Reading Order
Le Père Goriot Reading Order
Le Père Goriot (1835) by Honoré de Balzac is the founding novel of the Comédie humaine — not the first written, but the first to introduce Eugène de Rastignac (who will appear in dozens of subsequent novels) and to establish the systematic sociology that makes Balzac's project unique. Set in a Parisian boarding house (the Maison Vauquer) in 1819, it follows three main characters whose stories intersect: Goriot, the retired pasta manufacturer who has sacrificed everything for his daughters and is dying in poverty while they flourish in society; Rastignac, the young provincial law student who faces the fundamental choice between ambition and moral scruple; and Vautrin, the escaped convict who offers Rastignac a shortcut to success through crime. The novel ends with the famous scene at Père-Lachaise cemetery: Goriot's unmarked grave, his daughters absent, Rastignac defying Paris from the hilltop with 'À nous deux maintenant!' — the declaration of war on society that launches his career. Balzac's innovation is the recurrence of characters: Rastignac will appear in La Cousine Bette, Les Illusions perdues, La Maison Nucingen, and dozens of other Comédie humaine novels as a different age, using the shortcuts he chose in 1819.
Where to start
Le Père Goriot
Complete Le Père Goriot Book List
- 1Buy
Le Père Goriot
Honoré de Balzac·1835·The entry point for the Comédie humaine and the ideal starting point for Balzac: it introduces Rastignac and Vautrin and establishes the Paris of the boarding house and the salon as the two poles of Balzac's social world - 2Buy
Les Illusions perdues
Honoré de Balzac·1843·The masterpiece of the Comédie humaine: the three-volume novel of Lucien de Rubempré's rise and fall in Paris journalism and literature; the most sustained and most devastating account of the French literary world ever written - 3Buy
La Cousine Bette
Honoré de Balzac·1846·The late masterpiece: the Merteuil figure of bourgeois resentment, orchestrating destruction from poverty; Balzac at his most cold and his most novelistically controlled - 4Buy
La Maison Nucingen
Honoré de Balzac·1838·The Rastignac continuation: the young provincial who defied Paris from Père-Lachaise has become the associate of the fraudulent banker Nucingen; the dark irony of Rastignac's 'success' revealed - 5Buy
Gobseck
Honoré de Balzac·1830·The usurer novella that precedes Le Père Goriot and introduces the money world in its purest form: Gobseck, the moneylender who is the true master of Paris, is the Vautrin figure who has chosen money rather than crime as his instrument
Le Père Goriot — Frequently Asked Questions
Is Le Père Goriot a good place to start with Balzac?
Yes — it is the ideal entry point for the Comédie humaine. It introduces the three fundamental Balzacian character types (the passionate victim, the ambitious young man, the criminal philosopher), the boarding house as sociological laboratory, and the character of Rastignac who will appear throughout the series. After Père Goriot, Les Illusions perdues is the most important next step.
What is the Comédie humaine?
Balzac's project of writing a complete sociology of France — some 90 novels and short stories organized into three divisions (Études de mœurs, Études philosophiques, Études analytiques) and subdivided into scenes of private, provincial, Parisian, political, military, and country life. Characters recur across novels at different ages, giving the series an unprecedented illusion of a complete society observed over decades.
Is Goriot a Christ figure?
Balzac explicitly draws the comparison: Goriot's sacrifice for ungrateful daughters, his suffering, his abandonment, and his death make the Christ-parallel impossible to miss, and Balzac underlines it with the boarding-house characters calling him 'Père Goriot' rather than a personal name. But Balzac's Goriot is also a study in pathological paternal devotion — his love has destroyed his daughters by funding their corruption and it is destroying him.
What is the choice Rastignac faces?
Rastignac sees two paths: Goriot's path (disinterested love, exploitation, death in poverty) and Vautrin's path (strategic crime, complicity, success). Neither is endorsed: Goriot's love is shown as a form of folly; Vautrin's crime is shown as seductive but dangerous. Rastignac's final declaration at the cemetery ('À nous deux maintenant!') is the choice of ambition, but Balzac makes clear it will cost him something he may not be able to name yet.
Who is Vautrin and why does he matter?
Vautrin (real name Jacques Collin, alias Trompe-la-Mort) is an escaped convict who will appear in three major Balzac novels (Le Père Goriot, Illusions perdues, Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes) as the criminal philosopher who sees society clearly and offers the young man he mentors a shortcut through it. He is the most interesting character in the Comédie humaine — part Mephistopheles, part political philosopher, part homoerotic father-figure.
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