Eugène de Rastignac

Eugène de Rastignac [ø.ʒɛn də ʁas.ti.ɲak] is a fictional character from La Comédie humaine, a series of novels by Honoré de Balzac. He appears as a main character in Le Père Goriot (1835), and his social advancement in the post-revolutionary French world depicted by Balzac can be followed through Rastignac's various appearances in other books of the series.

Rastignac is initially portrayed as an ambitious young man of noble, albeit poor, extraction who is at times both envious of and naive about high society. Although he is ready to do anything to achieve his goals, he spurns the advice of Vautrin (the series' dark criminal mastermind) and instead uses his own wits and charm (especially through relationships with women, such as his cousin Madame de Beauséant) to arrive at his ends. His eventual social success in the fictional world of the Comédie humaine is frequently contrasted with the tragic failure of another young parvenu in the series: Lucien de Rubempré (who accepts the aid of Vautrin and ends his life by his own hands).

In French today, to refer to someone as a "Rastignac" is to call him or her an ambitious arriviste or social climber.

The following list is organized with, first, the date on which Rastignac features, the title of the book in which Rastignac appears, followed by the date the book was written.

1819 – Le Père Goriot (1835) – Rastignac is a 21-year-old student in Paris. He makes his first forays into high society (drawing on his family's resources to the full), is tempted by but rejects the machinations of Vautrin, and is confronted by cynicism and falseness in the people he meets. Initially desiring the Comtesse Anastasie de Restaud (daughter of Father Goriot), he is persuaded to become the lover of her sister Delphine (wife of the Baron de Nucingen, a wealthy Alsatian) by his cousin the Vicomtesse de Beauseant, who has a greater insight into Parisian life and acts as his patron. Goriot approves of Rastignac as Delphine's lover and sues Nucingen to give her control over her dowry. Delphine then sets up Rastignac in a furnished establishment. At Goriot's death, Rastignac is among the few who attend his funeral, and from the heights of Père Lachaise Cemetery he looks down on the French capital and makes his famous proclamation "À nous deux, maintenant!" ("It's between you and me now!")

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