Considered to be one of Balzac’s most important works, ‘Old Goriot’, or ‘Père Goriot’, is the story of its title character Goriot; a mysterious criminal-in-hiding named Vautrin; and a naive law student named Eugène de Rastignac. We are introduced to the characters at Maison Vauquer, a boarding house owned by the widow Madame Vauquer. Central to the theme of the book is the struggle to achieve upper-class status in society. Rastignac is eager to achieve this upper-class standing but is unfamiliar to the ways of Parisian society. Vautrin tries to convince Rastignac to pursue an unmarried woman named Victorine, a dubious suggestion which involves the disposal of her brother who blocks the woman’s fortune. The failings to achieve this upper-class status are exemplified by Goriot who has bankrupted himself to support his two well-married daughters, yet they reject him. A classic and tragic story, ‘Old Goriot’ is one of the most pivotal works in Balzac’s sweeping novel sequence ‘La Comédie Humaine’, which endeavors to depict the effects of society on the entirety of the human condition.
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