Pere Goriot - Honore de Balzac

Henry James called Balzac “a final authority on human nature”, saying that he “took in more of human life than anyone since Shakespeare.” James referred to Balzac as “really the father of us all.”

If you’ve read Henry James, you will find this surprising because neither Balzac’s life nor his fiction bear any resemblance to James’s. Honoré de Balzac (1799 – 1850) lived his chaotic life to the fullest: it was one long adventure. Many mistresses, and perhaps some boyfriends too (his sympathetic picture of gay male characters is referred to more than once in Proust’s oeuvre), illegitimate children, crazy business schemes, debtors’ prison, law school (he dropped out), parties, travel – he never stopped.

He was his own greatest creation. In his spare time, he managed to complete ninety-one novels, all of which are part of his lifetime literary project, La Comédie humaine (The Human Comedy). If you hear echoes of Dante, don’t be surprised, Balzac always compared himself to the literary greats. Charles Robb, one of Balzac’s modern biographers, wrote of La Comédie humaine: “Balzac’s epic of modern life is the last attempt by any writer to comprehend and educate a whole world in its diversity, to offer a complete, unified, scientific picture of society and human experience.”

In prior material for the Salon I have referred to Flaubert as the inventor of literary realism, and I’m not stepping back from that, but the birth of literary realism wasn’t an immaculate conception: Balzac was there at its beginning.

So where to start with La Comédie humaine? Why not with Père Goriot (Old Man Goriot), which was Balzac’s great early masterpiece? We will meet Eugène de Rastignac, the provincial who arrives in Paris to make his life (Balzac was born in Tours and did the same thing). And then there’s Père Goriot himself, and his daughters. And perhaps the most fascinating character of all, Vautrin (who comes back in other novels; Balzac couldn’t leave him be) – is he a criminal or a policeman? Straight or gay? Good or evil? This is Balzac at his best – life is messy, and never simple.

JOINING DETAILS:

• Five meeting study of Pere Goriot led by Ralph Kleinman on Zoom
• Thursdays, 7.00 – 9.00 pm (UK), 9 October – 6 November 2025
• Recommended edition: Old Man Goriot by Honoré de Balzac, translated by Olivia McCannon, ISBN: 9780140449723
• £150 for five two-hour meetings

REDUCED COSTS: we are committed to making our studies as affordable as possible. We have a fund in place to support anyone who would like to register for a study but finds the cost difficult to afford. We can’t promise to help, but please email us at litsalon@gmail.com in confidence if you would like to request a reduction in the cost of a study.