Balzac's 1831 French novel follows a young man who acquires a magical piece of shagreen that grants any wish while shrinking his lifespan with each use. The story explores themes of desire, excess, and mortality in post-revolutionary Paris through Marriage's translation.
Towards the end of the month of October 1829 a young man entered the Palais-Royal just as the gaming-houses opened, agreeably to the law which protects a passion by its very nature easily excisable. He mounted the staircase of one of the gambling hells distinguished by the number 36, without too much deliberation. “Your hat, sir, if you please?” a thin, querulous voice called out. A little old man, crouching in the darkness behind a railing, suddenly rose and exhibited his features, carved after a mean design. As you enter a gaming-house the law despoils you of your hat at the outset. Is it by way of a parable, a divine revelation? Or by exacting some pledge or other, is not an infernal compact implied? Is it done to compel you to preserve a respectful demeanor towards those who are about to gain money of you? Or must the detective, who squats in our social sewers, know the name of your …Continue reading →
This is the Ellen Marriage translation, a public-domain English text. Marginalia presents it unabridged, with chapter navigation, your reading position saved, and optional AI commentary on any passage.
A towering figure of 19th-century French literature, this prolific novelist (1799-1850) created "La Comédie Humaine," an ambitious multi-volume work portraying French society with unprecedented realism. His detailed character studies and social observations helped establish the modern novel, influencing writers from Dickens to Dostoyevsky with his penetrating vision of human nature. All works by Honoré de Balzac →
Browse all Fiction · 19th Century works