In this blog post, we’ll examine how Balzac’s vast body of work and personal life—including his debts, romantic relationships, and sleeping habits—were reflected in the narrative and character development of ‘Father Goriot’.

Balzac and the Scale of His Work

Balzac is best known for his massive novel series, ‘La Comédie humaine’; above all, it is the sheer volume of his work that overwhelms readers. While ‘La Comédie humaine’ consists of some 90 novels, Balzac also left behind anonymous works from his youth, nine plays, numerous short stories, drafts of unfinished novels, a wide range of newspaper and magazine articles, and a vast collection of letters to his lovers. It is rare in literary history to find an author who produced such a massive body of work in the realm of serious literature.
The fact that he wrote so much in a relatively short lifetime of just 50 years is astonishing. Consequently, myths have circulated about Balzac, such as the claim that he wrote while drinking dozens of cups of coffee a day and getting almost no sleep. In fact, his letters contain records stating that he slept only 10 hours a week, as well as mentions that he slept only 80 hours over a 40-day period while writing ‘Father Goriot’.
As Émile Zola noted, Balzac’s life—that of a “novelist-laborer”—was one so filled with creative work that it could be enumerated simply by his list of works. However, Balzac also had a childhood before he entered the literary world and a life beyond his creative work. Even while immersed in writing, he enjoyed socializing in his leisure time and was a man with various romantic affairs, political interests, and business ambitions.

His Life and the Background of ‘Father Goriot’

Honoré de Balzac was born on May 20, 1799, in Tours, France, as the eldest son. His father was a self-made middle-class figure who served as an official responsible for food supplies to the military units stationed in Tours at the time, while his mother was quite young. The significant age difference between his parents brought imbalance and disharmony to the household and is believed to have had a certain influence on the young Balzac’s character development.
Balzac’s mother was relatively indifferent to child-rearing; she entrusted her son to a wet nurse to raise him, and it is said that from 1807 to 1813, she sent him to a boarding school run by Oratorian monks and rarely visited him. The loneliness and sadness he experienced during his time at this boarding school, spent in isolation from his family, were later reflected in the opening of his novel ‘The Lily of the Valley’ (‘Le Lys dans la vallée’).
When his family moved to Paris in 1814, Balzac also went to Paris to continue his studies. While studying law, he worked as an apprentice clerk at a law firm and a notary’s office, gaining practical legal experience that would later prove invaluable to his novel-writing. ‘The Human Comedy’ features many cases involving legal issues, and it is said that characters such as the lawyer Derville were modeled after real people Balzac observed in those offices.
In 1819, contrary to his family’s expectations, Balzac abandoned his planned career in law and began to devote himself to literature. He secluded himself in a shabby Parisian attic and devoted himself to writing; although he produced several works before venturing into business in 1825, none achieved significant success. Early on, he attempted the verse tragedy ‘Cromwell’, followed by novels such as ‘Stenie’ and ‘Falthurne’, but these went unnoticed at the time. To make ends meet, he co-authored adventure novels—which were in vogue at the time—with friends and published them under pseudonyms. The writings from this period can be viewed as training ground for his later development into a great writer.
Around this time, Balzac was significantly influenced by two women who would shape his life. One was Zulma Carraud, a school friend of his sister who became a lifelong loyal friend, advisor, and patron; their relationship remained consistently one of pure friendship. The other was Madame de Berny, who was 22 years older than Balzac. She warmly cared for Balzac, who had been deprived of his mother’s love, and had a profound influence on his intellectual and literary development. Some even argue that it is difficult to imagine Balzac as the great writer he became without Madame de Berny’s advice and support. Her death in 1836 plunged Balzac into deep sorrow.
In 1825, having failed to achieve success as a writer, Balzac ventured into business, attempting to run a publishing house, a printing press, and a type foundry, but he ultimately went bankrupt in 1827. This caused financial hardship not only for his own family but also for Madame de Berny’s household, and Balzac incurred a debt of approximately 100,000 francs—a colossal sum by the standards of the time. This debt remained a lifelong burden, forcing Balzac to live a life constantly hounded by creditors and compelled to write novels to make ends meet. Thus, one of the direct motivations behind his prolific output of novels was the need to earn a living.
It was not until 1829 that Balzac’s major novels began to be included in the “Human Comedy.” That year, with the publication of ‘The Last Chouan’ (‘Le Dernier Chouan’), he gradually began to gain fame, and ‘The Physiology of Marriage’ (‘La Physiologie du mariage’), published the same year, was a scandalous success. For the next twenty years or so, until his death in 1850, Balzac’s life is recorded as a period devoted primarily to writing novels.
Having gained fame as a novelist after 1830, Balzac began appearing in various Parisian salons and participating in high society. Although he wrote mainly at night and was plagued by debt, he maintained the appearance of a dandy, sparing no expense on his home, clothing, horses, and carriages. In 1832, he unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the National Assembly; thereafter, he adopted a political stance aligned with the traditional royalists and attempted to gain access to the circle of the high nobility.
In particular, his failed attempt to win the favor of the Marquise de Castries—a prominent figure in high aristocratic circles—is interpreted as one of the factors behind Balzac’s transformation from a young man with progressive beliefs into a staunch royalist. Some scholars believe that the critical portrayal of aristocratic society seen in ‘La Duchesse de Langeais’ reflects Balzac’s resentment and desire for revenge stemming from his romantic rejection due to aristocratic prejudice.

