Père Goriot by Honoré de BalzacMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
The novel is a tragedy set in Maison Vauquer, a boarding house owned by the widow Madame Vauquer. The residents include the law student and naif Eugène de Rastignac, a mysterious agitator named Vautrin, and an elderly retired vermicelli-maker; Jean-Joachim Goriot of the title. The old man is ridiculed frequently by the other boarders, who soon learn that he has bankrupted himself to support his two well-married daughters. The tragedy of Goriot, brought to stroke and death by his heartless and materialistic daughters, recalls King Lear to me. However, the real here the undergoes complete transformation is Rastignac who after Goriot's funeral, to which the indifferent offspring send only empty coaches, each bearing their families' respective coat of arms, sets out to dine with Goriot's daughter Delphine de Nucingen and declares to the city: "À nous deux, maintenant!". Rastignac having endearedf himself to her, already extracted money from his own already-poor family for her and seems headed down the same route that was Goriot's fall.
This translation by Henry Reed is the best that I know of. To compare, Raym[author:Proust Marcelond R. Canon|3881314] translates that climactic line as "Henceforth there is war between us." Overall, I think Reed gives the best translation for the modern, casual reader. Reed's concluding emphatic statement is "Now I'm ready for you!", which is a more believable sentiment from the young man, now jaded and ready to dance with the devil. (Another translation offers "It's between you and me now!") Reed also breaks the text up helpfully into chapters; along the lines of Balzac's original plan. (The original has not chapters making it difficult to know when it is OK to take a break.)
Reed also offers an Afterword with relevant biographical details and explanations of Balzac's obsessive and expanding revision process, which explains why I feel this is nearly as over-written as a Stephen King novel. I think Reed understanding this combats "malformed" ideas in his translation and the afterword also repeats helpful analysis from Proust Marcel.
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