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Father Goriot

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Father Goriot

By: Honoré de Balzac
Narrated by: Bill Homewood
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About this listen

Impoverished young aristocrat Eugene de Rastignac is determined to climb the social ladder and impress himself on Parisian high society. While staying at the Maison Vauquer, a boarding house in Paris's rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve, he encounters Jean-Joachim Goriot, a retired vermicelli maker who has spent his entire fortune supporting his two daughters. The boarders strike up a friendship and Goriot learns of Rastignac's feelings for his daughter Delphine. He begins to see Rastignac as the ideal son-in-law, and the perfect substitute for Delphine's domineering husband. But Rastignac has other opportunities too, as the notorious criminal Vautrin, "The Death Dodger", offers to murder the brother of a wealthy woman, giving the ambitious young lawyer a clear path to her fortune. Profound and realistic, Father Goriot is a startling glimpse into the vanity and selfishness of 19th-century Paris. It is considered one of the finest works of Balzac's La Comedie Humaine.

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Public Domain (P)2018 Naxos Audiobooks Classics Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Fiction Crime
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The character development in this book would have been very influential to the generations of writers who attempted similar feats. They stood on Balzac's shoulders. Well read and executed. This tale of unfilial behaviour and grasping avarice reveals the baseness of humanity. Post revolutionary France is also exposed in all its tawdriness and moral depravity. Les Miserables expounds similar themes, but emphasises the redemptive power of faith. Although gloomier, Balzac's hero is still left wiser and morally matured by the choices he finally makes.

Unfilial impiety

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