Correspondence with Madame Hanska: The Beginning in 1832

Above all, 1832 is notable as the year his correspondence with Madame Hanska began.
This woman, the wife of Count Hanski, a wealthy Ukrainian landowner, was an avid reader of Balzac’s works and initially sent him anonymous letters signed only as “Etrangere” (The Foreign Woman). The correspondence between the two, which began in this way, grew increasingly frequent, and the following year, they met in Switzerland and became lovers. The extensive correspondence between Balzac and Countess Hanski, which continued throughout their lives, goes beyond a mere record of their romantic relationship to serve as a valuable resource for the study of Balzac’s literature. These letters contain materials that allow us to trace the conception and writing process of his works, as well as the author’s thoughts on them. After a romance spanning 18 long years, Balzac and Madame Hanska finally married in 1850, but Balzac died shortly thereafter.

1833–1835: Maturity as a Novelist and Major Works

Most Balzac scholars consider the years 1833–1834 to be a decisive period in Balzac’s career as a novelist. During this period, Balzac is not only credited with prolific creative output but is also regarded as having reached the pinnacle of his artistic maturity. Pierre Barberis, one of the leading authorities on Balzac, views 1833 as the year Balzac moved beyond his formative and Romantic periods to become a “Balzacian” novelist in the truest sense of the term. Another scholar, Maurice Bardeche, states that Balzac’s development as a novelist was complete by 1835, and that ‘Le Père Goriot’ was the work in which his previous efforts bore fruit and served as the foundation for his future works. During this period, he wrote many novels—including ‘Le Père Goriot’, as well as ‘Eugénie Grandet’, ‘Louis Lambert’, ‘Seraphita’, and ‘The Duchess of Langeais’—all of which remain widely read to this day.

The Technique of Recurring Characters and the Concept of “The Human Comedy”

After first attempting his signature technique of bringing back characters from earlier works in ‘Le Père Goriot’, Balzac continued to use this method, seeking to systematize both his existing works and those he planned to write, weaving them into a single, vast whole that mirrored the fabric of society as a whole. In 1837, he considered titling this entire body of work ‘Etudes sociales’ (Social Studies), but by 1841, he settled on the title ‘La Comédie Humaine’ (The Human Comedy). In the first volume of ‘La Comédie Humaine’, which began publication in 1842, Balzac included a preface (Avant-Propos) in which he outlined his concept of the novel and the principles guiding his work.
Although many works continued to be added after 1842—including ‘Les Paysans’, ‘L’Envers de l’histoire contemporaine’, and ‘Le Cousin Pons’—Balzac’s death in 1850 meant that ‘La Comédie Humaine’ never reached the vast scale originally intended.

