Father Goriot cover art

Father Goriot

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Father Goriot

By: Honoré de Balzac
Narrated by: Bill Homewood
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £20.99

Buy Now for £20.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Impoverished young aristocrat Eugene de Rastignac is determined to climb the social ladder and impress himself on Parisian high society. While staying at the Maison Vauquer, a boarding house in Paris's rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve, he encounters Jean-Joachim Goriot, a retired vermicelli maker who has spent his entire fortune supporting his two daughters. The boarders strike up a friendship and Goriot learns of Rastignac's feelings for his daughter Delphine. He begins to see Rastignac as the ideal son-in-law, and the perfect substitute for Delphine's domineering husband. But Rastignac has other opportunities too, as the notorious criminal Vautrin, "The Death Dodger", offers to murder the brother of a wealthy woman, giving the ambitious young lawyer a clear path to her fortune. Profound and realistic, Father Goriot is a startling glimpse into the vanity and selfishness of 19th-century Paris. It is considered one of the finest works of Balzac's La Comedie Humaine.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Public Domain (P)2018 Naxos Audiobooks Classics Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Fiction Crime

Listeners also enjoyed...

 La Rabouilleuse cover art
Le Pere Goriot cover art
The Kill cover art
Eugenie Grandet cover art
Cousin Bette cover art
The Hunchback of Notre Dame cover art
Sentimental Education cover art
Patrick Hamilton: Rope, Gaslight, Hangover Square and More cover art
The Red and the Black cover art
Thérèse Raquin cover art
The Count of Monte Cristo (Dramatized) cover art
The Man Without Qualities cover art
The Three Musketeers (AmazonClassics Edition) cover art
Pietr the Latvian cover art
The Brothers Karamazov [Naxos AudioBooks Edition] cover art
The Complete Essays of Montaigne cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
Wonderful storytelling. Excellent translation and brilliant narration. This story was so compelling, I couldn't wait for each a free moment to continue. The visual picture portrayed through words was extraordinary. A beautiful story which moved me to tears. Especially at the end. I can't believe I have waited so long in my life to read this.

Superb

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved this book, I would definitely recommend it, at first the narrator got on my nerves via what I considered over pronunciation of the french names, but having finished the book I appreciate them.

Very enjoyable book and narration.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Absolutely amazing performance. This novel is as relevant today as when it was first written and the performance brings it to vivid life. Highly recommend!

Amazing narration of a timeless novel

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Balzac is one of the best story tellers and also one the greatest inventors of some of the most magnificent literary characters.

There is also a Realism that shows us that behind a facade things are often uglier or more corrupt than we think.

A phenomenal read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Brilliantly written and scathing account of 19th century Parisian aristocratic life. The narration in particular was excellent, different characters are given different voices so that it is always possible to identify who is speaking. This was my first time encountering Balzac and I will definitely read more

Incredible narration of an excellent book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
If your new year resolutions included thinking more kindly of the French, the bourgeoisie or daughters in general, then this might not be the book for you.
Balzac is to Austen as The Mighty Boosh is to My Family. Ie a very (very) much grittier version of the same genre. The only reason I scored it 3 stars rather then 4 is because you end up not caring about the fate of any of the characters (or at least I didn’t). It got to the point where I started looking forward to it all being over, so depressing were the self-serving attitudes and behaviours on display (apart from the selfless Goriot who is exploited to a heart-breaking degree). But real life isn’t like that, and life stories move at their own pace. Balzac excels at real life, with all its unfairness and loose ends.
Just like with Austen, we are reminded constantly of how much everyone is worth (“only a thousand Francs a year”). But unlike Austen - and more like Dickens (think Little Dorrit) - everyone’s worth seems to be tending to zero at a rapid rate. These declines generate the most reprehensible of behaviours, including towards own families.
Balzac’s novels move at a gallop. He was a superb storyteller, and does almost all of it through dialogue. Quite a feat.

A grim tale of failing bourgeoisie

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.