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Cover of Father Goriot by Honoré de Balzac

Father Goriot

  • 304 pages · about 5 hours
  • First published 1835
  • 439 editions
  • Free to read

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1 About this book

Le Père Goriot (French pronunciation:, "Old Goriot" or "Father Goriot") is an 1835 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850), included in the Scènes de la vie privée section of his novel sequence La Comédie humaine. Set in Paris in 1819, it follows the intertwined lives of three characters: the elderly doting Goriot, a mysterious criminal-in-hiding named Vautrin and a naive law student named Eugène de Rastignac.

Originally published in serial form during the winter of 1834–1835, Le Père Goriot is widely considered Balzac's most important novel. It marks the first serious use by the author of characters who had appeared in other books, a technique that distinguishes Balzac's fiction. The novel is also noted as an example of his realist style, using minute details to create character and subtext.

Summary adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Good for readers who want: a coming-of-age story, a classic, and a book they can read free online.

  • Coming of age
  • Classics
  • France in fiction
  • Older men
  • Fathers and daughters
  • Social life and customs
  • Boardinghouses
  • Paris (france)

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3 About Honoré de Balzac

1799–1850

Honoré de Balzac ( BAL-zak, also US: BAWL-; French:; born Honoré Balzac; 20 May 1799 – 18 August 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence La Comédie humaine, described as a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is generally viewed as his magnum opus. Due to his keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society, Balzac is regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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