La Gloire de mon Pere opens the series Souvenirs d'Enfance by Marcel Pagnol. The author recollects his chilhood in the city and his summer holidays in the heart of Provence. He introduces us to his family: his father he admires so much, his mother he would like to protect, his aunt who is still a spinster, Paul his little brother,... This book is very easy to read because Marcel Pagnol aims at reflecting the thoughts of a 10 year old boy. Anyone who has ever been in Provence will hear the 'cigales', smell the 'thym'. Whereas A year in Provence by Peter Mayle pictures the vision an adult has of Provence, this refreshing book takes you into a 10 year old boy's world where any event takes a particular importance ! I read this book when I was a kid but now that I am far from France, I read it again and I was no longer in Minneapolis but I was following Marcel over the hills of Provence.

The very talented french author Bernard Werber explores the origins of mankind after having exposing the ant's world and the world of the dead in his previous publishings. There are two plots, as in most of his books; that somehow connect; the first is about 2 reporters investigating the murder of a renouned scientist who was searching for the missing link, the other depicts the life of a primate before man walked the earth. Werber exposes many interesting theories on the origins of mankind while revisiting old myths and stories such as Adam and Eve or Plato's cavern...he doesn't give any answers but if you like books that give you food for thought, then brake the language barrier and feast on this philosophical/scientifical/adventurous dazzling french cuisine.

When I picked up "Pere Goriot" about a year ago, I had only vaguely heard of Balzac and had a sense of "cultural obligation" in reading one of his works. While it took me a while to get rolling on the novel, it soon proved impossible to put down -- a work of incredible depth and beauty, combining the vividness of Lawrence, the emotional power of Dickens, and the universality of Shakespeare. I'll admit I haven't read the other novel -- "Eugenie Grandet" -- in this collection, but "Pere Goriot" was a reading experience I will not soon forget. Don't miss it!

You know right away that de Balzac is an author of realism when, at the start of the book, he takes you on a five page tour of the first floor of Madame Vauquer's Parisian boarding house. One immediately realizes that sanitation standards for such accommodations were seriously lacking. The dining room "table [was] covered with oilcloth so greasy that, if a waggish diner wanted to, he could write his name in it, using nothing more than his finger as a pen." We then quickly learn about the overwhelming contrast between the boarders' life style and that of aristocratic Parisian society..

The protagonists of the story are Eugene, a young and poor law student, and old man Goriot, the aging father of two narcissistic daughters who live in the upper strata of Parisian society. While many mediocre authors manage to make cardboard characters out of real people, Balzac has the task of making cardboard people real. Eugene is invited to a ball held by his cousin, a countess, and falls in love with the beautiful people and their world. He is determined to be a part of it. Vautrin, a fellow boarder, a wise street philosopher, and prototype for modern day CEOs, tells Eugene that money is everything. Eugene promptly appropriates every cent of his family's savings to buy the clothes that will allow him to blend in with the aristocracy. Soon he meets Goriot's aristocratic daughters and falls in love with one of them. These two grasping young ladies, in their need for the necessities in life (fine clothing and jewelry), have taken so much money from their formerly wealthy father that he now lives in abject poverty, sleeping on a moldy straw mattress in Madame Vauquer's boarding house.

By now I am sure that you have discerned Balzac's attitude toward the socially elite. He has no love for people who are famous for being famous. We should resist the urge, though, to shake our heads in wonder over these strange 19th century Parisians. If Balzac were alive today I am sure he would loosen his poison pen on our own celebrities whose meaningless lives are constantly being spotlighted during their fifteen minutes of fame. Balzac is a lively writer. He supposedly drank huge amounts of coffee every day, and his writing often seems to be the product of a highly caffeinated mind. If the highly stylized writing of some Victorian era writers numbs your brain you might want to dip into Balzac.

I strongly recommend that you consider purchasing the Norton Critical Edition of this novel. It provides an additional 150 pages of commentary on Balzac, this novel, and his oeuvre in general; an extra dollar or two well spent.

Old father Goriot made a fortune off other people's misery, selling bread at extortionate prices during a famine. His wealth didn't do him or his family a bit of good.

His beloved wife died young, leaving him two adored daughters, Anastasie and Delphine. Goriot gave away all his money to them when they married. He wasn't allowed to live with either daughter. After all, he was just a baker and they and their new husbands were high society. So the old man spent his life in a flophouse.

In this world of French high society, family values go something like this. Everyone commits adultery openly. Husbands give their wives very little money to live on. Instead they spend on their girlfriends. Wives fall desperately in love with scoundrels. As Frank Zappa once said, I'm harder than your husband - to get along with.

Enter our hero, Eugene de Rastignac, the one innocent person in the book. Granted that his values are distorted and his ambition in life is to be a high roller in society, but he's French so what do you expect?

It's a small world. He lives in Goriot's flophouse and they are great friends. He enters society and meets a terribly unhappy wife and jilted adulterous lover, a girl named Delphine. Where did we hear that name before?

Will Eugene and Delphine fall in love? Will Eugene make it in French society, as if we care? Will old pere Goriot's daughters come to visit him before he dies? Some of these questions might be answered by the end.

Father Goriot by Honoré de Balzac is one of the works of La Comédie Humaine. The plot of the story is rather complicated, but as the novel approaches the end, everything starts falling into its proper place. Both wealthy and poor classes are analyzed in the novel through the actions and interests of individuals. Vice characterizes the nature of Parisian society; for this reason, vice opposes and also prevails over virtue . Of course, in order to create the drama of the novel, vice is used to represent a large section of the people living in Paris at the time. The novel illustrates a large segment of the human condition during the first half of the nineteenth century. Furthermore, the powerful evil over good theme of the novel is rather devastating.

This was the first Balzac book I had ever read because I was told it was his best. I found myself reading it at a fairly quick pace enjoying the bulk of it. Unfortunately the plot goes stale from about pages 30 - 60 but from then on in it is superb. Goriot is a wonderfully written ex pasta merchant who's good intentions are constantly met by depression, mostly thanks to his two daughters Delphine (M. de Nucingen) and Anastasie (M. de Restaud.) They are a pair of spoiled little girls who take their father for granted which eventually brings about his demise. Eugene Rastignac is a countryboy trying to climb into Parisienne society but discovers that it is unfulfilling and empty. Vautrin, a recurring psycopath in Balzac's books, makes an appearance but seems to leave rather suddenly.

Overall an excellently written story, although after I read Eugenie Grandet by Balzac I have to admit i preffered that one. None the less, still worth it, better than any of the stuff being printed today.

Warning: Every one of Balzac's characters usually has at least two different names, you musrt be fully aware of both of their names at the beginning or you will find yourself grasping and losing the plot.

Superbly written view of the class struggle in 19th century Paris. Goriot buys his daughters up in social standing with their doweries but pays even more dearly in the end. As the suspense builds so does the realization of the inevitable outcome. Balzac presents a realistic view of the era, at times funny and at times full of promise but in the end squarely melancolic. The dialogue is crisp. Definitely worth the read.

This french story is elequontly told. It makes you fall in love with the little boy who is brimming with innocence. If you can find the movie if you can not read french. It loses something with subtitles but it gives you the general gist and it is well worth it.