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.

Eugène de Rastignac is a law student. He is a naive man who has moved to Paris from the south of France. Though his family has connections to the upper class, they are now poor. He is an outsider in Paris and does not quite fit in. While staying at Maison Vauquer, Rastignac notices that his fellow boarders are involved in strange business. Goriot makes ingots from silver dishes, and Vautrin arrives home late at night even though all the doors are locked. Rastignac also notices the presence of Goriot’s daughters, whom he is intrigued by and often helps financially even though he is struggling.

Madame de Beauséant, Rastignac’s cousin, teaches him to function in high society. When he mentions the name Goriot, however, he seems to be excluded from social events. This leads him to discover that Goriot has driven himself into poverty to fund his two daughters’ lavish lifestyles. They have married wealthy men, who ostracize the old man when they learn of his poverty. Regardless, Rastignac soon endears himself to one of Goriot’s daughters, Delphine, after he exhausts his parents’ money. Rastignac plots ways to enter higher society permanently, deciding to put aside his studies and take a shortcut. He persuades his mother and sisters to sell everything and send him their money to fund his entrance into the upper class.

Another tenant, Vautrin, offers to help Rastignac pursue an unmarried but wealthy woman named Victorine. Her brother is blocking access to her family fortune, but Vautrin says that he can arrange to have the brother killed in a duel. Rastignac balks at the idea of having someone killed just to gain access to money, but Vautrin assures him that the ends always justify the means.

Rastignac decides not to follow through on the plan but seems secretly intrigued. Even without Rastignac, Vautrin decides to embark on the plan. He arranges to have Victorine’s brother murdered. He gets away with the scheme until the tenants discover that Vautrin is wanted by the police. He is actually the mastermind criminal known as Death-Dodger. Thanks to the help of Mademoiselle Michonneau, a lodger who is working as a police informant, the authorities capture him.

Meanwhile, Goriot supports Rastignac’s interest in his daughter but cannot do anything about her husband’s tyrannical control over her. During this time, his two daughters’ husbands discover that their wives are having affairs with other men. This causes problems in the marriages, prompting the daughters to go to their poor father for help. He finds out that his other daughter has been forced to sell her family jewelry to pay her lover’s debts. Overcome with grief that he cannot support her financially, he experiences a stroke due to stress. In a state of deliriousness, he rants about his daughters and how much he loves them. Neither daughter is present, however, as they have both left for selfish reasons.

Goriot rages about his daughters’ disrespect for him and how ungrateful they have become, though he blesses them before he dies. Ultimately, Delphine does not visit, and Anastasie only arrives after he has fallen into a coma. When he dies, only Rastignac and a young medical student named Bianchon are beside him. Few people attend the funeral: Rastignac, a servant, and two paid mourners. Goriot’s daughters only send their coaches, emblazoned with their family crests.

After the ceremony, the lights of Paris begin to appear. Rastignac warns the city to expect him and then prepares to dine with Delphine.