A new account of the novel's composition, structure and achievement provides readers with detailed literary and historical background and an explanation of how

Eugene Rastignac, a young law student living in a boarding house, meets fellow lodger, Goriot, a ruined merchant who receives occasional secret visits from his

Monsieur Goriot is one of a disparate group of lodgers at Mademe Vauquer's dingy Parisian boarding house. At first his wealth inspires respect, but as his circu

"Daniel Randolph Deal is a Southern aristocrat, having the required bloodline, but little of the nobility. A man resistant to the folly of ethics, he prefers a