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GORIOT

Unlike a writer like Tolstoy,
Balzac neglected to produce one
single masterpiece that earns the
"read this first" recomendation.

   Most people seem to start
   with "Old Goriot" (1834)           aka "Pere Goriot"
   and that makes some sense.             "Father Goriot"


This is story of the struggling student
Rastignac in Paris, embroiled in the
life of the saintly Goriot and the
villanous Vautrin...

   At the novel's close, Goriot dies
   in poverty, and the young Rastignac
   stands on the hill of the cemetery.
   Looking out over Paris he screams
   out an oath, a battle-cry,
   a declaration...


I've seen a number of translations of this,
and I get a different sense of it's meaning
each time I look at it.

Here's one, from a common Penguin edition,
translated by Marion Ayton Crawford in 1951:


   "Thus left alone, Rastignac walked a
   few steps to the highest part of the
   cemetery, and saw Paris spread out
   below on both banks of the winding
   Seine.  Lights were beginning to
   twinkle here and there.  His gaze fixed
   almost avidly upon the space that lay          Rather than
   between the column of the Place Vendome        "avidly", I
   and the dome of the Invalides; there           suspect
   lay the splendid world that he had             "greedily"
   wished to gain.  He eyed that humming          would be better.
   hive with a look that foretold its
   despoliation, as if he already felon
   on his lips the sweetness of its honey,
   and said with superb defiance,

   " 'It's war between us now!'

   "And by way of throwing down the
   gauntlet to Society, Rastignac went
   to dine with Madame de Nucingen."


What is the war Rastignac
has in mind?

   Does he succeed in his fight,
   or did he lose his way?


There are a few ways of taking this:

This is a cynical joke.
The boy makes a
ridiculously idealistic         Pledging himself
speech, and then forgets        to revolution but
about it immediately.           marching off to
                                dinner instead.


Another view, is that
in the "modern" Paris
of Balzac's time, you
might indeed conduct
a war on Society by
attending Society
dinners.



Still a third: to our
ears we expect this war
to be be some sort of                Consider that Balzac
socialist revolution,                himself was always
but maybe Balzac has                 hustling, always
something else in mind?              looking for a big
Rastignac may simply be              score, and sneered
declaring that he will               at the attitude that
never die a pauper like              one should ignore
Goriot.                              money.



There is no follow-on
volume of Rastignac's        (At least no volume
struggles, we only see       that I know of...         Wikipedia shows
him again after he's         Anyway, Rastignac's       my ignorence here:
become financially           methods are fairly
successful.  At that         direct: he marries           [ref]
point, there's no fire       into money.)
left in him. He's
brought about no
social change, and
does not seem to be                 In "A Harlot High and Low"
trying to... he just                Rastignac encounters
seems like another one              Vautrin once again:
of the aristocracy of
wealth.                                 "Rastignac thereupon
                                        did what a millionaire
                                        does when confronted by
                                        a higywayman: he
    After "Goriot",                     surrendered."
    Rastignac ceases
    to be an                                (translation by
    interesting                             Rayner Heppenstall)
    character.






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