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Father Goriot
Father Goriot
Father Goriot
Ebook439 pages6 hours

Father Goriot

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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LanguageEnglish
Release dateJan 1, 1950

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Rating: 3.7931455647490817 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This review has been crossposted from my blog Review from The Cosy Dragon Please head there for more in-depth reviews by me.

    'Pere Goriot', or Old Father Goriot, is a realist text which is difficult initially to understand and read. There are a number of characters, including Goriot himself and the irredeemable Rastignac, who focalize the novel. This novel is translated from French. If you want an in-depth experience of 'real' Paris, this will be good for you.

    The first 100 or so pages of the novel are impossible to get into. It is all just setting the scene for the 'action'. If you persevere, you will find some more satisfying plot developments, but nothing that really shouts at you to read on. In the end, I found myself reading just to see what would happen to poor old Goriot, who got the death I expected.

    If you do suddenly find yourself attached to any of the characters, this novel is part of a set 'The Human Comedy'. Balzac made it his mission to catalog the entirety of Parisian society, and most of this is contained within his published works. Balzac died before he completed it, but this is a project that I feel he probably never would have been satisfied with .

    This novel is a great example of realism! There is a heavy focus on detailed settings, as if you are really walking the streets of Paris. A number of the characters seem like placeholders, while others are fully fleshed out. I don't think anyone feels real emotion for the characters, for everything is already set out for them. They seem to not try escape their sorry lot, and Rastignac in particular is quite a repugnant person.

    This is not something I would enjoy reading for pleasure. As a text in a literature degree, it was a good one to study though, as it was filled with details that I could use for analysis. My version has a set of essays in the second half of the book, which was interesting and useful reading. It is good to know some historical background before setting out into the book.

