much good literature, and if we dare to examine ourselves, we will find there is much that relates to us in "Père Goriot". ( )