The Wild Ass's Skin [Paperback]

Honore de Balzac (Author), Ellen Marriage (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2009

"The Wild Ass's Skin" is Honoré de Balzac's 1831 novel that tells the story of a young man, Raphaël de Valentin, who discovers a piece of shagreen, in this case a rough untanned piece of a wild ass's skin, which has the magical property of granting wishes. However the fulfillment of the wisher's desire comes at a cost, after each wish the skin shrinks a little bit and consumes the physical energy of the wisher. "The Wild Ass's Skin" is at once both a work of incredible realism, in the descriptions of Parisian life and culture at the time, and also a work of supernatural fantasy, in the desires that are fulfilled by the wild ass's skin. Balzac uses this fantastical device masterfully to depict the complexity of the human nature in civilized society.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Balzac was born in 1799, the son of a civil servant. At the age of thirty - heavily in debt and with an unsucessful past behind him - he started work on the first of what were to become a total of ninety novels and short stories that make up The Human Comedy. He died in 1850. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 150 pages
• Publisher: Digireads.com (January 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1420934023
• ISBN-13: 978-1420934021
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,242,351 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Skin of Chagrin, February 5, 2006

By 

cvairag (Allan Hancock College) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Wild Ass's Skin (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

O.K. A minority opinion. Nowhere are the master storyteller's considerable talents more admirably on display than in this quintessential commentary on the futility of desire. What is the locus of Balzac's genius? One of the all-time masters of character development, Balzac allows us a deeper appreciation of interiority.
What perhaps disturbs certain modern and post-modern readers about La Peau de Chagrin, derives from their delimiting reliance on the modern scientific world view. The very idea of a talisman - which certain magical powers - a love potion - is `hokey' or `wacky'. Of course, U.F.O.'s are somewhat plausible and `ring viruses' even moreso.
If the vehicle might seem uncomfortably quaint to some, the dignity of the project is, I feel, hardly compromised. Of course, we have that memorable, if not prototypical, B-film, "Into the Night", which seems to indicate that in fiction, weird things can still be acquired at antique stores and junk shops.
The question raised is however whether Balzac does bring his A-game to La Peau de Chagrin, and I claim most emphatically: A +. What is offered here is not dime store murder mystery fare (the genre of Earl Stanley Gardner, E. Howard Hunt, Dan Brown, et al) . . . but mortality mystery in dime store guise. Underlying the superfluity of our celebrated romantic angst is the dark inevitability of our certain doom. What Balzac wishes us the see in the tragic absurdity of his characters' collective fate, is that the doom and the desire are commensurate. If as we live, we die, if our inexorable desires are fatally predatory upon our better sense, what is the point of living, where is the meaning? This query, Balzac poses most seriously in his elsewhere acknowledged masterpiece, and for better or worse, we are still trying to answer that sphinxian riddle.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid Balzac, January 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Wild Ass's Skin (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

This is bo no means the man's best book. I have read 4 of his other works and this is the worst yet it is still an excellent book.

The plot focuses around Raphael, a depressed man who acquires a talisman that will grant your wishes. The catch is everytime you make a wish, the talisman diminishes, as does your health. The book is divided up almost into three seperate parts. The first deals with Raphael going to an elegant diner with colleagues followed by an orgy. The second part is cloddish and long as it discusse Raphael's romance towards Foedora. She is a sly temptress who really comes across as an uncompelling ice queen. Why Raphael would go after her is beyond me.

The third part features the books most touching moments and also its most wonderful imagery. This is where Raphael flees to the country and ponders his existence.

Overall a good book, worth reading and all of that. If you are considering Blazac read Eugenie Grandet and Ursule Mirouet first. Then read La Pere Goriot and Cesar Birrotteau. They are all far more compelling books.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Lackluster Execution of an Intriguing Premise, May 22, 2008

By 

Brian Emo (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Wild Ass's Skin (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

While the philosophical implications of a talisman that incrementally depletes the life-force with each wish granted are conceptually fascinating, the novel suffers from both the absence of character development and a weak plotline.

Moreover, Balzac's mind-numbingly long descriptive passages are self-indulgent, do little to advance the story, and ultimately undermine its dramatic potential -- probably the most frustrating aspect overall.

The psychological and moral themes underpinning the book are brilliantly articulated in Balzac's later works, such as Pere Goriot, Cousin Bette, Lost Illusions, and A Harlot High and Low. Start with these, as only an ardent Balzac fan would appreciate this earlier book.

Hunt delivers an excellent translation that captures Balzac's shrewd observations of human behavior and irony. However, the razor-sharp social criticism that is so pervasive in Balzac's other novels is in short supply.