    Keep in mind that this is translated from French, so each translator may potentially put a different spin on things. Also, if you're going to buy it online, make sure to get the English version!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I ENJOYED THE "TOUR OF FRANCE" AS WELL AS THE PEOPLE AND STYLE IT WAS WRITTEN IN.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Balzac gives readers a nuanced and meticulous moral drama portraying the French high society and its destructive power. His eye for detail is unparalleled ad his characters are full and multidimensional. A master prose stylist that reveals to us the horrors the of Parisian life in realistic yet tragic ways. A succinct read that belies layers of intricacy andl eds itself to study and analysis regarding ideas of family, class, and society.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    One of Balzac's books in La Comedie Humaine, a sprawling collection of interlinked novels meant to portray France at all levels of society. Pere Goriot is lauded as Balzac's finest novel, and central to the Comedie series. In the story, Eugene de Rastignac is a young law student, living at an impoverished but respectable boarding house. The novel details his introduction to the elite of Parisian society, his awakening ambition, and the start of his career. Intertwined with his story is the tragic history of Father Goriot, a man excluded from the same society Eugene seeks, even though Goriot sacrificed everything to introduce his daughters to the coveted world. Goriot and Rastignac are both boarders at the Maison Vaquer. Rastignac is young and charming, and well liked. Goriot, on the other hand, is despised and mocked, through no fault of his own. The boarders have chosen him as the weak member of the house, encouraged by the landlady's disdain after Goriot turned her down, and the old man does nothing to defend himself. He is a mystery, and Eugene will be the one to uncover it. A distant cousin, Madame de Beauseant, happens to be one of the queens of Parisian society, and she invites Eugene de Rastignac to a dance at her house. Once there, Rastignac is smitten with the beautiful Comtesse de Restaud, and even pays her a visit at her home soon after. While waiting for her, he sees Goriot sharing a quiet moment with the lovely lady in a back corner of the house. At first, Eugene's visit is going well, although he is miffed to discover the Comtesse already has a lover, but when he mentions Goriot's name he is summarily pushed from the house. Baffled, he turns to his influential cousin for advice and support. She informs him that Mr. Goriot is the father of the Comtesse de Restaud, and further promises Eugene her assistance in breaking into the enchanting world he is just beginning to taste. Through her help, Eugene learns about the back story of the Comtesse and Pere Goriot. Goriot was a wealthy tradesman, a vermicelli maker, and very in love with his wife and two daughters. When the former died, he transferred all his affections to his offspring, and loves them with an idolatrous zeal. He split the majority of his fortune in half to present them with sizable dowries that would tempt rich and powerful men, and allowed them to marry whoever they chose. His dreams of living with their new families were soon dashed. The girls followed their husband's examples, and were embarrassed to acknowledge their father in public. So he moved in to the Maison Vaquer, living off the smaller but respectable amount of money he kept for himself. However, even though his girls wanted him to keep his distance, it didn't stop them from coming to him for more money, usually in connection with their lovers. Eventually, they drained the small resources he had.Eugene equips himself with this knowledge, and begins his campaign. His cousin suggested he should woo Madame Delphine de Nucingen, Goriot's other daughter, sister to the Comtesse de Restaud. Not only would it serve as revenge, since the two sisters are bitterly competitive with each other, it could be his stepping stone into society. Eugene follows her suggestion, despite a tempting offer from the Machiavellian Vautrin, and his fortunes begin to rise to his expectations. Sadly, even Eugene's empathy and connection to their father is not enough to move the daughters' out of their selfish preoccupations, and Goriot literally exhausts himself to death to please them. Only Eugene goes to his funeral. I found this French novel extremely readable, especially as I was expecting a challenging time reading an old French classic. The introduction lingers on a minute description of the Maison Vaquer, before finally bringing its descriptive powers to the lodgers of the house and kicking off the plot. The beginning had me worried, as it was tedious, but once the story settled down with its characters, I was lost in the novel and read it far more quickly than I anticipated. The characters are fascinating, the novel deftly contrasts the glittering world of the rich and powerful with the drab world of hard work and poverty, and illuminates their surprising links and similarities. Balzac reveals the corruption that runs under the surface in both spheres of society, and also demonstrates how much more appalling it is for those upper classes that maintain an illusion of virtue and honor. Descriptive passages are devoted to the scenes of sumptuous life and the opening details of the impoverished Maison Vaquer, or physical descriptions, also related to societal status. The rest of the novel is comprised of dialogue and internal thoughts or feelings. The story flowed smoothly, and was engaging.After reading this novel, I am certainly open to reading more in his Comedie Humaine series of books. The characters were complicated and compelling. Goriot's decline was truly sad, yet Eugene's rise offsets some of the bitterness. I was upset that Rastignac lost his lingering youthful idealism at the close of the novel, and yet his ambition became a battle, almost an act of vengeance for Goriot, which made it more palatable. The whole book is a series of contrasts, of balances, which is aesthetically pleasing. I know that Balzac is known for his use of recurring characters, and de Rastignac along with several others in this novel are among his most used. I will look for other books to feature these intriguing people when I choose my next Balzac book, because I am interested to see what happens to them. They are all complicated and flawed people, and that makes for good reading.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    In a reputable, albeit shabby, boarding house in Paris there lives the usual mix of humanity frequent such places. In Madame Vauquer's establishment, the most ridiculed of her tenants is Pere Goriot, who seems generally absent-minded unless someone mentions his daughters. But with a man so willing to surrender everything he has for children, there are circumstances that arise which can only lead to tragedy.With a tendency to pluck the heights of melodrama, Pere Goriot was an intriguing reading experience. I found it fascinating for its social commentary on the norms of the upper classes in Paris in the 19th century, with its utter lack of scandal around lovers and mistresses. While I was never particularly attached to the characters themselves, I was pulled in sufficiently by the plot to want to find out what happened to them. I do recommend the translation of this edition as it reflects the language of the period while remaining accessible for modern readers.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    One of the difficulties of this book is that Balzac expects you to understand the society he is describing. He wastes no space explaining civil law or recent history and the such, but only references them as needed to further the story. I would need a well-annotated edition to really understand it all, and the Barnes & Noble Classics editions are by no means well-annotated.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I read this for one of the courses I took with Bill Fredlund at his Institute. I remember more of his lecture about fake aristocrats and self invention in post Napoleonic France than I do of the novel, but I remember thinking I would read more Balzac and his Human Comedy. This remains the only Balzac I had read to date.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Balzac's steely gaze withers sentimentality. Heartbreaking.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    for me, not very interesting, often confused as the characters are often called by different names
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An interesting combination of the last two books I read; Proust and Turgenev. This one could have been named Fathers and Daughters. This was about a doting father and how he gave up everything for his two spoiled daughters. It was similar to Proust's writing but much more accessible.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Anyone who grew up loving Shel Silverstein's "The Giving Tree" is going to adore Pere Goriot, who drives himself into penury in support of his daughters' lavish lifestyle. But this is not Goriot's story; it belongs to the youth Eugene Rastignac, so that we see both sides of the coin, the selfless and the selfish. Vautrin unleashes a poisonous speech about morality and virtue in the second chapter that I think might summarize Putin's personal philosophy these days. It justifies the taking of everything within one's grasp, and of extending that grasp as far as possible. Contrasted with this stance is Eugene's friend Bianchon, who states an opposing view in such simple, clear terms that I laughed aloud; he is Alexander's sword to Vautrin's knot (and aptly references that as he speaks.) Eugene is the man in the middle who honors Goriot once he understands his sacrifice, but whether he will take him as a model for himself or as a model victim remains to be seen. Foreshadowing indicates he will rise high in society - but by which route, and at what price? On the strength of this one novel, Balzac has already established a place with me ahead of most other classic French authors including Hugo, Zola and Dumas; only Flaubert can contend with him until Proust comes along. I had no intention of reading more by him, but I need to reconsider.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I studied this classic of 19th century French literature nearly 40 years ago when I did my French A level. This was my first read of it since then (bar an abortive attempt in 2008). On the positive side, it portrays well the relationships between the residents of the pension Vauquer, especially between the title character, the student Rastignac and the mysterious Vautrin. Later on Goriot's relationship with his daughters becomes more prominent. Despite all this and some well drawn scenes, I don't enjoy this. And frankly, the main reason is that it is not divided into chapters, it is just one continuous narrative, and I find that massively offputting, a psychological deterrent to me.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Een klassieke Balzac, mooie vertelling, zij het lichtelijk melodramatisch.?
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Een klassieke Balzac, mooie vertelling, zij het lichtelijk melodramatisch. 
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Honoré de Balzac - [Le Père Goriot]This is an amazing novel as Balzac uses Paris as a backdrop to paint a picture of a society; stratified, corrupt, amoral and money-obsessed: if this sounds like the Tory Government in England today then nothing has changed since 1819; the epoch of Le Père Goriot. Balzac's novel was published in serial form in 1834 and was criticised at the time for its negative view of Paris and the Parisians. No doubt Balzac could have said that his novel was set in an earlier time when the monarchy had been re-established after the fall of Napoleon, but it has come to be recognised as a valid portrait of the human condition.The story concerns the inhabitants of a Parisian Boarding House: Maison Vaquer, and three boarders in particular. Eugene Rastignac: a medical student who shrugs off his studies when he realises that he can get ahead in society more easily, through a good marriage or as a lover of a wealthy socialite. Le Père Goriot an elderly retired business man who has fallen on hard times through his adoration of his two daughters; Delphine and Anastasia; he has obtained good marriages for them, but they see him as a continual source of revenue and he has been reduced to poverty. The third man is Vautrin a worldly wise man who tempts Rastignac into criminal activity, Vautrin is a mysterious character and there are suspicions around his activities. Rastignac has family connections that allow him an introduction to Parisian High Society, he meets Delphine who is unhappily married and is looking to escape from her husband. Meanwhile Vautrin is tempting Rastignac to make a play for Victorine, another boarder at Maison Vaquer; Victorine would receive a huge inheritence if her elder brother should die. A feature of much nineteenth century literature is the careful and realistic descriptions of the setting for the story. Balzac spends twenty three pages at the very start of the novel detailing life in the Maison Vaquer. It is a fascinating experience to follow the authors eye around this mean, but bourgeoise residence. The story unfolds slowly as Rastignac escapes for brief moments following his route through society and learning what he must do to improve his position. Throughout the novel there are alternatively dense and lively passages to enjoy: the arrest of the master criminal "Trompe-le-Mort; the temptation of Rastignac into the schemes of Vautrin and finally the death of Père Goriot. There are few good characters in the novel with many of them having their eyes set on the main chance. The two daughters of Père Goriot seem particularly cruel, but this is hardly surprising considering that they are the property of the men they have married. An excellent read and a five star novel
