num_pages: 328
description: Old Goriot was written at the height of Balzac’s genius and first published in 1834–5 in serial form. In this novel of obsessive passions – love, hate, avarice and boundless ambition – Balzac tells the stories of Old Goriot and the young Rastignac, a country lad determined to make his way in Paris; and Vautrin, his satanic tempter. Their lives cross in the Maison Vauquer, a boarding-house which is itself a microcosm of the great capital city Balzac brings so vividly to life with a huge cast of characters from his Comédie humaine, of which Old Goriot is a part.(Everyman's Library Classics, #37)
language: English
title: Old Goriot
titlecomplete: Old Goriot
characters: Eugène de Rastignac, Horace Bianchon, Frederic de Nucingen, Père Goriot, Vicomtesse de Beauseant, Delphine de Nucingen, Béatrix de Rochefide, Anastasie de Restaud, Vautrin, Henri de Marsay
genres: Literature, Novels, School, French Literature, Roman, 19th Century, Classics, Classic Literature, Fiction, France
ratings_count: 57225
places: Paris
series: La Comédie Humaine
publisher: Everyman's Library