The Fatal Skin
The Fatal Skin

Author: Honoré de Balzac

Publisher: Signet Classics

Published: 1949

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13:

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Set in early 19th-century Paris, it tells the story of a young man who finds a magic piece of shagreen that fulfills his every desire. For each wish granted, however, the skin shrinks and consumes a portion of his physical energy. Bent on killing himself by throwing himself into the Seine after losing his shirt at the gaming tables, Raphael de Valentin, the romanticised, doomed young hero of Balzac's early novel, 'La Peau de chagrin' (1831), turns into an antiques shop to while away the hours till darkness (when he can be sure not to be rescued). There he finds himself in an emporium of civilisation's treasures, from all over the world and in every marvellous material, executed to the highest degree of human art. Eventually, the eerie, wizened keeper appears and shows Valentin the magic skin which gives the novel its title. It's the hide of a wild ass and, like the ring of the Nibelungen, has the power to grant its owner every wish. But in return it will take possession of Valentin, body and soul. Every time it performs, it will shrink and Valentin's life will shorten in accord.

The Magic Skin - Balzac
The Magic Skin - Balzac

Author: Nonorè de Balzac

Publisher: Lebooks Editora

Published: 2024-06-26

Total Pages: 357

ISBN-13: 655894572X

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Honoré de Balzac is considered the founder of Realism in modern literature. His magnum opus, La Comédie Humaine, consists of 95 novels, novellas, and short stories that seek to portray French society of his time. The Magic Skin, which is part of La Comédie Humaine, tells the story of young Raphael, who receives a piece of wild ass's skin from an old antique dealer. The skin grants Raphael's wishes, but also shortens his life. With the talisman in his possession, the protagonist fulfills all his desires, becomes wealthy, and a respected figure in society, all while living in terror as he watches the skin shrink and his life ebb away with each fulfilled wish. Like numerous other works by Balzac, The Magic Skin is a critique of a society focused solely on the accumulation of material goods and power.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Author: Sijie Dai

Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 037541309X

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An enchanting literary debut—already an international best-seller. At the height of Mao’s infamous Cultural Revolution, two boys are among hundreds of thousands exiled to the countryside for “re-education.” The narrator and his best friend, Luo, guilty of being the sons of doctors, find themselves in a remote village where, among the peasants of Phoenix mountain, they are made to cart buckets of excrement up and down precipitous winding paths. Their meager distractions include a violin—as well as, before long, the beautiful daughter of the local tailor. But it is when the two discover a hidden stash of Western classics in Chinese translation that their re-education takes its most surprising turn. While ingeniously concealing their forbidden treasure, the boys find transit to worlds they had thought lost forever. And after listening to their dangerously seductive retellings of Balzac, even the Little Seamstress will be forever transformed. From within the hopelessness and terror of one of the darkest passages in human history, Dai Sijie has fashioned a beguiling and unexpected story about the resilience of the human spirit, the wonder of romantic awakening and the magical power of storytelling.

The Magic Skin. The Hidden Masterpiece
The Magic Skin. The Hidden Masterpiece

Author: Honoré de Balzac

Publisher:

Published: 1896

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13:

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The hidden masterpiece: the story of a painter who, depending on one's perspective, is either an abject failure or a transcendental genius--or both.

Another Study of Woman
Another Study of Woman

Author: Honore de Balzac

Publisher: The Floating Press

Published: 2014-07-01

Total Pages: 57

ISBN-13: 1776539672

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"Another Study of Woman" is a narrative hovering between a short story and a novella in terms of length, extracted from Honore de Balzac's multi-volume masterpiece The Human Comedy. At a private dinner party, guests warmed by the flush of fine food and drink begin to banter about the qualities and attributes that characterize the ideal woman. Gradually, the guests begin to reminisce about their own experiences and encounters with perfect and not-so-perfect women. Throughout the entertaining back-and-forth, Balzac presents a number of keen insights about the social mores governing women's behavior in nineteenth-century Europe.

Study of a Woman
Study of a Woman

Author: Honoré de Balzac

Publisher: DigiCat

Published: 2022-09-16

Total Pages: 24

ISBN-13:

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DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Study of a Woman" by Honoré de Balzac. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Skin
Skin

Author: Claudia Benthien

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 9780231125024

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She also examines the changing significance of skin through brilliant analyses of art, philosophy, and anatomical drawings and writings, as well as Germanic, American, and African American literature. Benthien discusses the semantic and psychic aspects of touching, feeling, and intellectual perception; the motifs of perforated, armored, or transparent skin; and much more through close readings of such authors as Kleist, Buchner, Hawthorne, Balzac, Rilke, Kafka, Plath, Morrison, Wideman, and Ondaatje.