Le Père Goriot

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Le Père Goriot (English title: Old Goriot or Father Goriot) is an 1835 novel written by the French novelist Honoré de Balzac. It is one of the series of novels to which Balzac gave the title of "La Comédie humaine" ("The Human Comedy"). Balzac’s own final draft of the novel divided it into six sections.

Contents

[edit] Background

Le Père Goriot was written between 1834-1835 when Balzac was 35 years old, he often worked around the clock in marathon sessions. It first appeared in serialized form in Revue de Paris in the Fall of 1834 and in completed book form in 1835.

It is part of The Human Comedy, but as a stand-alone novel it represents Balzac's talents at their height in a complete form. Many of his novels were not always complete unto themselves requiring other works to tie together. Thus, Pere Goriot has been one of his most widely read novels, achieving such fame that the novels protagonist, "Rastignac", for the French, is synonymous with a bright young man determined to succeed - perhaps at any cost.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Although the title character of Père Goriot does appear in the book, the character at the center of the action is Eugène de Rastignac, a slightly idealistic and highly ambitious law student who lives in the same rundown boarding house in a seedy area of Paris as Goriot. Eugène decides to delay his studies for an attempt to enter into Parisian society, and chooses (with Goriot’s blessing) to pursue an affair with one of Goriot’s married daughters.

[edit] Part 1: Private Lodgings

Here we meet the various residents of the Maison Vauquer, a “respectable” boarding house on the Rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève run by the widow Madame Vauquer. The “guests,” as Mme Vauquer calls them, include Goriot, Eugène, a mysterious agitator named Vautrin, and a disinherited waif named Victorine Taillefer, among others. Goriot is the butt of many jokes among his housemates, and when two well-dressed, beautiful young women are seen visiting him, the tenants suspect that despite his meager living circumstances, Goriot is a rake.

Goriot himself is a once-wealthy vermicelli manufacturer who earned his fortune through hard work and keeping a low profile before and after the French Revolution, buying his master’s shop when the man was killed. He has the unusual habit of smelling every piece of bread he eats to detect the quality of the flour within, one of many reasons his fellow tenants tease and insult him. It is revealed that the two women who visit him are his well-married daughters, and that Goriot is slowly bankrupting himself to support them, as their dissolute husbands have frittered away much of their dowries.

One night, Eugène hears noises coming from Goriot’s room, and peeks through the keyhole. He sees Goriot melting and working a silver piece into a lump that can be more easily sold. The next morning, Goriot goes to a merchant and sells the metal.

[edit] Part 2: Afternoon Calls

Eugène, with some encouragement from Vautrin, decides to make a play to move into the noble social circle of Paris. He meets one of Goriot’s daughters (oblivious to the connection), Mme Anastasie de Restaud, by using a family connection, but his attempts to woo Mme de Restaud come to a halt when he mentions Goriot’s name. Goriot explains to him the nature of his fractured relationships with his daughters, including how his sons-in-law have denied him the right to see them, and encourages Eugène to pursue his other daughter, the Mme Delphine de Nucingen, married to a harsh German baron who is himself carrying on at least one extramarital affair.

Realizing that he must buy finer clothes, travel in cabs, and obtain other trappings of wealth to insinuate himself into the Parisian nobility, Eugène writes to his mother and sisters on the family vineyard and asks them to send him all the money they can.

[edit] Part 3: Entry into Society

In the meantime, Vautrin begins to hatch an alternate plan for Eugène. He argues that he should marry his fellow tenant Victorine, whose father has deprived her of her fortune but who will come into the money if her brother should meet an early demise. Vautrin offers to arrange for a duel where Victorine’s brother will be killed – and he doesn’t wait for Eugène to accept or decline it.

Eugène, meanwhile, continues to pursue Mme de Nucingen, and pesters his cousin, Mme de Beauséant, to get him an invitation to a ball that his target will be attending. His cousin is busy trying to retain her current paramour, the Portuguese Marquis d’Ajuda-Pinto, who appears headed toward a marriage of his own that would end their affair. The Marquis arranges for Eugène to meet Mme de Nucingen after a show at the theater.

