Pere Goriot

"P re Goriot can rightly be regarded as one of the greatest of Balzac's novels," writes Henry Reed of this masterful study of a father who sacrifices everything for his daughters. This novel marked the true beginning of Balzac's towering project La Com die Humaine, his series of novels and short stories depicting "the whole pell-mell of civilization." In P re Goriot, the great novelist probes the "bourgeois tragedy" of money and power from two different directions. While Goriot is willingly reduced to poverty to support his ambitious daughters, an impoverished young man of integrity becomes money hungry. Attracted to one of Goriot's daughters, Rastignac succumbs to the fever of social climbing. The resulting tale is a commentary on wealth and human desire that still rings true in the twenty-first century.

Translated and with an Afterword by Henry Reed
and with an Introduction by Peter Brooks

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 12/07/2004
ISBN: 9780451529596
Pages: 320
Weight: 0.35lbs
Size: 6.80h x 4.20w x 0.88d