Pere Goriot

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.