Honoré de Balzac: The Magic Skin

Honoré de Balzac’s novel, which brought him his first literary fame, tells the story of Raphaël de Valentin, a destitute young man of ambition who, on the verge of suicide, accidentally purchases a magic talisman in an antique shop—a piece of shagreen leather that grants all of its owner's wishes, but at the cost of shortening his life each time. Having gained wealth and pleasures, Valentin soon faces a choice: to live for his own enjoyment and thereby doom himself to an early death, or to "castrate his imagination," surrender to self-restraint, and, obeying the instinct of self-preservation, withdraw from life.

Author: Honoré de Balzac 

Translation: Boris Griftsov

Pages: 320 (newsprint). Paperback

Dimensions: 178x115x14 mm

Series: Azbuka-Classics