What is Pere Goriot?

Pere Goriot is a novel by Honore de Balzac, published in 1835. The story plots the arrival of Eugene Rastignac in Paris, where he intends to make his living as a lawyer. At his boarding house, he meets the character, Vautrin, who convinces him that a lifetime of hard work will never repay nearly as much as it would to marry into a large inheritance, which has the further advantage of requiring a fraction of the time in order to accomplish.