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The plot of Old Goriot weaves together opposite ends of the Parisian social scale – the ballrooms and salons of the aristocracy, and a shabby but apparently respectable boarding house in a poor quarter of town. It is in this dreary and worn and wonderfully described old house that a variety of unlikely personalities are thrown together, including the two main characters Old Goriot and Eugene Rastingac. Along with the other residents these provide the excellent mix of humour, tragedy, comic mundanity, intrigue, and wealth of insights onto human psychology that make Balzac's novels so entertaining. We also see the vacuous world of materialism, greed, pleasure seeking, fashion, and social climbing, into which some of these characters variously dip their toes or plunge. As in many of Balzac's works, the story is driven in part by a character with a specific obsessive personality trait - in this case Old Father Goriot who is fixed on providing for his selfish daughters. Monsieur Rastignac however is an altogether more interesting and torn character in that he represents some of the better aspects of human nature, while having enough self interest that he can be led into shady schemes by those who are more cynical and less honourable than he. The fight between his sense of what is right, and the desire for personal advancement play out in this complicated character throughout the novel. Old Goriot is none the less a troubled being, though in his case this is due to his psychological complex over being a good father to his two heartless daughters. While I won't give the story away, there are several heart-wrenching scenes, and an ending that fits the story.Taken all together, this is the best of Balzac's full length novels that I have read so far, and definitely more interesting and complete than either Eugene Grandet or the Village Rector for example.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I knew that I wanted to read Balzac, but where to start?I knew that his great work, La Comedie Humaine, was a vast collection of loosely linked novels that he wrote to portray each and every level of French society. I knew that with more than forty books this wasn’t a series I was going to read in its entirety; and so, because I had copies of several books, I gave each one of them careful consideration before I decided which looked the most interesting.My choice was ‘Le Père Goriot’, a book from the middle of Balzac’s writing career, and a book which is said by many to be his greatest work.My decision may have been influenced by the fact that the story is set in a boarding house – I have always loved boarding house novels – and the story begins with wonderfully precisie description of the Maison Vaquer, a poor but respectable establishment, and its inhabitants.Only once the scene is properly set, can the story can begin.At first I was very aware of the narrator. He was articulate, he was engaging, but I was a little concerned that he was interrupting the story he has to tell to reinforce points. They were good points, but I wanted them to come from the story and the characters. In time they did, and in time the narrator faded into the background; he was doing is job so well that I forgot he was there.The newest resident of the boarding house was Eugene de Rastignac who had recently arrived from the country, carrying all of the hopes of his family, to study law. His plan had been to throw himself into work and study, but it wasn’t long before he saw that he needed to make connections and be well placed in society if he was to succeed; and it was his great good luck to was blessed with a cousin who was well placed to introduce him to some of ‘the right people’.He was amiable, he had a natural charm, and he was well liked at the Maison Vaquer.Father Goriot was less well liked. When he had first arrived at the boarding house he had taken one of the best rooms, he had furnished it with lovely things, and his landlady had set her cap at him. When he didn’t respond, when those lovely things began to disappear and Father Goriot moved to one of her cheapest rooms, she treated him with disdain. Still he didn’t respond, and the other boarders considered him to be a rather foolish – maybe rather simple – old man.Eugene didn’t pay much attention to the situation, until the day he saw something that piqued his interestHis cousin had introduced Rastignac to the beautiful Comtesse de Restaud, and he was smitten. He visited her home, and, while he was waiting for her to appear, he looked out of the window and saw her with Goriot at the back of the house. His visit went well until he mentioned that he knew the old man. As soon as the words were out of his mouth his visit was summarily ended; the next time he visited the Comtesse was ‘not at home’, and it was conveyed to him that she would never be ‘at home’ to him again.He couldn’t understand what had happened, and he turned to his cousin for advice. She explained a little; she told him that Goriot was the Comtesse’s father …Goriot had been a wealthy tradesman, and very blissfully happy with his beloved wife and their two lovely two daughters. When his wife died, he gave all of the love he had to his daughters; and he used almost all of his fortune to provide them with sizable dowries, so that they might marry rich and powerful men.They did just that, and he hoped that he might live with one or the other of them, and that the three of them would always be close. His hopes were dashed, because those rich and powerful men had no time for a humble tradesman. They would not welcome him into their homes, they would not even acknowledge him in public, and their wives followed suit.That was why Goriot moved into the Maison Vaquer, living off the little capital that he had kept for himself. His capital quickly diminished, because even though his daughters wanted him to keep his distance, they came to him whenever that had a bill to pay that their husband would not like, or that they would rather he did not know about.They took his love for granted, he could refuse them nothing, and so he was only one step away from destitution.When his cousin suggested that Eugene should woo Madame Delphine de Nucingen, Goriot’s other daughter, he saw many possibilities. It would it serve as revenge against her sister- the two sisters were bitterly competitive – it could be his stepping stone into society – and it could give him a chance to help the old man he had come to like very much.He followed her suggestion.Father Goriot was delighted that his young friend was moving in the same circles as his daughters, that he was able to bring him news of them. He was delighted with the smallest crumb; he thought nothing of himself, all of his care and concern was for them.Eugene could do nothing more for the old man. His daughters continued to take his love for granted, and it seemed that love had made them utterly selfish.His coming of age, his rise through society was set against Goriot’s fall.The story would end with his funeral; with only Eugene, the house boy who had always liked the old man who was kind to him, and two empty carriages sent by his sons-in-law in attendance.It took a little while for the story to get its hooks into me, but once it did I was caught, completely and utterly, to the very last page.The characters were complex and intriguing; and I couldn’t help responding to them. Nothing was black and white, but I saw so many shades of grey. I could understand why it was said that Goriot was a foolish old man – and I have to say that he was a fool for the best of reasons, that the world would be a better place if there were more fools like him.The story sets the world of the rich and powerful against the world of work and poverty very effectively. It was distinctive, it was uncontrived, and it illuminated similarities and differences. There was corruption and wrongdoing in both worlds, but the underlying causes were different. Some were keeping up appearances and expected much, while others were concerned with survival and advancement …It was told though a wonderful combination of descriptive passages and dialogues that made the characters, the era they lived in and the city that was home to them live and breathe.The boarding house and the salons were so well evoked that I might have been there.The old man’s downfall broke my heart, but the young man’s progress gave me hope for the future.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Isa Goriot oli edukas nuudlikaupmees, kes elas luksuses. Ärist lahkus ta tütarde abikaasade surve tõttu. Elas pansionis ja kolis aina kõrgemale korrusele (jäi vaesemaks). Tema üle heideti nalja ja ei austatud. Ta täitis tütarde soovid ja tegi neile kõik ette-taha ära. Tahtis, et neil läheks kõik hästi. Isaarmastus läks liiale. Kogu kiindumus, mis tal naise vastu oli, suunas ta oma tütardele. Lõpuks jäi haigeks ja suri.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Age is a spoilt milk and not a fine wine in Balzac’s Old Goriot. A tale that tells that of a doting father, it is this same perpetual, immense paternal affection that drives away his daughters and throws him further down the monstrous shadows of tragedy. His outrageously spoiled and corrupt daughters who are disgustingly enchanted by materialism are tragedies of their own right. There is no love but love of money in their hearts and minds, their marriages and familial relations, akin to souls readily auctioned to the devil for the glory of wealth; and where love is ever sometimes concerned there is always a motivation to feed these immoral affairs in bank notes in the gritty streets of Paris. As if this isn't devastating or frustrating enough, we are hold hostage by the four walls of Madame Vauquer's boarding house where malicious boarders reside. Gossips waft and bounce in its perimeters until the latter part surprises as an unexpected and sudden mysterious crime unfolds. In this regard, Old Goriot may feel a little jagged as it touches a variety of genres.A father's riches-to-rags story juxtaposed brilliantly by the naïve and social climber Eugène de Rastignac's immense desire to be part of the elite their narratives warily meet when their blind sacrifices turn out for nil. A kind of parasitic manipulation runs through their somehow strangely fond exchanges. This novel is heartless until its flinching struggle with mortality and hatred. This novel is heartless until the end if not for a curse of ambition. Balzac is tolerably melodramatic with a surprising knack for profound frills on the side. And no hesitation is spared by his pen in this written cursive of downfalls.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An excellent book, if not exactly to my taste in fiction. I enjoyed the setup and the climax, but found the anguished emotions and scheming of the middle a bit tedious, as you can tell by the fact that it took me a year and a half to read a 220-page book. Still, I could appreciate the adept use of language and character by Balzac as he wove his story of fortunes and love gained and lost in Restoration France. It was also extremely useful as a historical artifact, as Balzac makes a point to describe daily life — not to mention how much everything costs — in precise detail.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It's interesting that Père Goriot has the name that it does, as that character is neither the main one in the text nor the character whose actions most drive the plot. Nevertheless Goriot is the emotional heart of this novel, which does several things but ultimately its most successful accomplishment is depicting the selfless love of a father and the selfishness of children both brought to harmful extremes.

