Pere Goriot
High society in Paris is a ladder, and those who climb this social ladder are hollow shells of greed and opportunism. They feed off of the naive generosity of their families, and those at the bottom rungs of the ladder dream of climbing higher with false impressions of the true nature of the society they dream of entering.
This is Balzac's main theme in this novel, set in early 19th century Paris, shortly after the fall of Napolean and the return of the Monarchy, and the wealth & oppulance that came with it. The story moves back and forth across the Seine in Paris, between a boarding house on the Left Bank of Paris and the upper realms of wealth on the Right Bank of the river. The character of Eugene is a bridge between these 2 worlds, living in the boarding house but at the same time learning the social skills of charm and seduction and wit and the appearance of wealth, all necessary skills to gain acceptance into the salon-world of Paris at this time. He occupies both the lower and mid-level rungs of the Parisian social ladder at the same time.
The cast of characters are all morally ambigious, with the exception of Goriot, who is the embodiment of a self-sacrificing parent, to the extent of being naive. The novel is very absorbing, following the conversations between the various tennants of the boarding house and their landlady. None of the characters are insignficant. They are each portrayed as having more than one motive in how they live, with some having darker secrets that come out as the novel progresses.
The character of Father Goriot is like a spigot that feeds the greed of his daughters. He gives up all of his wealth out of love for them, and they are portrayed as loving him back on a simple level, but under the strong influence of their husbands' desires for status, which required money. Goriot is reduced to melting his cutlery down to silver ingots which he can sell, to give to the daughters whom he wishes merely to see passing him by in a carriage. He finds an opportunity to become nearer to his beloved daughters in the person of Eugene, who tries to take one of the daughters as his mistress, with the eager assistance of her father.
But as the story progresses, the daughters use subtle manipulations to gain favor over the other, the husbands are shown as dark figures behind their women, a tennant of the boarding house is shown to be something very different from what he appears, and this all has the effect of lifting the blanket that covers the true darkness that Balzac says lays thinly under all of this exterior beauty.
The ending of the book is quite sad, with Goriot finally facing the reality of his naivete, but too late. The book has an air of hope throughout the storyline, until the end when Goriot finally surrenders to bitterness. The novel is modern in this sense, not resorting to easy sentimental and unrealistic happy endings.
Balzac was a perceptive observer of the generation he lived amongst, and his book has several poignant insights into people's motives. Some of the more memorable comments in this book are these:
When a man boasts that he never changes his mind, he's taking it on himself always to go along one straight line, and ass who believes in infallibility. Principles don't exist, only events. Laws don't exist, only circumstances. The intelligent man weds himself to them in order to control them.
There is no later rival to the first woman a man becomes attracted to - the first woman, that is to say, who is really a woman, the first one who appears to him surrounded by all the magnificence Parisian society insists on. Love in Paris is like no other sort of love.
Laws and religion both require fine clothes on the altar.
Wise words. The book is both a valuable record of what life was like in this brief window of time between the failure of the first French Revolution and the wave of revolutions that would follow. It shows that social climbers almost always sacrifice their own ethics to climb the ladder of shallow approval from the wealthy, to the point of sacrificing their own family bonds. And those that are not admitted into the upper rungs cling to the illusion of the superiority of those are are admitted.
On a personal level, Balzac paints each character with depth. No character is two-dimensional and none of them are wasted. The is both enjoyable to read and educational. Who could ask for more in literature?