“Fools call such things vices”
In the novel Pere Goriot the shabby residents of the Maison Vauquer boarding house treat ‘old Goriot’ as a laughing stock. The house is the last outpost of respectability for its residents, and it’s the final stop before complete poverty. It’s a dingy, depressing place, and although the landlady, Madame Vauquer, attempts to construct the appearance of bourgeois values, great economy is practiced wherever there’s a penny to be spared: “Indestructible pieces of furniture, elsewhere disowned, have landed here like the wrecks of civilization at the Home for Incurables.” The boarding house contains an odd mix of residents–those whose fortunes are in decline (Goriot), and those whose fortunes are on the rise (Rastignac). But there is also another resident in the house who does not seem to fall into either category–the mysterious, diabolical and completely amoral, Vautrin.
Madame Vauquer has “a glassy eye, the innocent air of a procuress,” and when her conjugal ambitions towards Goriot are ignored, rumours begin about his vanishing fortune. Goriot, a retired flour merchant, still has a few modest assets left. No one at the boarding house understands where his fortune disappeared to, and the residents gossip about the number of mysterious, expensive mistresses the old man maintains. The truth behind Goriot’s stark economy is that his fortune has gradually been sapped away by the capricious desires of his two beautiful, frivolous and ungrateful daughters. The large dowries Goriot provided for his daughters ensured ‘good’ marriages to titled gentleman of fashion. Unfortunately these marriages have not led to happiness, for Anastasie, Comtesse de Restaud and Delphine, Baroness de Nucingen have lavish tastes and lovers with expensive habits.
Boarding house resident, Eugene de Rastignac, a sensitive and intelligent law student, longs to enter society. While “the demon of luxury gnawed at his heart”, he is seduced by the glittering attractions of society, and is eager for power and success. He borrows money from his already impoverished family, and using the acquaintance of a cousin, Madame de Beauseant, enters Parisian high society of 1819. Through Rastignac’s curiosity, he discovers the bitter truth about Goriot’s daughters.
While the novel focuses on Goriot’s pathological, self-destructive love for his daughters, equal time is also given to the moral choices set before Rastignac. Rastignac realizes that he is making serious moral decisions, and while he sees the corrupting influence of society, he is unable to resist its allure. “He saw the world as it is: laws and morality powerless against wealth.” Vautrin’s bizarre feelings towards Rastignac result in an irrevocable Faustian offer.
Balzac is one of the greatest writers of all time. He understood human nature and motivation, and possessed the ability to translate that knowledge into some of the richest novels ever written. Pere Goriot is one of Balzac’s finest novels, and if you’ve never read Balzac before, this is a great place to start. The complexity of the characters creates a superb novel, and long-time fans of Balzac will be delighted to recognize many of the recurring characters from his other novels–including, Gobseck the moneylender, Derville, the lawyer, and Vautrin. If you love character-based classics, enter Balzac’s world, and give this one a try (the Henry Reed translation is excellent).