    The book merges a critique of French high society with the story of King Lear- but minus Cordelia, and with a Lear that has his pride replaced by the desire to indulge his children. On the front of social critique I found the novel lacking, as I'm afraid Proust has ruined such exercises for me. Proust lived in this same social labyrinth and theater, and his serious depictions of it are both more involved and more moving. In Search of Lost Time also allows the reader to view just how absurd the system was, as the absurdity is not exactly hidden from view. In contrast the satirization of the absurdities of the Paris social ladder that Balzac presents here seems rather simple and boring.

    Luckily the parts of the novel that reimagined King Lear worked better, though Balzac changes the moral ambiguity of one of Shakespeare's greatest plays into more of a tear-jerker. It's not hard, really, to make a story like this emotionally powerful- you write a kind, good character and then have mean, evil characters keep hurting that kind one over and over again until the kind one is utterly broken. That's inherently sad. Balzac, though, does not just go for the easy emotional impact but also points to such boundless kindness without consideration behind it being a potential source of evil itself. Goriot earns the title of this book by being the most poignant character of the novel, and the one I'm most likely to remember.

    Beyond Goriot, though, the stories of most of the other characters were less striking. There's an effective passage where the main character Rastignac writes his family for money, taking every scrap they can scrounge so that he can take some chances in the social scene that, even if successful, could result in no payout. Instead of maintaining this tension and having the pressure suspended over Rastignac, the novel resolves this point with little fanfare a few pages later, and indeed the novel makes clear at about the midway point that Rastignac's schemes will come to at least some level of fruition. This drained much of the narrative tension from that character's arc. Nevertheless I suppose the book has the reputation that it has for Goriot, not for one of the other two dozen odd characters.

    I wonder if Dickens read Père Goriot, as there were some significant similarities between this work and Great Expectations.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I am a style snob, but every now and then I find myself reading something that's, how can I put this?, not so finely crafted, and not really caring. This was one of those occasions. There's not much need for me to go into depth here: "Goriot" is a great novel of modernity, with great characters, great literary echoes, and a perfect understanding of what life is like--what it is still like. There are seventeenth century journalists who would regard the narrator as clumsy, yes. The characters are ludicrous caricatures, and thus perfectly realistic. The plot is a clanking, lumbering, unstoppable tank that rolls over your objections and petty questions ("do we really need the first 20 pages? what happens to Victorine? could you be a little more melodramatic?"), grinding you into paste beneath its tracks, and then, once it's rolled past you on to its next hapless victim-lover, leaves you begging for more.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I had Old Goriot recommended as a place to start with Honore de Balzac, and it worked well. It's set in post-Napoleonic Paris, and at various times made me think both of King Lear and Charles Dickens. There is a strong cynical view of upper vs. lower classes in it. Old Goriot had become wealthy via his vermicelli (!) business, and was able to set up his two daughters in marriages to aristocratic gentlemen. To help finance them, he lives modestly in a boarding house. The book begins with what for me was a dense and lengthy foundation-setting involving the boarding house's inhabitants, but once that was done the novel became much more engaging.The other central character is law student Eugene Ratsignac, a largely pure-hearted young man who wants to make his way in Parisian society. He has little money, which normally would make such advancement impossible, but he has an aristocratic family connection that gets him some initial footing on that social ladder. A cousin is willing to help him, and soon he makes a powerful romantic ally.Old Goriot lives for the happiness of his daughters, and they take every advantage of his generosity with little demonstration of paternal affection. Their husbands don't want him around, and he lives for brief glimpses of his daughters. Eugene comes to appreciate Goriot's sacrifice, and the nobility of his soul.Turns out that Dickens was indeed influenced by Balzac, and there's even a Magwitch-type character in Old Goriot, the ex-convict Vauterin, except his aims are self-benefit rather than recompense. Vauterin tests Eugene's honesty, and Goriot's treatment by his daughters and their husbands, among other things, opens Eugene's eyes to the often vicious nature of Parisian high society. In this book and others Balzac apparently broke from a more romantic tradition and provided a realism that readers hadn't seen before. Old Goriot provides a vivid and unflattering picture of Paris in that era, as two more noble spirits try to negotiate their way through it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Just about the only thing I remembered from last time I read this, in my teens, was that Goriot was in the vermicelli business. It's odd how that sort of unimportant detail sticks in your mind!In a way, this is the standard French novel plot, i.e. young man from the provinces comes to Paris and meets sophisticated older woman, but with two very particular twists: Goriot, the retired businessman who has sacrificed everything to launch his daughters into society and now finds himself treated like King Lear, and the elusive Vautrin, a self-made man of a different sort altogether. The very compact story makes a nice change from the long-windedness of 19th century English novelists with three volumes to fill, and so does Balzac's healthy cynicism: a story doesn't necessarily have to end with everyone neatly married off, and it's perfectly possible for someone to attend a sentimental deathbed scene without becoming a reformed character as a result.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book snuck up on me. I thought it was going to be one kind of classic, but upon finishing realised it was a different kind - a genuine classic. Hiding beneath Balzac's congenial, almost garrulous tone there is a sharp and unsentimental eye. By the book's conclusion I could well see a writer that would go on to inspire a whole generation from Zola, to Dickens, to Flaubert and Dostoevsky. The book opens on Madame Vacquer's boardinghouse - accommodation for those bobbing just above the tideline of poverty. Its motley inhabitants are drawn together by little more than propinquity; some on the way up, others on the way down, and others in a grim holding pattern until old age or disease take them. Eugene Rastignac, a bucolic just-nobleman is on the way up, drawn to Paris for his legal studies, and soon to be awed by an introduction to the city's dizziest heights. One the way down is the eponymous Goriot. Once a wealthy trader, plump from exploitation during the revolution, every day seems to leave him poorer. But what could the ridiculous Goriot have in common with the young, up-and-coming Rastignac? The answer to this question forms the book's core. And whilst, superficially, it seems a familiar tale from the nineteenth century, it is in fact one of the first, and one with true insight. Balzac is not content to use the ups-and-downs of those with a precarious hold on security merely to propel a narrative, as so many of his disciples were wont to do; he's trying to say something.He does take his sweet time getting there, however. The first fifty pages or so left me distinctly underwhelmed. It's easy to see why W. Somerset Maugham was such an admirer of Balzac: Much like Maugham, he likes to pepper his narrative with little asides and ruminations on society, clothing, any notion that takes his fancy, really. And, like Maugham, these asides only sometimes justify the narrative break required to furnish them.Balzac's foremost talent is his observational skill. The characters are rendered almost effortlessly. Recognisable types, to be sure, but types that expand almost on demand to contain complexities, contradictions, shades of grey. Indeed, in a lot of ways Pere Goriot is a Bildungsroman whose first concern is the expansion of Rastignac. But his development - like most portrayals in the book - is neither smooth, nor predictable, nor simplistic. Whilst Balzac can embrace the cliche when he wants - as with the grasping comedy of Madame Vacquer - he eschews it for his main characters, giving us protagonists with a healthly dose of ambiguity. We identify with them, because of their flaws in addition to their virtues. To me, it gave the book an emotional heft that a dozen other 19th century novels with very similar plots lack. It also highlights Balzac's larger game, which is to turn a critical eye on French society's most venal hypocrisies. It's a harsh eye at times, but not jaundiced. Balzac isn't interested in agitprop or simple class escapism. He means to entertain, most assuredly - and the book grows progressively entertaining as typified by its chaotic dinner scenes - but not without provocation. In conclusion, I enjoyed Pere Goriot, a lot. I'm unsure how much of this can be attributed the novel's slow start and my subsequent expectations - discovering its merits was like biting into a plain pastry only to realise the centre is filled with delicious jam. However, even those expecting jam could not be disappointed with something so sweet yet at the same time tart, and all in such a small package - barely 250 pages. This accessible, intelligent novel really is a must for anyone with an interest in 19th century literature, preceding as it does so much of it, and so well.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I read it in college, and now am re-reading it. It's amazing how talking with a few college professors in the course of one's work will make you take the book from the shelf, dust it off, and pull the underlining pen out of the drawer. And the amazing thing now is, now that I'm out of college, there are so many more nuances that didn't exist for me before, though I did recognize at the first reading the genius Balzac had for making observations about people and how true they are 150 years later.

