Old Goriot was written at the height of Balzac’s genius and first published in 1834–5 in serial form. In this novel of obsessive passions – love, hate, avarice and boundless ambition – Balzac tells the stories of Old Goriot and the young Rastignac, a country lad determined to make his way in Paris; and Vautrin, his satanic tempter. Their lives cross in the Maison Vauquer, a boarding-house which is itself a microcosm of the great capital city Balzac brings so vividly to life with a huge cast of characters from his Comédie humaine, of which Old Goriot is a part.(Everyman's Library Classics, #37)