Part 1 of 5 · freeIntroduction
Published in 1835, Père Goriot is the pivot of The Human Comedy, the great project of Honoré de Balzac: nearly 90 interconnected novels describing the whole of French society. This is the book where he first brings characters back from one volume to the next.
Three lodgers at the Maison Vauquer embody the tensions between the provinces and Paris, money and morals, innocence and cynicism. The novel is a lesson about cash, ambition, and family betrayal. Balzac shows how Paris “corrupts” those who come to it looking for glory.
The rest is in the Sophia app.The remaining parts, the open-book quiz and the full glossary. Free to start; Premium unlocks everything.
- 2Balzac and the complete world
- 3Goriot: the Christ of fatherhood
- 4Rastignac and Vautrin
- 5The birth of modern realism
Open-book quiz10 questions whose answers are in the text.
Glossary7 terms explained in a tap.
30 languagesThe same course, from French to Japanese.
