Le Pere Goriot (Father Goriot) - Honore de Balzac - A Short Summary & Review
Le Pere Goriot (Father Goriot) - Honore de Balzac - A Short Summary & Review
By: a.d. elliott | Take the Back Roads - Art and Other Odd Adventures
A Rite of Fancy Book Recommendation and Review
A short summary:
Le Père Goriot exposes the harsh mechanics of social ambition in post-Revolutionary Paris. Set largely in a boardinghouse filled with ambition, desperation, and quiet despair, the novel traces how love, money, and status distort human relationships.
At its center is Père Goriot, a father who sacrifices everything, fortune, dignity, and health, for the sake of his daughters’ advancement in polite society. Around him, Balzac weaves a ruthless portrait of a world where social climbing is not merely encouraged, but required for survival, and where moral compromise is the price of admission.
The novel asks what happens when love is measured by usefulness and when success demands the erosion of conscience.
My favorite quote from the book:
Questions to ponder while reading:
My review:
You can give your children too much, and Balzac makes that painfully clear.
Père Goriot’s devotion crosses the line from love into self-destruction. His daughters take without gratitude, absorbing sacrifice as entitlement. Balzac is unsentimental here: indulgence does not produce loyalty, and unchecked generosity can deform both the giver and the receiver.
Perhaps more people should get a job. Status without labor, comfort without responsibility, this novel skewers the illusion that social refinement equals moral worth. The idle elite are portrayed not as glamorous, but as hollow.
And yes, some souls are shockingly awful. What’s chilling is how ordinary that awfulness feels. Balzac doesn’t rely on villains; he shows how ambition corrodes empathy one small compromise at a time.
Le Père Goriot is a grim but necessary reminder: love that demands nothing in return eventually leaves nothing behind.
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About the Author
a.d. elliott is a wanderer, photographer, and storyteller based in Tontitown, Arkansas.
She shares her journeys at Take the Back Roads, explores new reads at Rite of Fancy, and highlights U.S. military biographies at Everyday Patriot.
You can also browse her online photography gallery at shop.takethebackroads.com.
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