Eugène is smitten with Goriot’s daughter, and the father is thrilled to hear the news as he hopes to “see” his daughter vicariously through Eugène. The baroness invites Eugène to an opera, but when he arrives at her house for dinner, she is downcast and asks him to head out with her on an unspecified mission. She gives him one hundred francs and asks him to go into a local gambling house and try to turn it into 6,000 francs. Eugène does so and ends up with 7,200 francs, giving Mme de Nucingen her 6,000 and gives a 1,000 franc note to Goriot. The baroness explains to Eugène that her husband gives her no money for clothes, jewelry, her box at the theater, and other such folderol, even while he pays his mistress (a ballerina) 6,000 francs every month. When Eugène relates the tale to Goriot, the old man is enraged at his son-in-law and frets that his daughter didn’t approach him for more money, saying he could cash in the investments he has and draw down the capital.

[edit] Part 4: Trompe-la-Mort

Vautrin sees that Eugène has fallen for a married noblewoman, and explains to Eugène the ever-increasing amounts of money he’ll have to spend to keep up appearances for that sort of life. Arguing that this is a hopeless endeavor, he tries to convince Eugène to pursue the soon-to-be-heiress Victorine. In exchange for getting rid of Victorine's brother, Vautrin wants part of the money that Victorine will inherit (and share with Eugène if they marry) so he can go to America, buy slaves, and live on a plantation. Eugène, realizing that the duel will take place that night, hopes to warn Victorine’s brother of the plot. Vautrin realizes Eugène's intentions, and intentionally drugs his wine so that he is unable to leave the boarding house.

Vautrin, it turns out, is an escaped convict wanted by the Paris police for both his escapes from jail and for fraud and other crimes. His real name is Collin, but he is known by the nickname Trompe-la-Mort, or “cheat-death.” A local inspector approaches two of the boarders at Maison Vauquer to enlist their aid in positively identifying Vautrin as Trompe-la-Mort, and they accept in exchange for the promise of 3,000 francs if he is indeed the fugitive they seek. He also reveals that "il n'aime pas les femmes," that Vautrin is in fact gay, which may play a part in why he has taken so much interest in helping Rastignac.

Eugène’s affair with Mme de Nucingen goes well enough that Goriot arranges for him and Eugène to take an apartment in a nicer building closer to her house, with Goriot living in a servant’s room two floors above the main apartment.

The news arrives that Victorine’s brother has been killed in a duel. At a late breakfast, while this event is being discussed, Vautrin drinks coffee which has been laced with a mild poison designed to incapacitate him long enough for the two traitorous boarders to see a brand on his shoulder. They find it and send a signal, bringing the police in to arrest him. After a great scene where Vautrin/Collin sends a few last words to Eugène, he is escorted out even as he brags of how soon he’ll be relaxing in Provence. The remaining boarders realize the betrayal by one of their own and demand that she be evicted, which she ultimately is, heading to another boardinghouse run by a rival of Mme Vauquer.

Goriot and Eugène meet with Mme de Nucingen and it is revealed that Goriot has paid for the new apartment and its furnishings, further depleting what little savings he has left. He never objects to any of these expenditures, always saying that it is what a father should do for his daughters. After dinner, the two men return to the boardinghouse and tell Mme Vauquer that they will be leaving for another apartment building, meaning that Mme Vauquer has lost nearly all of her tenants in one day.

[edit] Part 5: The Two Daughters

Both of Goriot’s daughters come to visit him at Maison Vauquer to ask for help out of their financial jams. Goriot has arranged for a lawyer to extricate Delphine’s fortune from her husband’s grip, but Delphine says that her husband has invested all of her capital in risky business propositions and can’t liquidate them now. “Nasie” (Goriot and Delphine’s name for Anastasie) arrives second and reveals that she has been selling off the family jewelry – her own and her husband’s – to pay off her lover’s gambling debts. Goriot is crushed by his inability fully to help his daughters and ends up suffering a stroke. Eugène forges an IOU from Vautrin and uses it to calm Anastasie down.

Bianchon, a medical student and friend of Eugène’s, comes to look at Goriot and says that the old man will probably die of the apoplexy he suffered. Goriot, still conscious but only intermittently lucid, tells Eugène that he has sold his last prized possessions, some family silver, to give more money to Anastasie.

[edit] Part 6: Death of a Father

Neither of Goriot’s daughters will respond to calls to come see their father before he dies. Realizing that they have abandoned him and that they have only been using him for his money, he rages about their mistreatment of him and the injustice of the situation. He falls into a coma before one daughter, Anastasie, arrives, and doesn’t regain consciousness.

