This up-to-date account of the novel's composition, structure, and achievement provides readers with the literary and historical knowledge needed to make sense of the text. Professor Bellos explains how Balzac challenged prevailing nineteenth-century expectations of what novels should be like.

Honoré de Balzac was a French dramatist and novelist who lived from May 20, 1799, to August 18, 1850. Most people consider the unique sequence La Comédie humaine, which offers a glimpse into post-Napoleonic French life, to be his greatest work. As one of the pioneers of realism in European literature, Balzac is recognized for his astute attention to detail and his raw portrayal of society. His characters are well known for having multiple facets; even his less prominent ones are nuanced, ethically gray, and completely human. Even inanimate objects acquire personality; Paris, which serves as the setting for a large portion of his writing, acquires human characteristics. Numerous well-known authors were affected by his work, including the novelists Émile Zola, Charles Dickens, Marcel Proust, Gustave Flaubert, and Henry James, as well as the directors Jacques Rivette and François Truffaut. Writers still find inspiration in Balzac's novels, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures. According to James, he is "really the father of us all." Honoré de Balzac was born into a family that wanted to be respected for their hard work and dedication. His father, Bernard-François Balssa, was raised in Tarn, a province in southern France, as one of eleven children of an artisan family.

Chronology; Note on the text; Introduction; 1. The making of Old Goriot; 2. The achievement of Old Goriot; Bibliography.