eBook La Peau de Chagrin (Romans de Blazac: Novelle Edition Conforme Au Texte de) (French Edition) ePub

One of the most interesting details about this novel is that it was the last work of fiction read by Sigmund Freud (according to Ernest Jones definitive biography), presumably not for the first time, because the theme would likely be of great interest to a dying man. (Freud's taste in literature wasn't the best, however: he once listed DOCTOR PASCAL, the last of Zola's Rougon-Macquart series as a favorite, whereas anyone who's read it knows it's one of the dullest and most didactic in the series).

If Balzac had died after LA PEAU was published, he certainly wouldn't be remembered as one of the greatest European novelists, arguably the creator of the archetype for the 19th century "realistic" novel ("realistic" because it's a moot point long argued whether the COMEDIE HUMAINE is a portrait of reality or a phantasmagoria of Balzac's imagination).

Maurice Bardeche has one of the most convincing arguments about the importance of LA PEAU to the COMEDIE. He calls it a "thesis novel" in which Balzac elaborates his view of human nature, a system of "vital energy" that, depending on how it's used, either preserves or destroys the individual. The magic skin is the obvious symbol of this dynamism.

The prose style, in either French or English (H.L. Hunt's translation is the best), is florid and rhetorical, and though the form borrows from the fantastic tale, the characters are clearly intended to be realistic, but if ever any humans spoke in the kind of oracular bombast found here, they were sophomores in the school of life.

Still, PEAU is a good read and once begun it draws you on, even though the conclusion is obvious. A gifted writer has the ability to infuse something of his genius in even his worst stuff (although SERAPHITA might be Balzac's major exception, an unreadable yarn except for Balzac completists.)

PEAU should be read, as Bardache, recommends along with LOUIS LAMBERT which is the "explanation" of the "thesis" in PEAU.

As for the rest of the COMEDIE ... if you're a Balzac addict, you probably would find most of it worth reading, though clearly some books are better than others. The French scholarly assumption that the COMEDIE is one work, ergo every volume has to read to appreciate it, just as every volume of Proust's RECHERCHE has to be read, not just SWANN'S WAY, is a counsel of perfection, arguably based on a misinterpretation because (1) Balzac didn't finish the COMEDIE; and (2) if he'd lived 20 more years, he would have almost certainly have continued adding ETUDES until he'd reach 120 or so volumes ... and no "novel" in 120 volumes is possible, not even in the 90 or so that were completed before Balzac died of coffee poisoning and total neglect of his "vital energy" ...

A classic, but the Kindle edition has no paragraphing... where the original text starts a new paragraph with an indentation, the Kindle edition runs on without a break. Only major breaks show up. Makes reading difficult.

This contains an interesting mix of fantastical elements and 19th century scientific beliefs, but it seems to drag on in certain sections--especially in the middle during the main character's pursuit of Foedora. Not up to par with Le pere Goriot or La fille aux yeux d'or, even if the final scene is nearing the delicious perversity of the latter.

The very first 5 or 10 lines of the Kindle version were messed up! I found this very annoying. See, for example, the almost correct German e-version of these lines in Project Gutenberg-DE (the name is Tristram Shandy, not Tristam).

In this fairly early Balzac novel, part of his grand "La Comedie humaine" project (in which he set out to describe every aspect of French society with interwoven plots), Raphael, a young and destitute nobleman, acquires a talisman with particular powers. This patch of chagreen skin, its Arabic inscription promising to fulfill his will, also grows smaller every time a wish is granted -- and with it, his lifespan. A struggle begins worthy of Stephen King horror. Raphael must either somehow stop the talisman's shrinking or try to bring his will to a screeching halt. Mixed in is the story of a beautiful but heartless woman he desires. (This part, to be honest, gets a bit dull at times, though it is somewhat crucial to Raphael's psychological portrait.) This wasted venture prevents him from being closer to the simpler but caring girl who deserves his love. Balzac's father believed that the human will ultimately saps a person of his life if overexerted. In this short novel, Balzac explores this idea with flair and wit, and maybe a bit too much on-the-couch psychoanalysis.

This is not one of Balzac's great works. First, if you are not extremely fluent in French, you will find the language in this book very difficult. The story is a bit strange to begin with, but visualizing what is happening or even what this mysterious talisman looks like is all but impossible. As you trudge through the pages and pages and pages of this book, you're always hoping it will get better, that you will be stimulated in the way that Balzac had done before, but to no avail. Reading should be fun, but this is drudgery.