'This natural victim was... Père Goriot, on whose head a painter, like this historian, would have focused all the light in the picture.'
Père Goriot is the tragic story of a father whose obsessive love for his two daughters leads to his financial and personal ruin. Interwoven with this theme is that of the impoverished young aristocrat, Rastignac, come to Paris from the provinces to make his fortune, who befriends Goriot and becomes involved with the daughters.
The story is set against the background of a whole society driven by social ambition and lust for money. The detailed descriptions of both affluence and squalor in the Paris of 1819 are an integral part of the drama played out by a wide cast, including the sinister but fascinating ex-convict Vautrin. Unquestionably one of Balzac's finest novels, Père Goriot still has the power to move the modern reader.
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