Eugene wants to get on in the world. So he has come to Paris, where the streets teem with chancers, criminals and social climbers - and everyone is out for what they can get. When he finds a place to stay at a shabby boarding house, he sees a potential plan to make a fortune: the two beautiful, aristocratic women who mysteriously come at night to visit the lonely old lodger Goriot. Could they bring him the status and acceptance he craves? In the city nothing is as it seems though. Soon Eugene gets out of his depth in a world of greed and obsession that he could never have imagined. One that can only end in terrible tragedy.

2006-04-06 An elegantly written parable on greed

This is the first novel by Balzac that I've read and I can only wonder why it took me so long to read his work. The story deals with greed and fillial ingratitude and the social education of an ambitious student ready to be seduced by the glamour and extravagance of Parisian high society. The student finds out that someone somewhere is paying the price for all the elegance and luxury that he craves.

Balzac is an extremely clever writer with a very acute understanding of human nature and a genius for swiftly drawing characters that are fully realised and complex. I don't think he is a heavy or a difficult read, he's precise and he doesn't preach. Description of places and people is concise but richly evocative, at the same time the story shoots along dynamically, you want to know what will happen in the end. An extremely rewarding read and a near perfect example of the art of the novel.