A young man named Raphaël de Valentin wagers his last coin and loses, then proceeds to the river Seine to drown himself. On the way, however, he decides to enter an unusual shop and finds it filled with curiosities from around the world. The elderly shopkeeper leads him to a piece of shagreen hanging on the wall. It is inscribed with "Oriental" writing; the old man calls it "Sanskrit", but it is imprecise Arabic. The skin promises to fulfill any wish of its owner, shrinking slightly upon the fulfillment of each desire. The shopkeeper is willing to let Valentin take it without charge, but urges him not to accept the offer. Valentin waves away the shopkeeper's warnings and takes the skin, wishing for a royal banquet, filled with wine, women, and friends. He is immediately met by acquaintances who invite him to such an event; they spend hours eating, drinking, and talking. But his actions must meet consequences. For each wish granted, the skin shrinks and consumes a portion of his physical energy.

DigiCat presents to you this meticulously edited collection of the greatest classics of French literature: A History of French Literature François Rabelais: Gargantua and Pantagruel Molière: Tartuffe or the Hypocrite The Misanthrope The Miser The Imaginary Invalid The Impostures of Scapin... Jean Racine: Phaedra Pierre Corneille: The Cid Voltaire: Candide Zadig Micromegas The Huron A Philosophical Dictionary... Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Confessions Emile The Social Contract De Laclos: Dangerous Liaisons Stendhal‎: The Red and the Black The Charterhouse of Parma... Honoré de Balzac: Father Goriot Eugénie Grandet Lost Illusions The Lily of the Valley A Woman of Thirty Colonel Chabert The Magic Skin The Unknown Masterpiece... Victor Hugo: Les Misérables The Man Who Laughs The Hunchback of Notre-Dame Toilers of the Sea... George Sand: The Devil's Pool Mauprat Alexandre Dumas pere: The Three Musketeers Twenty Years After The Vicomte de Bragelonne Ten Years After Louise de la Valliere The Man in the Iron Mask The Count of Monte Cristo... Alexandre Dumas fils: The Lady with the Camellias Gustave Flaubert: Madame Bovary Salammbô Bouvard and Pécuchet Sentimental Education... Émile Zola: Thérèse Raquin The Fortune of the Rougons The Kill The Dram Shop A Love Episode Nana Piping Hot Germinal His Masterpiece The Earth The Dream The Human Beast Money The Downfall Doctor Pascal... Jules Verne: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Around the World in Eighty Days The Mysterious Island Journey to the Centre of the Earth From the Earth to the Moon Around the Moon In Search of the Castaways Guy de Maupassant: A Life Bel-Ami (The History of a Scoundrel) Mont Oriol Notre Coeur Pierre and Jean Strong as Death The Necklace The Horla Boul de Suif Two Friends Madame Tellier's Establishment... Charles Baudelaire: The Flowers of Evil Anatole France: The Revolt of the Angels The Gods are Athirst (The Gods Will Have Blood) Penguin Island Thaïs Gaston Leroux: The Phantom of the Opera The Mystery of the Yellow Room The Secret of the Night The Man with the Black Feather Marcel Proust: Swann's Way

DigiCat presents to you a unique collection of the greatest classics of French literature, formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Table of Contents: A History of French Literature François Rabelais: Gargantua and Pantagruel Molière: Tartuffe or the Hypocrite The Misanthrope The Miser The Imaginary Invalid... Jean Racine: Phaedra Pierre Corneille: The Cid Voltaire: Candide Zadig The Huron A Philosophical Dictionary Letters on England Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Confessions Stendhal‎: The Charterhouse of Parma Honoré de Balzac: Father Goriot Eugénie Grandet Lost Illusions The Lily of the Valley A Woman of Thirty Cousin Bette Cousin Pons Colonel Chabert The Magic Skin The Unknown Masterpiece Victor Hugo: Les Misérables The Man Who Laughs The Hunchback of Notre-Dame Toilers of the Sea The Last Day of a Condemned Man Claude Gueux George Sand: Mauprat Alexandre Dumas pere: The Three Musketeers Twenty Years After The Vicomte de Bragelonne Ten Years After Louise de la Valliere The Man in the Iron Mask The Count of Monte Cristo Marguerite de Valois The Black Tulip Alexandre Dumas fils: The Lady with the Camellias Gustave Flaubert: Madame Bovary Émile Zola: Thérèse Raquin The Fortune of the Rougons The Kill The Fat and the Thin The Conquest of Plassans Abbe Mouret's Transgression His Excellency Eugene Rougon The Dram Shop A Love Episode Nana Piping Hot The Ladies' Paradise The Joy of Life Germinal His Masterpiece The Earth The Dream The Human Beast Money Doctor Pascal Jules Verne: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Around the World in Eighty Days The Mysterious Island Journey to the Centre of the Earth From the Earth to the Moon Around the Moon In Search of the Castaways Guy de Maupassant: A Life Bel-Ami Mont Oriol Notre Coeur Pierre and Jean Strong as Death The Necklace The Horla Boul de Suif Two Friends Madame Tellier's Establishment Mademoiselle Fifi Miss Harriet... Gaston Leroux: The Phantom of the Opera The Mystery of the Yellow Room The Secret of the Night The Man with the Black Feather Marcel Proust: Swann's Way

La Peau de chagrin (The Magic Skin or The Wild Ass's Skin) is an 1831 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850). 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. La Peau de chagrin belongs to the Études philosophiques group of Balzac's sequence of novels, La Comédie humaine. Before the book was completed, Balzac created excitement about it by publishing a series of articles and story fragments in several Parisian journals. Although he was five months late in delivering the manuscript, he succeeded in generating sufficient interest that the novel sold out instantly upon its publication. A second edition, which included a series of twelve other "philosophical tales", was released one month later. Although the novel uses fantastic elements, its main focus is a realistic portrayal of the excesses of bourgeois materialism. Balzac's renowned attention to detail is used to describe a gambling house, an antique shop, a royal banquet, and other locales. He also includes details from his own life as a struggling writer, placing the main character in a home similar to the one he occupied at the start of his literary career. The central theme of La Peau de chagrin is the conflict between desire and longevity. The magic skin represents the owner's life-force, which is depleted through every expression of will, especially when it is employed for the acquisition of power. Ignoring a caution from the shopkeeper who offers him the skin, the protagonist greedily surrounds himself with wealth, only to find himself miserable and decrepit at the story's end. La Peau de chagrin firmly established Balzac as a writer of significance in France. His social circle widened significantly, and he was sought eagerly by publishers for future projects. The book served as the catalyst for a series of letters he exchanged with a Polish baroness named Ewelina Hańska, who later became his wife. It also inspired Giselher Klebe's opera Die tödlichen Wünsche.

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