Resumo de Le Pere Goriot - Balzac, Honor'e de.

Balzac's Père Goriot, or Old Goriot as it is know in the English translation, begins in Paris, France in the year 1819. Imperious and matronly MME Vauquer is the keeper of a somewhat rundown boarding house in a poorer suburb of Paris. She has a variety of lodgers, most impoverished or down on their luck. Among them is Monsieur Goriot. At least he is known by that title by the other lodgers and MME Vauquer in the early part of the story. Later they view him more derisively and he becomes simply Old Goriot.

Goriot is a retired merchant who was widowed some years before. He was devoted to his beautiful wife and two young daughters and did well in his business, running a vermicelli factory. He pampered his wife and daughters and doted on them. But when his wife suddenly died his enthusiasm for the business waned. He sold his enterprise, and with his not inconsiderable fortune planned to continue pampering his two daughters. Over the years as they matured and eventually married, becoming Mesdames de Restaud and de Nucingen, he denied himself and increased his financial support of his daughters, even as they and their husbands became more and more insistent and demanding of him.

We first meet Goriot living very frugally in MME Vauquer's boarding house. He is still viewed with some respect by his landlady and fellow borders since they believe him to be a wealthy eccentric. In fact MME Vauquer has some designs on winning Goriot's affections. However a number of events occur that change this. Goriot begins to live even more frugally, not heating his room, and ordering more thrifty meals in the establishment. Those in the boarding house begin to suspect that Goriot has possibly exhausted his financial means. Worse yet, he might be frittering his wealth on courtesans, since at least two beautiful young women have been seen leaving his room. They gossip together and their accounts progressively become more exaggerated and scandalous. Goriot is a very private person and reluctant to expose his personal life, but he does explain to his neighbours that these visitors were his daughters. They don't believe him - they cannot imagine that these beautiful and luxuriously dressed women could be the daughters of someone so laconic and pitiable.

Also living in the house are: a young student, Eugène de Rastignac; a disinherited young woman, Victorine; the mysterious and possibly shady Vautrin, and a number of other fringe dwellers. In a way they are a kind of family with the matronly MME Vauquer at the helm. However on closer inspection they are for the most part a family of vipers, influenced by jealousy, greed, fear, and derision.

Eugene Rastignac comes from a poor family that has scrimped and saved to send him to university, depending on him to eventually lift the family from poverty. In a sort of accident of circumstance Rastignac is introduced to high society in Paris. He is flattered and enamoured, and in the course of time is introduced to Mesdames de Restaud and de Nucingen. He eventually falls in love with Nucingen, who he believes is a victim in an abusive relationship, and ultimately he comes to know that both these women are the daughters of Goriot.

Goriot becomes devoted to Rastignac as he also believes his daughter, MME Nucingen is a victim. Therefore he is ready to adore anyone whom he can view as helping her. Both daughters and their husbands have always been willing to take Old Goriot's money, but they have not been willing to admit him into their circle of society, viewing him as uncouth and embarrassing, but he continues to adore and idolize his daughters.

Rastignac, in his effort to win a place in society, neglects his schooling, takes advantage of his own family financially, and falls deeper and deeper into a rather dissolute, debt-ridden and excessive life-style. In addition he is swayed by some schemes and machinations of the mysterious Vautrin - to restore the disenfranchised Victorine to herher's wealth by eliminating him in a duel. In the meantime Rastignac is to woo, win her, and share her wealth with Vautrin.

As Rastignac is absorbed deeper and deeper into the underbelly of so-called high society he begins to recognize and be repelled by the hypocrisy and artificiality, of the society in which he wants to be accepted, and increasingly of his own actions and manoeuvrings. He also begins to feel some sorrow and concern for Goriot. As Goriot sacrifices, rationalizes and fools himself in his dedication to his self-centred and arrogant daughters, he sacrifices his own health and becomes ill. Rastignac is faced with choices that reflect on his basic genuineness, his integrity, honesty and compassion. He struggles to know if he can even salvage these attributes, as he has quickly become morally imperilled and dissipated.

To me this novel is a timeless masterpiece, because it deals with feelings, values and internal conflicts that are as real today as they were in the time of Balzac. It is certainly a reflection on Balzac's artistry that though the time, situation and atmosphere has changed, his ability to touch the most tender nerves of guilt, despair, anger, and compassion... and more... has not.

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