La Peau de chagrin

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La Peau de chagrin (1831) is a philosophical fantasy novel by Honoré de Balzac. The title is often translated as The Wild-Ass's Skin.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The novel is about a man who discovers a powerful talisman in an old curiosity shop (originally published in 1831 after having been serialised in Parisian newspapers, this may be the first usage of that device). The talisman is in the form of an animal skin (a shagreen, the skin of an onager or "wild-ass"). It grants any wish, but shrinks slightly with each use, and the user is doomed to die when it shrinks to zero. The main character is originally prolifigate with his wishes, but is quickly reduced to an ascetic existence where he must try very hard not to want anything - his wish will be instantly granted, but might also kill him.

There is a double-meaning in the original title which is lost in translation: it is a play on the words shagreen (the animal skin talisman) and chagrin, meaning in French a sense of grief (a much sadder regret than is implied by the English meaning of the word).

Early in the novel, a character tries to explain to the main character his view of the dangers of the talisman (translated by Herbert J. Hunt):

I am going to reveal to you, in a few words, one of the great mysteries of human life. Man exhausts himself by two acts, instinctively accomplished, which dry up the sources of his existence. Two words express all the forms that these two causes of death can assume: will and power. Between these two terms of human action there is another formula which wise men cling to, and to it I owe my hapiness and long life. The exercise of will consumes us; the exercise of power destroys us; but the pursuit of knowledge leaves our infirm constitution in a state of perpetual calm. So desire or volition is dead in me, killed by thought.