Setting and Context

Father Goriot takes place during the Bourbon Restoration, which brought profound changes to French society; the struggle by individuals to secure a higher social status.

Plot Overview

Set in Paris in 1819, it follows the intertwined lives of three tenants of the Maison Vauquer boarding house: the elderly doting Goriot; a mysterious criminal-in-hiding named Vautrin; and a naive law student named Eugène de Rastignac.

Characters

Goriot is an elderly retired vermicelli-maker who has bankrupted himself to support his two well-married daughters.

Vautrin wants to get his hands on the fortune of an unmarried woman, trying to implicate Rastignac in the murdering of her brother.

Rastignac, who moved to Paris from the south of France, becomes attracted to the upper class and he is willing to use any means to better his situation.