'Pere Goriot' by Balzac
Finished reading Pere Goriot by Honore de Balzac, translated by Henry Reed. The old man of the title is a father who has given all of his fortune to his two daughters, and they now live in luxury ignoring him while he lives in a downtrodden boarding house. There's subplots with a young law student courting one of the daughters, and an entertaining character named Vautrin who is a criminal in hiding.

Balzac delivers some very witty and incisive comments on people and society, but these seem to be almost separate from the actual narrative, which doesn't rise much above a melodrama. And for whatever reason I jumbled together the names of a lot of characters, especially the ones in the aristocracy who are sometimes referred to three or four different ways. The point Balzac seems to be making is that ambition for money and social status is the road to pain and ruin; though none of the characters are sympathetic or even interesting (except perhaps Vautrin). A quick read and definitely not difficult, and I can see how it would have been quite the thing at the time it was written, but I was expecting something more.