    I'm reading it now and looking at some key sentences and thinking, Oh, wow, that could have been a term paper all on its own!" Age brings wisdom and patience."
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A powerful character study of the driving force behind humanity: money. The almighty dollar defines and influences society and holds court over its moral choices. Balzac deftly illustrates the extent to which people will go to procure wealth, or at least the illusion of wealth, in 19th century Parisian society. A young man learns this painful truth as he is initiated into the adult world. “Golden chains are the heaviest of all fetters...Henceforth there is war between us.” This timeless message is repeated throughout Balzac’s work.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Cheering for a father of daughters to read this book--or any father. The daughters only write to ask for funds, as they make their way up the social ladder well above where they can even acknowledge their father.Who but Balzac writes of a proud French General, "simple as a child," or of "professeur," essentially a prep school teacher, at "Collège de France, payé pour tenir a la hauteur de ses auditeurs " (56). He writes of youth, and its "contagion des sentiments."The wonderful, patheti ending features a French funeral--for which , see Dickens' satire in theUncommercial Traveller. Pere Goriot's death is unattended by his daughters, his funeral...well, no spoilers on that. Goriot gets some grand monologs, for sure.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book floored me. I mean, jaw on the floor, gaping as I read, type of floored me. Who knew Balzac could be so approachable? I picked up this book fully expecting to struggle through it, much like my earlier trials with Middlemarch, and instead I found myself thoroughly intrigued by this drama. And Balzac himself, as narrator of the story of Father Goriot, calls it a drama, although he hastens to explain that it isn’t quite the same as those other dramas of the time.The word drama has been somewhat discredited of late; it has been overworked and twisted to strange uses in these days of dolorous literature; but it must do service again here, not because this story is dramatic in the restricted sense of the word, but because some tears may perhaps be shed intra et extra muros before it is over. – Father Goriot by BalzacThe story is focused around two characters – Father Goriot and a young, law student named Eugene Rastignac. They are acquainted by being one of several boarders in a respectable, if a bit shabby, boarding house in Paris, France. Goriot is the father of two married daughters, and Rastignac is, at the expense of his parents and two sisters, attempting to marry into society and wealth – but in a respectful way!This drama has everything – murder and intrigue through the character of Vautrin, the Trick of Death. It has humor – there is an entire scene which made me think of our modern day Snoop Dog “shizzle” moments – Balzac talks about how the diorama has recently been unveiled, and as a result, in passing, humorous conversation, the morpheme “orama” is added to the end of random words – such as Goriot-orama. There is an entire scene at the dinner table in which words are bantered about, and even referenced later in the book that had me laughing out loud in sheer delight. It has tragedy – the outcome of Father Goriot and his daughters relationship is one that, as Balzac foretells, worthy of tears. It showcases both the good and bad sides of the human character, and provides an interesting commentary on situations and feelings that are relevant still today.Some day you will find out that there is far more happiness in another’s happiness than in your own – BalzacThe human heart may find here and there a resting-place short of the highest height of affection, but we seldom stop in the steep, downward slope of hatred - BalzacI wish I could go further into the quotes and how many things I highlighted on my Kindle – but then this entire review would be just repeated quote after quote, since there are quite a few of them. I have to encourage you to pick up this book and read it – I hope you will find it as fascinating as I did. Such an incredible story of the tragedy of life.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    When an elegant Monsieur Goriot first moves into Madame Vauquer's shabby boarding house, the middle-aged woman is impressed with his expensive clothes and the costly furniture and accessories he has brought with him to his ample rooms, which are among the best her humble lodgings have to offer. She considers he might be a good prospect for her, but in very little time, Goriot is visibly reduced, has moved into her cheapest quarters and sold off all his silverware, and she, along with the other lodgers, take to making fun of the old man to his face, and accusing him of seeing prostitutes when two elegant ladies come to visit him on occasion. The truth is that the old man has given away all his worldly possessions so that his two grown daughters could have the best of everything, have brilliant marriages, and be important members of Parisian high society in the early 19th century. Only one of Old Goriot's fellow lodgers, Eugene de Rastignac—a young law student—takes a real interest in the old man, and before long, the ambitious youth finds himself wrapped up in Goriot's family drama. A searing criticism about a society more interested in appearances than in individual wellbeing, and a moving portrayal of the extremes to which a father will go out of love for his children.

Book preview

Father Goriot - Ellen Marriage

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Father Goriot, by Honore de Balzac

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Father Goriot

Author: Honore de Balzac

Translator: Ellen Marriage

Release Date: March, 1998 [Etext #1237]

Posting Date: February 22, 2010

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FATHER GORIOT ***

Produced by Dagny

FATHER GORIOT

By Honore De Balzac

Translated by Ellen Marriage

     To the great and illustrious Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, a token

     of admiration for his works and genius.

                                                      DE BALZAC.

FATHER GORIOT

Mme. Vauquer (nee de Conflans) is an elderly person, who for the past forty years has kept a lodging-house in the Rue Nueve-Sainte-Genevieve, in the district that lies between the Latin Quarter and the Faubourg Saint-Marcel. Her house (known in the neighborhood as the Maison Vauquer) receives men and women, old and young, and no word has ever been breathed against her respectable establishment; but, at the same time, it must be said that as a matter of fact no young woman has been under her roof for thirty years, and that if a young man stays there for any length of time it is a sure sign that his allowance must be of the slenderest. In 1819, however, the time when this drama opens, there was an almost penniless young girl among Mme. Vauquer's boarders.

That word drama has been somewhat discredited of late; it has been overworked and twisted to strange uses in these days of dolorous literature; but it must do service again here, not because this story is dramatic in the restricted sense of the word, but because some tears may perhaps be shed intra et extra muros before it is over.

Will any one without the walls of Paris understand it? It is open to doubt. The only audience who could appreciate the results of close observation, the careful reproduction of minute detail and local color, are dwellers between the heights of Montrouge and Montmartre, in a vale of crumbling stucco watered by streams of black mud, a vale of sorrows which are real and joys too often hollow; but this audience is so accustomed to terrible sensations, that only some unimaginable and well-neigh impossible woe could produce any lasting impression there. Now and again there are tragedies so awful and so grand by reason of the complication of virtues and vices that bring them about, that egotism and selfishness are forced to pause and are moved to pity; but the impression that they receive is like a luscious fruit, soon consumed. Civilization, like the car of Juggernaut, is scarcely stayed perceptibly in its progress by a heart less easy to break than the others that lie in its course; this also is broken, and Civilization continues on her course triumphant. And you, too, will do the like; you who with this book in your white hand will sink back among the cushions of your armchair, and say to yourself, Perhaps this may amuse me. You will read the story of Father Goriot's secret woes, and, dining thereafter with an unspoiled appetite, will lay the blame of your insensibility upon the writer, and accuse him of exaggeration, of writing romances. Ah! once for all, this drama is neither a fiction nor a romance! All is true,—so true, that every one can discern the elements of the tragedy in his own house, perhaps in his own heart.

