"Pere Goriot can rightly be regarded as one of the greatest of Balzacs novels," writes Henry Reed of this masterful study of a father who sacrifices everything for his daughters. This novel marked the true beginning of Balzacs towering project La Comedie Humaine, his series of novels and short stories depicting "the whole pell-mell of civilization." In Pere Goriot, the great novelist probes the "bourgeois tragedy" of money and power from two different directions. While Goriot is willingly reduced to poverty to support his ambitious daughters, an impoverished young man of integrity becomes money hungry. Attracted to one of Goriots daughters, Rastignac succumbs to the fever of social climbing.