Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac

Balzac's masterpiece novel follows lives of three central characters: the law student Eugene de Rastignac, a mysterious agitator named Vautrin, and an elderly retired vermicelli-maker named Jean-Joachim Goriot. 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.