Balzac's 1835 novel following Eugène de Rastignac — a provincial student at the Maison Vauquer boarding house who observes the ruin of Père Goriot (who gave everything to his daughters) and decides to conquer Paris — providing Girard with his prime example of mimetic triangular desire.
Provides the clearest fictional demonstration of Girard's triangular desire — Rastignac does not want Parisians because they are intrinsically desirable but because Parisian society wants them — and Vautrin's advice to Rastignac ('there are no principles, only events') articulates the cynical Realpolitik that mimetic desire requires.
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