The originally planned series of approximately 130 works ultimately concluded with roughly 90.

Marriage and Death: 1841–1850
From the end of 1841, when Madame Hanska became a widow, the primary goal of Balzac’s life was to marry her. He traveled back and forth to her home in Ukraine on numerous occasions to propose, but although she loved Balzac, Madame Hanska did not readily agree to marriage. There were legal obstacles under Russian law, and as a woman from a venerable noble family, she had significant reservations about marrying a writer of bourgeois origin.
Balzac’s health, already exhausted by excessive writing, gradually deteriorated in the 1840s. In January 1850, while staying in Ukraine, his health took a decisive turn for the worse, and when it became clear there was no hope of recovery, Madame Hanska finally agreed to marry him. They were married on March 14, 1850, and in May, they left Ukraine and set out on their return journey to Paris. Balzac appeared severely ill throughout the trip, and by the time they arrived at their new home in Paris on May 21, he was unable to get out of bed. After a three-month battle with illness, the master novelist passed away on August 18.

Balzac’s Life and the Meaning of ‘The Human Comedy’

Balzac’s 51-year life may not appear happy from a personal perspective. He spent an unhappy childhood deprived of his mother’s love and failed to realize his political ambitions or his hope of becoming a member of the Academy. Above all, his life was one of constant suffering, plagued by debt. Although he succeeded in marrying Madame Hanska after an 18-year romance, the fact that she passed away shortly after their marriage was a fate of the utmost sadness.
However, all of this personal misfortune only gains meaning when viewed in relation to his literary world—the vast “Human Comedy”—rather than Balzac as an individual. Everything about him—his passion, genius, temperament, and desires—is fused into the vast world of the “Human Comedy.” Deeply immersed in the fictional world he had created, it is said that even on his deathbed, he called out the name of Horace Bianchon, the doctor he had created. It is, by its very nature, impossible to summarize the life of this giant in just a few pages. Readers interested in Balzac’s life would do well to consult a biography such as ‘Prometheus, or The Life of Balzac’ (‘Promethee ou la Vie de Balzac’) by André Maurois.

Reading ‘The Human Comedy’ and Its Structure

It is extremely rare for anyone—whether a general reader or a Balzac scholar—to have read the entire ‘Comédie Humaine’. Reading it in its entirety would be a long and arduous task spanning many years, requiring constant reference to Fernand Lotte’s ‘Dictionnaire biographique des personnages fictifs de la Comédie Humaine’ (Biographical Dictionary of the Fictional Characters of the ‘Comédie Humaine’). We do not typically read Balzac’s novels as a whole within the framework of ‘La Comédie Humaine’; each work can be read on its own and still offer ample literary interest. However, to understand a work’s place within the series, it is necessary to be familiar with the structure of ‘La Comédie Humaine’.
“The Human Comedy (La Comédie Humaine)” Part I: Studies of Manners (Études de mœurs) – Scenes from Private Life (Scènes de la vie privée) – Scenes from Provincial Life (Scènes de la vie de province) – Scenes from Parisian Life (Scènes de la vie parisienne) – Scenes from Political Life (Scènes de la vie politique) – Scenes from Military Life (Scenes de la vie militaire) – Scenes from Country Life (Scenes de la vie de campagne) Part II: Philosophical Studies (Etudes philosophiques) Part III: Analytical Studies (Etudes analytiques) Of the three parts that make up ‘La Comédie Humaine’, Part I, ‘Studies of Manners’, occupies the largest portion, with more than two-thirds of Balzac’s novels belonging to this section. Among these, the works classified under “Scenes of Private Life” are the most numerous. ‘Father Goriot’ is a work classified under the “Scenes of Private Life” section of Part I, Studies of Manners.

