Introduction

In the shabby Maison Vauquer, a boarding house in the Latin Quarter, live a group of lodgers each with secrets of their own. Rastignac, a poor law student up from the provinces, is determined to break into high society. Old Goriot, a retired vermicelli maker, was once rich but has given everything to marry his two daughters into great houses, and has moved ever lower in the house, from the first floor to a garret on the third; his daughters visit him only when they need money. The mysterious lodger Vautrin reveals to Rastignac the truth about Paris society: be an executioner or a victim. In the end Goriot dies alone in poverty and sickness; neither daughter comes to his deathbed, and only Rastignac follows his coffin. Standing on the heights of Père Lachaise and looking down on Paris, Rastignac utters his famous challenge: 'It's between the two of us now!' It is the most famous novel of The Human Comedy.