The lodging-house is Mme. Vauquer's own property. It is still standing in the lower end of the Rue Nueve-Sainte-Genevieve, just where the road slopes so sharply down to the Rue de l'Arbalete, that wheeled traffic seldom passes that way, because it is so stony and steep. This position is sufficient to account for the silence prevalent in the streets shut in between the dome of the Pantheon and the dome of the Val-de-Grace, two conspicuous public buildings which give a yellowish tone to the landscape and darken the whole district that lies beneath the shadow of their leaden-hued cupolas.

In that district the pavements are clean and dry, there is neither mud nor water in the gutters, grass grows in the chinks of the walls. The most heedless passer-by feels the depressing influences of a place where the sound of wheels creates a sensation; there is a grim look about the houses, a suggestion of a jail about those high garden walls. A Parisian straying into a suburb apparently composed of lodging-houses and public institutions would see poverty and dullness, old age lying down to die, and joyous youth condemned to drudgery. It is the ugliest quarter of Paris, and, it may be added, the least known. But, before all things, the Rue Nueve-Sainte-Genevieve is like a bronze frame for a picture for which the mind cannot be too well prepared by the contemplation of sad hues and sober images. Even so, step by step the daylight decreases, and the cicerone's droning voice grows hollower as the traveler descends into the Catacombs. The comparison holds good! Who shall say which is more ghastly, the sight of the bleached skulls or of dried-up human hearts?

The front of the lodging-house is at right angles to the road, and looks out upon a little garden, so that you see the side of the house in section, as it were, from the Rue Nueve-Sainte-Genevieve. Beneath the wall of the house front there lies a channel, a fathom wide, paved with cobble-stones, and beside it runs a graveled walk bordered by geraniums and oleanders and pomegranates set in great blue and white glazed earthenware pots. Access into the graveled walk is afforded by a door, above which the words MAISON VAUQUER may be read, and beneath, in rather smaller letters, "Lodgings for both sexes, etc."

During the day a glimpse into the garden is easily obtained through a wicket to which a bell is attached. On the opposite wall, at the further end of the graveled walk, a green marble arch was painted once upon a time by a local artist, and in this semblance of a shrine a statue representing Cupid is installed; a Parisian Cupid, so blistered and disfigured that he looks like a candidate for one of the adjacent hospitals, and might suggest an allegory to lovers of symbolism. The half-obliterated inscription on the pedestal beneath determines the date of this work of art, for it bears witness to the widespread enthusiasm felt for Voltaire on his return to Paris in 1777:

              "Whoe'er thou art, thy master see;

               He is, or was, or ought to be."

At night the wicket gate is replaced by a solid door. The little garden is no wider than the front of the house; it is shut in between the wall of the street and the partition wall of the neighboring house. A mantle of ivy conceals the bricks and attracts the eyes of passers-by to an effect which is picturesque in Paris, for each of the walls is covered with trellised vines that yield a scanty dusty crop of fruit, and furnish besides a subject of conversation for Mme. Vauquer and her lodgers; every year the widow trembles for her vintage.

A straight path beneath the walls on either side of the garden leads to

a clump of lime-trees at the further end of it; line-trees, as Mme.

Vauquer persists in calling them, in spite of the fact that she was a de

Conflans, and regardless of repeated corrections from her lodgers.

The central space between the walls is filled with artichokes and rows of pyramid fruit-trees, and surrounded by a border of lettuce, pot-herbs, and parsley. Under the lime-trees there are a few green-painted garden seats and a wooden table, and hither, during the dog-days, such of the lodgers as are rich enough to indulge in a cup of coffee come to take their pleasure, though it is hot enough to roast eggs even in the shade.

The house itself is three stories high, without counting the attics under the roof. It is built of rough stone, and covered with the yellowish stucco that gives a mean appearance to almost every house in Paris. There are five windows in each story in the front of the house; all the blinds visible through the small square panes are drawn up awry, so that the lines are all at cross purposes. At the side of the house there are but two windows on each floor, and the lowest of all are adorned with a heavy iron grating.

Behind the house a yard extends for some twenty feet, a space inhabited by a happy family of pigs, poultry, and rabbits; the wood-shed is situated on the further side, and on the wall between the wood-shed and the kitchen window hangs the meat-safe, just above the place where the sink discharges its greasy streams. The cook sweeps all the refuse out through a little door into the Rue Nueve-Sainte-Genevieve, and frequently cleanses the yard with copious supplies of water, under pain of pestilence.

The house might have been built on purpose for its present uses. Access is given by a French window to the first room on the ground floor, a sitting-room which looks out upon the street through the two barred windows already mentioned. Another door opens out of it into the dining-room, which is separated from the kitchen by the well of the staircase, the steps being constructed partly of wood, partly of tiles, which are colored and beeswaxed. Nothing can be more depressing than the sight of that sitting-room. The furniture is covered with horse hair woven in alternate dull and glossy stripes. There is a round table in the middle, with a purplish-red marble top, on which there stands, by way of ornament, the inevitable white china tea-service, covered with a half-effaced gilt network. The floor is sufficiently uneven, the wainscot rises to elbow height, and the rest of the wall space is decorated with a varnished paper, on which the principal scenes from Telemaque are depicted, the various classical personages being colored. The subject between the two windows is the banquet given by Calypso to the son of Ulysses, displayed thereon for the admiration of the boarders, and has furnished jokes these forty years to the young men who show themselves superior to their position by making fun of the dinners to which poverty condemns them. The hearth is always so clean and neat that it is evident that a fire is only kindled there on great occasions; the stone chimney-piece is adorned by a couple of vases filled with faded artificial flowers imprisoned under glass shades, on either side of a bluish marble clock in the very worst taste.

The first room exhales an odor for which there is no name in the language, and which should be called the odeur de pension. The damp atmosphere sends a chill through you as you breathe it; it has a stuffy, musty, and rancid quality; it permeates your clothing; after-dinner scents seem to be mingled in it with smells from the kitchen and scullery and the reek of a hospital. It might be possible to describe it if some one should discover a process by which to distil from the atmosphere all the nauseating elements with which it is charged by the catarrhal exhalations of every individual lodger, young or old. Yet, in spite of these stale horrors, the sitting-room is as charming and as delicately perfumed as a boudoir, when compared with the adjoining dining-room.

The paneled walls of that apartment were once painted some color, now a matter of conjecture, for the surface is incrusted with accumulated layers of grimy deposit, which cover it with fantastic outlines. A collection of dim-ribbed glass decanters, metal discs with a satin sheen on them, and piles of blue-edged earthenware plates of Touraine ware cover the sticky surfaces of the sideboards that line the room. In a corner stands a box containing a set of numbered pigeon-holes, in which the lodgers' table napkins, more or less soiled and stained with wine, are kept. Here you see that indestructible furniture never met with elsewhere, which finds its way into lodging-houses much as the wrecks of our civilization drift into hospitals for incurables. You expect in such places as these to find the weather-house whence a Capuchin issues on wet days; you look to find the execrable engravings which spoil your appetite, framed every one in a black varnished frame, with a gilt beading round it; you know the sort of tortoise-shell clock-case, inlaid with brass; the green stove, the Argand lamps, covered with oil and dust, have met your eyes before. The oilcloth which covers the long table is so greasy that a waggish externe will write his name on the surface, using his thumb-nail as a style. The chairs are broken-down invalids; the wretched little hempen mats slip away from under your feet without slipping away for good; and finally, the foot-warmers are miserable wrecks, hingeless, charred, broken away about the holes. It would be impossible to give an idea of the old, rotten, shaky, cranky, worm-eaten, halt, maimed, one-eyed, rickety, and ramshackle condition of the furniture without an exhaustive description, which would delay the progress of the story to an extent that impatient people would not pardon. The red tiles of the floor are full of depressions brought about by scouring and periodical renewings of color. In short, there is no illusory grace left to the poverty that reigns here; it is dire, parsimonious, concentrated, threadbare poverty; as yet it has not sunk into the mire, it is only splashed by it, and though not in rags as yet, its clothing is ready to drop to pieces.