The Recurrence of Characters and the Position of ‘Father Goriot’

According to Roth’s research, which compiled a biographical dictionary of the approximately 2,000 characters appearing in ‘The Human Comedy’, 573 of them are recurring characters. Baron de Nucingen, who appears in ‘Father Goriot’, appears in no fewer than 31 novels; Bianchon reappears 29 times, and Rastignac as many as 25 times. This technique of character recurrence is a key device that lends unity to the “Human Comedy,” and given that ‘Father Goriot’ was the first work in which this technique was employed, any discussion of the novel cannot exclude its connection to the “Human Comedy.”
However, the main reason ‘Father Goriot’ continues to be read and discussed as a representative novel to this day stems more from the work’s inherent charm and literary appeal than from its specific position within the “Human Comedy” as a whole. Each novel is a self-contained world in its own right, and it is their unique appeal that draws readers in.

Creation, Publication, and Initial Reactions

It is known that Balzac first conceived ‘Father Goriot’ in early September 1834. Around the end of September that year, he went to rest at a friend’s country castle in Sache for health reasons, and it was during that stay that he began writing the work. He continued writing after returning to Paris in October, and this process can be traced through his letters. Initially conceived as a short story depicting Goriot’s paternal love, the work gradually expanded in scope during the creative process, evolving into the masterpiece we know today. The first installment was serialized in a magazine in December of the same year, and according to one letter, the work was completed on January 26, 1835. The writing took about four months; since Balzac was simultaneously working on other works, such as ‘Séraphita’, during this period, this gives us a sense of his remarkable writing speed. After its serialization, the work was published as a book in March 1835, but the critical response was generally unfavorable. Some critics pointed out Balzac’s use of hyperbole, while others took issue with his portrayal of aristocratic society; there were also many reviews that attacked the work’s morality.

