Leeaf classics

Read by Bill Homewood

Impoverished young aristocrat Eug̈ne de Rastignac is determined to climb the social ladder and impress himself on Parisian high society. While staying at the Maison Vauquer, a boarding house in Paris's rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevïve, he encounters Jean-Joachim Goriot, a retired vermicelli maker who has spent his entire fortune supporting his two daughters. The boarders strike up a friendship and Goriot learns of Rastignac's feelings for his daughter Delphine. He begins to see Rastignac as the ideal son-in-law, and the perfect substitute for Delphine's domineering husband. But Rastignac has other opportunities too, as the notorious criminal Vautrin, 'The Death Dodger', offers to murder the brother of a wealthy woman, giving the ambitious young lawyer a clear path to her fortuneі Profound and realistic, Father Goriot is a startling glimpse into the vanity and selfishness of 19th-century Paris. It is considered one of the finest works of Balzac's La Comďie Humaine

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