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Père Goriot

Realist and Literary Fiction

Le Pere Goriot (Old Goriot or Father Goriot) is an 1835 novel by French novelist and playwright Honore de Balzac, included in the Scenes de la vie privee section of his novel sequence La Comedie 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 Eugene de Rastignac. Originally published in serial form during the winter of 1834-1835, it is widely considered Balzac's most important novel and marks the first serious use by the author of characters who had appeared in other books. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Composed, From (Year)
from 1834 2
Composed, From (Year)
from 1835 2
Composed, To (Year)
to 1835 2
Serialized winter 1834-1835; published as a novel in 1835.
Classification
Audience
General 1
Original Language
French 2
FAQs

What does the French expression Rastignac mean?

A social climber who will use any means to rise, named after the novel's young law student.

The novel gave rise to the French expression Rastignac, which describes a social climber willing to use any means to better his situation. It comes from Eugène de Rastignac, the naive law student who is one of the three intertwined central characters of Balzac's 1835 novel, alongside the elderly Goriot and the criminal-in-hiding Vautrin.
Connections

Authored By

Source Pere Goriot (Wikipedia)

In Genre

Bildungsroman, Genres
Source Pere Goriot (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases

Original Language

Also in Language Atlas: the original language of this subject.

Originated In

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.

Source Pere Goriot (Wikipedia)tier 2
Sources
1. Pere Goriot (Wikipedia)
Lead
Quote, Lead
is an 1835 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac
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2. Pere Goriot (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Lead section
    Le Pere Goriot...is an 1835 novel by French novelist and playwright Honore de Balzac (1799-1850)...Originally published in serial form during the winter of 1834-1835.
  • Authored By: Honoré de Balzac, Lead section, authorship
    Le Pere Goriot...is an 1835 novel by French novelist and playwright Honore de Balzac (1799-1850).
  • In Genre: Bildungsroman, Genre and style section
    a bildungsroman, wherein a naive young person matures while learning the ways of the world
View the Source
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