Historical Background, Narrative Techniques, and Character Development

The historical setting of ‘Father Goriot’ is 1819–1820, during the French Restoration. Strictly following the novel’s internal timeline, the story begins in late November 1819 and covers events spanning approximately three months, ending on February 21, 1820, the day of Father Goriot’s funeral. However, since this novel is not a typical historical novel dealing with specific events of the Restoration, it is not particularly meaningful to strictly limit the time period to a chronological timeline. From a sociological perspective, the setting of this work can be viewed more broadly; it is a novel that broadly reflects the social changes brought about by the French Revolution and the rapid restructuring of French society during the Napoleonic era. Therefore, in a broad sense, the setting of ‘Father Goriot’ can be described as the social structure of the entire early 19th century—from the year the work was written, 1834, through the subsequent years—a period when France began to embark on the path of capitalism following the Revolution.
The work begins with Balzac’s characteristic narrative technique of lengthy description. The reader is first presented with a detailed description of the neighborhood and streets where the Bocker boarding house is located, followed by a detailed description of the boarding house itself. Rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève, with its gloomy and desolate atmosphere—in stark contrast to the traditional image of Paris filled with magnificent historical landmarks—is evoked, and the description of the street naturally leads into a depiction of the Bocker boarding house. Balzac describes the boarding house in a highly methodical manner, moving from the exterior to the interior and meticulously dissecting its appearance step by step. As a result, the full picture of the Boker boarding house—where “misery devoid of any poetic charm, a miserly, concentrated, and shabby misery” lurks—is revealed. This elaborate opening description does not stem from a mere penchant for description. Balzac was a writer who believed there was a close correspondence between a person and the dwelling they inhabit; for example, when describing Gopseck, he noted that “his house and he were alike.”
The Bocker boardinghouse, presented in a strange and grotesque light, is inhabited by people who match its character. It is the perfect setting for a “chilling drama that stirs the heart.” Following the landlady, Madame Bocker, seven boarders are introduced one by one, and their appearances perfectly reflect the nature of the boardinghouse. These people, weary of misfortune, appear as though they possess “the right not to sympathize with any misfortune,” their faces cold and unyielding—a rarity in Parisian high society. Among them, the first character to come into focus is the enigmatic old man, Old Goriot.
Although the title of the work is ‘Father Goriot’, the novel is not structured so that all focus is concentrated on a single central character. Rastignac’s story, which pushes Goriot into the background and takes center stage, forms one central axis, while the story of the suspicious character Vautrin—whose true identity was initially unknown—gradually reveals itself, forming another central axis.
In addition to these three central figures—Goriot, Rastignac, and Botrin—Madame de Beauséant and Goriot’s two daughters play important roles, revealing the hidden side and true nature of Parisian high society. The richness of this novel is evident in Balzac’s skill in weaving these various storylines together organically and seamlessly.
Old Goriot’s life is so clearly revealed through the novel’s plot itself that it requires almost no separate commentary. He is a self-made man of humble origins who amassed a vast fortune through his business acumen amid the turmoil of the Revolution. He loved his two daughters dearly, married them off with generous dowries, and then retired to prepare for his old age, but ultimately becomes a victim of his ungrateful daughters and sons-in-law. After even the small amount of money he had set aside for himself is exploited by his daughters’ selfishness, he dies like a dog in a shabby boarding house. He is the embodiment of paternal love, knowing nothing but his love for his daughters, and that love takes on a fanatical and pathological form. He confesses to Rastignac, “My daughters were my vice. They were my mistresses—in short, they were everything to me!” In the agony of his deathbed, as he desperately calls out to his daughters who do not come, he realizes the error of his love and wails. In this context, Goriot’s story could be seen as a cautionary tale about reckless parental love, but above all, it is more appropriately read as a tragedy of passion. In Balzac’s works, Goriot can be seen as one of a type of obsessive character fixated on various objects—such as power, money, gambling, invention, and lust.
Vautrin is a character modeled after the real-life figure Vidocq, a former convict who served as chief of the security police and is famous for his memoirs detailing the criminal underworld. It is revealed that his real name is Jacques Collin, a escaped convict nicknamed “The Immortal,” and the process of uncovering this true identity is one of the main points of interest in ‘Father Goriot’. His arrest, along with Goriot’s death, forms the two climactic events of the novel. Well-versed in the ways of the world, Botrin makes his presence felt among the boarders with his sturdy build and cheerful disposition, often lifting the gloomy atmosphere. However, his ambiguous and suspicious behavior arouses both curiosity and fear among the boarders.
Bortin acts as a sort of mentor to the young Rastignac, preaching unvarnished careerism while attempting to lure him into a meticulously planned crime. His ruthless realism and cynical defiance of the world are revealed through his sermons to Rastignac. He promotes an amoral realism, declaring, “There are no principles, only events. There is no law, only circumstances. A great man combines with events and circumstances to guide them,” thereby promoting an amoral realism. However, his plan—which used Mademoiselle Taupier as bait—fails to come to full fruition, and his true identity is exposed by Michon’s tip-off, leading to his arrest by the police.
