CONTENTS
1) LE PÈRE GORIOT- SUMMARY & COMMENTARY
(A very detailed summary with comments and a few picture illustrations)
2) Biography of Balzac 1799 - 1850
(Description of the life and the character of Honoré de Balzac)
3) The character of Eugène de Rastignac
(A principal theme of these notes is how far Rastignac abandoned his principles to launch himself in Paris society)
4) The character of Le Père Goriot
(These notes bring together the scattered biographical details given about Goriot in the novel. Also they seek to examine in what light Balzac portrays the character. Is he merely a deluded man, in the grip of a self- destructive mania or is he a beautiful soul - as Rastignac describes him?) Charles Aznavour took the role of Goriot in the French T.V. series:- 
(The diabolical character in whom Balzac finds much to admire)
6) The two daughters of Goriot
(How far are each of the two young ladies implicated in the tragedy of the story?) Below- The voluptuous Anastasie
7) The character of Mme de Beauséant
(Balzac insists on her nobility of character, but does she stay on his pedestal?)
8) The character of character of Mme Vauquer
(A landlady with a fixed smile but with some venom behind it)
9) The character of Victorine Taillefer
(The sweet Romantic heroine who falls in love with our hero, Rastignac.)
10) The character of Mlle. Michonneau
(A traitress with a seedy previous life history, possessing no redeeming features)
(Explaining how this novel is linked by Balzac into an ambitious literary system, constantly changed by the author.)
(Balzac's view of the world which shaped his stories and the characters that he created.)
13) The importance of the descriptions
(Examining the lengthy descriptions found in the book and appreciating their importance in the achievement of the author's aims.)
Picture. Perhaps when Rastignac fulfilled Delphine's ambitions, by escorting her to the very elite ball of Mme de Beauséant, they danced together like this on that very tragic night