This apartment is in all its glory at seven o'clock in the morning, when Mme. Vauquer's cat appears, announcing the near approach of his mistress, and jumps upon the sideboards to sniff at the milk in the bowls, each protected by a plate, while he purrs his morning greeting to the world. A moment later the widow shows her face; she is tricked out in a net cap attached to a false front set on awry, and shuffles into the room in her slipshod fashion. She is an oldish woman, with a bloated countenance, and a nose like a parrot's beak set in the middle of it; her fat little hands (she is as sleek as a church rat) and her shapeless, slouching figure are in keeping with the room that reeks of misfortune, where hope is reduced to speculate for the meanest stakes. Mme. Vauquer alone can breathe that tainted air without being disheartened by it. Her face is as fresh as a frosty morning in autumn; there are wrinkles about the eyes that vary in their expression from the set smile of a ballet-dancer to the dark, suspicious scowl of a discounter of bills; in short, she is at once the embodiment and interpretation of her lodging-house, as surely as her lodging-house implies the existence of its mistress. You can no more imagine the one without the other, than you can think of a jail without a turnkey. The unwholesome corpulence of the little woman is produced by the life she leads, just as typhus fever is bred in the tainted air of a hospital. The very knitted woolen petticoat that she wears beneath a skirt made of an old gown, with the wadding protruding through the rents in the material, is a sort of epitome of the sitting-room, the dining-room, and the little garden; it discovers the cook, it foreshadows the lodgers—the picture of the house is completed by the portrait of its mistress.

Mme. Vauquer at the age of fifty is like all women who have seen a deal of trouble. She has the glassy eyes and innocent air of a trafficker in flesh and blood, who will wax virtuously indignant to obtain a higher price for her services, but who is quite ready to betray a Georges or a Pichegru, if a Georges or a Pichegru were in hiding and still to be betrayed, or for any other expedient that may alleviate her lot. Still, she is a good woman at bottom, said the lodgers who believed that the widow was wholly dependent upon the money that they paid her, and sympathized when they heard her cough and groan like one of themselves.

What had M. Vauquer been? The lady was never very explicit on this head. How had she lost her money? Through trouble, was her answer. He had treated her badly, had left her nothing but her eyes to cry over his cruelty, the house she lived in, and the privilege of pitying nobody, because, so she was wont to say, she herself had been through every possible misfortune.

Sylvie, the stout cook, hearing her mistress' shuffling footsteps, hastened to serve the lodgers' breakfasts. Beside those who lived in the house, Mme. Vauquer took boarders who came for their meals; but these externes usually only came to dinner, for which they paid thirty francs a month.

At the time when this story begins, the lodging-house contained seven inmates. The best rooms in the house were on the first story, Mme. Vauquer herself occupying the least important, while the rest were let to a Mme. Couture, the widow of a commissary-general in the service of the Republic. With her lived Victorine Taillefer, a schoolgirl, to whom she filled the place of mother. These two ladies paid eighteen hundred francs a year.

The two sets of rooms on the second floor were respectively occupied by an old man named Poiret and a man of forty or thereabouts, the wearer of a black wig and dyed whiskers, who gave out that he was a retired merchant, and was addressed as M. Vautrin. Two of the four rooms on the third floor were also let—one to an elderly spinster, a Mlle. Michonneau, and the other to a retired manufacturer of vermicelli, Italian paste and starch, who allowed the others to address him as Father Goriot. The remaining rooms were allotted to various birds of passage, to impecunious students, who like Father Goriot and Mlle. Michonneau, could only muster forty-five francs a month to pay for their board and lodging. Mme. Vauquer had little desire for lodgers of this sort; they ate too much bread, and she only took them in default of better.

At that time one of the rooms was tenanted by a law student, a young man from the neighborhood of Angouleme, one of a large family who pinched and starved themselves to spare twelve hundred francs a year for him. Misfortune had accustomed Eugene de Rastignac, for that was his name, to work. He belonged to the number of young men who know as children that their parents' hopes are centered on them, and deliberately prepare themselves for a great career, subordinating their studies from the first to this end, carefully watching the indications of the course of events, calculating the probable turn that affairs will take, that they may be the first to profit by them. But for his observant curiosity, and the skill with which he managed to introduce himself into the salons of Paris, this story would not have been colored by the tones of truth which it certainly owes to him, for they are entirely due to his penetrating sagacity and desire to fathom the mysteries of an appalling condition of things, which was concealed as carefully by the victim as by those who had brought it to pass.

Above the third story there was a garret where the linen was hung to dry, and a couple of attics. Christophe, the man-of-all-work, slept in one, and Sylvie, the stout cook, in the other. Beside the seven inmates thus enumerated, taking one year with another, some eight law or medical students dined in the house, as well as two or three regular comers who lived in the neighborhood. There were usually eighteen people at dinner, and there was room, if need be, for twenty at Mme. Vauquer's table; at breakfast, however, only the seven lodgers appeared. It was almost like a family party. Every one came down in dressing-gown and slippers, and the conversation usually turned on anything that had happened the evening before; comments on the dress or appearance of the dinner contingent were exchanged in friendly confidence.

These seven lodgers were Mme. Vauquer's spoiled children. Among them she distributed, with astronomical precision, the exact proportion of respect and attention due to the varying amounts they paid for their board. One single consideration influenced all these human beings thrown together by chance. The two second-floor lodgers only paid seventy-two francs a month. Such prices as these are confined to the Faubourg Saint-Marcel and the district between La Bourbe and the Salpetriere; and, as might be expected, poverty, more or less apparent, weighed upon them all, Mme. Couture being the sole exception to the rule.

The dreary surroundings were reflected in the costumes of the inmates of the house; all were alike threadbare. The color of the men's coats were problematical; such shoes, in more fashionable quarters, are only to be seen lying in the gutter; the cuffs and collars were worn and frayed at the edges; every limp article of clothing looked like the ghost of its former self. The women's dresses were faded, old-fashioned, dyed and re-dyed; they wore gloves that were glazed with hard wear, much-mended lace, dingy ruffles, crumpled muslin fichus. So much for their clothing; but, for the most part, their frames were solid enough; their constitutions had weathered the storms of life; their cold, hard faces were worn like coins that have been withdrawn from circulation, but there were greedy teeth behind the withered lips. Dramas brought to a close or still in progress are foreshadowed by the sight of such actors as these, not the dramas that are played before the footlights and against a background of painted canvas, but dumb dramas of life, frost-bound dramas that sere hearts like fire, dramas that do not end with the actors' lives.