Although Botrin disappears from this work, he is an important character who reappears throughout the “Human Comedy.” He reappears at the end of “The Lost Illusion” disguised as a Spanish priest named Carlos Herrera, and in “The Glory and Misery of a Prostitute,” he plays a leading role as a brilliant criminal, adding the intrigue of a detective novel to the work. Among the countless characters created by Balzac, Vautrin is one of the most distinct, and through him, Balzac expresses much of his vision of humanity and society.
Scholars generally agree that Eugène de Rastignac, the central character of ‘Father Goriot’, surpasses the roles of Father Goriot or Vautrin. In addition to his story forming the novel’s main point of interest, this character serves as the thread that ties the various plotlines together. From the very beginning of the novel, the author makes Rastignac’s role in this regard clear: “Without his curious observations and his skill in penetrating the salons of Parisian high society, this story would not have been colored in its true hues.” It is thanks to his keen intellect—and his desire to pierce through the secrets of a terrifying situation, which is carefully concealed by both those who create it and those who endure it—that the true color of this story comes to life.” Rastignac plays the role of a detective unraveling the mystery of Old Goriot. Moving between the boardinghouse on Rue de Bocquer and high society, he casts a sounding line into the ocean that is Paris, enabling this novel to become a panoramic fresco of life in the city. The author unfolds a significant portion of the novel through Rastignac’s perspective, and the stories of Goriot and Vautrin are also largely structured around their connections to Rastignac.
The story of young men from the countryside flocking to Paris in pursuit of a brilliant destiny is one of the familiar themes of the “human drama.” Rastignac is one such young man among this crowd. He is one of “those young men who understand from childhood the hopes their parents place in them; who calculate the value of their studies early on; and who prepare for their splendid destinies by adapting their studies in advance to the future movements of society, so as to become the leading figures who will shape it—young men tempered by misfortune through their studies.” However, there are few places reserved for such young men; as Botrin put it, they are destined to “devour one another like spiders in a jar.” As the eldest son of a fallen provincial minor noble family, Rastignac came to Paris bearing the weight of his large family’s expectations and at the expense of his impoverished family’s sacrifices. Possessing the resilience characteristic of Southerners, he takes on the challenge of Parisian society, often likened to a “strange quagmire.” Rather than pursuing success through a slow and uncertain academic path, this ambitious young man resolves to carve out his destiny more swiftly by entering high society and conquering a woman of influence there. Thus, a relationship develops with Madame Nussingen, the daughter of Old Goriot.
Since this relationship between a man and a woman was based on self-interest from the outset, the novel offers little romantic intrigue. ‘Father Goriot’ is notable as a story of education and training in which Rastignac—who initially possessed youthful innocence and the delicate nobility of an aristocratic scion—gradually becomes corrupted and hardened as he collides with a sordid reality. In other words, this work is easily read as a coming-of-age and formative tale that depicts a character’s moral and social transformation.
Rastignac’s social and emotional education does not proceed in a straight line. It takes many twists and turns for the charm and fresh sensibility of youth to wither. When reading ‘Father Goriot’ from the perspective of a ‘roman d’éducation’, one can see that the novel’s structure converges on the education of its central character, Rastignac. Rastignac experiences much hesitation and inner conflict before accepting the harsh realism of his mentors, Vautrin and the Countess de Beauséant. However, the reality he encounters is so cruel and ruthless that he has no choice but to accept the realism of his mentors, who urge him to accept the world as it is. The tragic end of Madame de Beauséant and the miserable death of Old Goriot deal the final blow to Rastignac, cementing his belief that this world is nothing but hell. After shedding his final tears as a young man at Old Goriot’s grave and shouting, “Now it’s just the two of us!” toward the darkening streets of Paris, Rastignac’s emotional education comes to an end.
The education depicted in ‘Father Goriot’ is a negative form of education. It is not education in its original sense—the development and enlightenment of the inner self—but rather a negative education that subjugates human individuality to social reality and public opinion. This very aspect of the education serves as a diagnosis of a bleak reality and is interpreted as an expression of a pessimistic view of society.
As mentioned earlier, Rastignac appears no fewer than 25 times across various works in the ‘Human Comedy’. This character, now firmly entrenched as a social climber, is said to have made money by exploiting his mistress’s husband, married his mistress’s daughter, and risen through the ranks to become a minister and a member of the Chamber of Peers. However, the Rastignac who appears after ‘Father Goriot’ no longer seems to be an interesting figure as a fictional character. To quote a Balzac scholar, Rastignac—a dandy, a despicable young man who preys on women, and a sordid social climber—is filled with deep distrust and apathy, and is nothing more than a rigid, finished product. Such a one-dimensional character is ill-suited to the role of a novel’s protagonist, and as a result, Rastignac appears primarily as a minor character in episodes following ‘Father Goriot’.
So what caused this young protagonist, who once possessed such fresh charm, to change so drastically? Above all, ‘Father Goriot’ can be seen as a work that, through Rastignac’s transformation, denounces a pathological modern society where material values prevail and money is everything.