At his funeral, the only attendees are Eugène, the Maison Vauquer servant Christophe, and two paid mourners. Goriot’s savings were so meager that he is buried in a coffin Bianchon procured through the medical school and the religious service is only vespers because a Mass was too expensive. He is buried with a gold locket that has his daughters’ names on it; Mme Vauquer had stolen it but Eugène forces her to give it up so that Goriot can be buried with some presence of his daughters. Two carriages arrive in time for the procession, one from each of the daughters, but both are empty. Eugène, left alone at the grave, sheds a few tears, then turns to see the heart of Paris beginning to shine as the evening lights come on. He says, “Now I’m ready for you,” and goes to dine with Mme de Nucingen (This quotation has been translated a few different ways, including "Henceforth there is war between us." However the original French is "À nous deux, Paris," and the accepted translation is "It's between you and me now, Paris!").

[edit] Characters

  • Père Goriot: The title character, a retired baker and businessman who now lives to aid and support his two married daughters(Anastasie, Delphine), whom he rarely sees. Originally lives on first floor, then second, then third.
  • Eugène de Rastignac: The main protagonist of the novel, and a recurring character throughout Balzac’s La Comédie humaine. Rastignac is a young law student who develops an ambition to join the highest social circles in Paris. Lives on third floor.
  • Mme de Vauquer: Proprietress of the Maison Vauquer boardinghouse. Lives on first floor.
  • Mme (Baroness) Delphine de Nucingen: One of Goriot’s two daughters. Married to a German baron. Has an affair with Eugène.
  • Mme (Countess) Anastasie de Restaud: Goriot’s other daughter. Eugène pursues her first but is banished from her house when he mentions Goriot’s name.
  • Mme (Viscountess) Claire de Beauséant: Eugène’s cousin, who introduces him to other Parisian nobles.
  • Vautrin/Jacques Collin/Trompe-la-Mort: A fellow tenant at the boardinghouse where Goriot and Eugène live. He is an escaped convict and a cynic who encourages Eugène to marry the young Victorine de Taillefer. Lives on second floor. His character also appears in the later novels Illusions perdues and Splendeurs et misères de courtisanes.
  • Victorine de Taillefer: Another tenant at the boardinghouse, she is impoverished due to an estrangement from her father. She falls for Eugène as he improves his appearance and manners. Lives on first floor with Mme. Couture.

[edit] Major themes

Balzac's aim in La Comédie Humaine was to expose society and human behavior as it really was, in contrast to the romantic portrayals in literature prior to the 1800s. The difference between appearances and reality weighs heavily in Le père Goriot, including the opening chapter, where the Maison Vauquer is described as a respectable building on the outside but as a dated, worn, drab dwelling on the inside. Balzac used to like to lament the time before the Revolution when you could tell what a person did by the clothes they wore. After the Revolution, everyone could wear the same clothes (the standard black coat), it was impossible to tell a nobleman from a banker, a mystery lay behind every face on what class and background that person came from.

Through the leading figure of Rastignac, Balzac contributes to the Bildungsroman literary tradition-the novel of education, initiation, coming of age. Rastignac comes to Paris, sees that he desires money, women and status, and sets out to "win", receiving advice and help from his aristocratic cousin Beauséant, mysterious Vautrin, and Goriot. He then learns lessons and discovers the "reality" behind the facades.

Balzac highlights the similarities between the behaviors of the nobility and the peasantry of Paris by having Rastignac presented with two similar plans to realize his ambition, one to marry a woman of low circumstances who will come into money via murder, the other to pursue adultery with a married woman of higher circumstances. The idea of manipulating others to achieve one's own goals runs through both plans.

Oscar Wilde once said "The Nineteenth Century, as we know it, is largely an invention of Balzac's". One of the reasons for this is Balzac's representation of the modern city. Paris from the start of the novel is a living, breathing self-contained entity into which persons enter, live and die lives that few know or care. The city was a total environment from which one rose or fell in the "mud of the street". No previous author had written like this. Future authors such as Charles Dickens's London and Dostoevsky's St. Petersburg would follow in this tradition. Balzac was writing at a time of explosive growth when the population of Paris between 1800 and 1830 doubled.

Le père Goriot illuminates the decay of family relationships, as Goriot's daughters abandon him in shame even as they importune him to provide them with more money. The subplot about Goriot and his daughters may have been inspired by Shakespeare's King Lear.

Through consistent narrative interventions, Balzac presents Vautrin as an agent of Satan, while using Christian language in regards to Père Goriot in order to present him as a God figure.

[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

There have been at least 6 adaptations for film and television.

[edit] References

  • Pere Goriot (1997), translation by Burton Raffel. Norton Critical Edition, ISBN 039397166X - new translation and 100+ pages of commentary.

[edit] External links

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