Mlle. Michonneau, that elderly young lady, screened her weak eyes from the daylight by a soiled green silk shade with a rim of brass, an object fit to scare away the Angel of Pity himself. Her shawl, with its scanty, draggled fringe, might have covered a skeleton, so meagre and angular was the form beneath it. Yet she must have been pretty and shapely once. What corrosive had destroyed the feminine outlines? Was it trouble, or vice, or greed? Had she loved too well? Had she been a second-hand clothes dealer, a frequenter of the backstairs of great houses, or had she been merely a courtesan? Was she expiating the flaunting triumphs of a youth overcrowded with pleasures by an old age in which she was shunned by every passer-by? Her vacant gaze sent a chill through you; her shriveled face seemed like a menace. Her voice was like the shrill, thin note of the grasshopper sounding from the thicket when winter is at hand. She said that she had nursed an old gentleman, ill of catarrh of the bladder, and left to die by his children, who thought that he had nothing left. His bequest to her, a life annuity of a thousand francs, was periodically disputed by his heirs, who mingled slander with their persecutions. In spite of the ravages of conflicting passions, her face retained some traces of its former fairness and fineness of tissue, some vestiges of the physical charms of her youth still survived.

M. Poiret was a sort of automaton. He might be seen any day sailing like a gray shadow along the walks of the Jardin des Plantes, on his head a shabby cap, a cane with an old yellow ivory handle in the tips of his thin fingers; the outspread skirts of his threadbare overcoat failed to conceal his meagre figure; his breeches hung loosely on his shrunken limbs; the thin, blue-stockinged legs trembled like those of a drunken man; there was a notable breach of continuity between the dingy white waistcoat and crumpled shirt frills and the cravat twisted about a throat like a turkey gobbler's; altogether, his appearance set people wondering whether this outlandish ghost belonged to the audacious race of the sons of Japhet who flutter about on the Boulevard Italien. What devouring kind of toil could have so shriveled him? What devouring passions had darkened that bulbous countenance, which would have seemed outrageous as a caricature? What had he been? Well, perhaps he had been part of the machinery of justice, a clerk in the office to which the executioner sends in his accounts,—so much for providing black veils for parricides, so much for sawdust, so much for pulleys and cord for the knife. Or he might have been a receiver at the door of a public slaughter-house, or a sub-inspector of nuisances. Indeed, the man appeared to have been one of the beasts of burden in our great social mill; one of those Parisian Ratons whom their Bertrands do not even know by sight; a pivot in the obscure machinery that disposes of misery and things unclean; one of those men, in short, at sight of whom we are prompted to remark that, After all, we cannot do without them.

Stately Paris ignores the existence of these faces bleached by moral or physical suffering; but, then, Paris is in truth an ocean that no line can plumb. You may survey its surface and describe it; but no matter how numerous and painstaking the toilers in this sea, there will always be lonely and unexplored regions in its depths, caverns unknown, flowers and pearls and monsters of the deep overlooked or forgotten by the divers of literature. The Maison Vauquer is one of these curious monstrosities.

Two, however, of Mme. Vauquer's boarders formed a striking contrast to the rest. There was a sickly pallor, such as is often seen in anaemic girls, in Mlle. Victorine Taillefer's face; and her unvarying expression of sadness, like her embarrassed manner and pinched look, was in keeping with the general wretchedness of the establishment in the Rue Nueve-Saint-Genevieve, which forms a background to this picture; but her face was young, there was youthfulness in her voice and elasticity in her movements. This young misfortune was not unlike a shrub, newly planted in an uncongenial soil, where its leaves have already begun to wither. The outlines of her figure, revealed by her dress of the simplest and cheapest materials, were also youthful. There was the same kind of charm about her too slender form, her faintly colored face and light-brown hair, that modern poets find in mediaeval statuettes; and a sweet expression, a look of Christian resignation in the dark gray eyes. She was pretty by force of contrast; if she had been happy, she would have been charming. Happiness is the poetry of woman, as the toilette is her tinsel. If the delightful excitement of a ball had made the pale face glow with color; if the delights of a luxurious life had brought the color to the wan cheeks that were slightly hollowed already; if love had put light into the sad eyes, then Victorine might have ranked among the fairest; but she lacked the two things which create woman a second time—pretty dresses and love-letters.

A book might have been made of her story. Her father was persuaded that he had sufficient reason for declining to acknowledge her, and allowed her a bare six hundred francs a year; he had further taken measures to disinherit his daughter, and had converted all his real estate into personalty, that he might leave it undivided to his son. Victorine's mother had died broken-hearted in Mme. Couture's house; and the latter, who was a near relation, had taken charge of the little orphan. Unluckily, the widow of the commissary-general to the armies of the Republic had nothing in the world but her jointure and her widow's pension, and some day she might be obliged to leave the helpless, inexperienced girl to the mercy of the world. The good soul, therefore, took Victorine to mass every Sunday, and to confession once a fortnight, thinking that, in any case, she would bring up her ward to be devout. She was right; religion offered a solution of the problem of the young girl's future. The poor child loved the father who refused to acknowledge her. Once every year she tried to see him to deliver her mother's message of forgiveness, but every year hitherto she had knocked at that door in vain; her father was inexorable. Her brother, her only means of communication, had not come to see her for four years, and had sent her no assistance; yet she prayed to God to unseal her father's eyes and to soften her brother's heart, and no accusations mingled with her prayers. Mme. Couture and Mme. Vauquer exhausted the vocabulary of abuse, and failed to find words that did justice to the banker's iniquitous conduct; but while they heaped execrations on the millionaire, Victorine's words were as gentle as the moan of the wounded dove, and affection found expression even in the cry drawn from her by pain.

Eugene de Rastignac was a thoroughly southern type; he had a fair complexion, blue eyes, black hair. In his figure, manner, and his whole bearing it was easy to see that he had either come of a noble family, or that, from his earliest childhood, he had been gently bred. If he was careful of his wardrobe, only taking last year's clothes into daily wear, still upon occasion he could issue forth as a young man of fashion. Ordinarily he wore a shabby coat and waistcoat, the limp black cravat, untidily knotted, that students affect, trousers that matched the rest of his costume, and boots that had been resoled.

Vautrin (the man of forty with the dyed whiskers) marked a transition stage between these two young people and the others. He was the kind of man that calls forth the remark: He looks a jovial sort! He had broad shoulders, a well-developed chest, muscular arms, and strong square-fisted hands; the joints of his fingers were covered with tufts of fiery red hair. His face was furrowed by premature wrinkles; there was a certain hardness about it in spite of his bland and insinuating manner. His bass voice was by no means unpleasant, and was in keeping with his boisterous laughter. He was always obliging, always in good spirits; if anything went wrong with one of the locks, he would soon unscrew it, take it to pieces, file it, oil and clean and set it in order, and put it back in its place again; I am an old hand at it, he used to say. Not only so, he knew all about ships, the sea, France, foreign countries, men, business, law, great houses and prisons,—there was nothing that he did not know. If any one complained rather more than usual, he would offer his services at once. He had several times lent money to Mme. Vauquer, or to the boarders; but, somehow, those whom he obliged felt that they would sooner face death than fail to repay him; a certain resolute look, sometimes seen on his face, inspired fear of him, for all his appearance of easy good-nature. In the way he spat there was an imperturbable coolness which seemed to indicate that this was a man who would not stick at a crime to extricate himself from a false position. His eyes, like those of a pitiless judge, seemed

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