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''La Peau de chagrin'' ((:la po də ʃaɡʁɛ̃), ''The Magic Skin'' or ''The Wild Ass's Skin'') is an 1831 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850). Set in early 19th-century Paris, it tells the story of a young man who finds a magic piece of shagreen that fulfills his every desire. For each wish granted, however, the skin shrinks and consumes a portion of his physical energy. ''La Peau de chagrin'' belongs to the ''Études philosophiques'' group of Balzac's sequence of novels, ''La Comédie humaine''. Before the book was completed, Balzac created excitement about it by publishing a series of articles and story fragments in several Parisian journals. Although he was five months late in delivering the manuscript, he succeeded in generating sufficient interest that the novel sold out instantly upon its publication. A second edition, which included a series of twelve other "philosophical tales", was released one month later. Although the novel uses fantastic elements, its main focus is a realistic portrayal of the excesses of bourgeois materialism. Balzac's renowned attention to detail is used to describe a gambling house, an antique shop, a royal banquet, and other locales. He also includes details from his own life as a struggling writer, placing the main character in a home similar to the one he occupied at the start of his literary career. The central theme of ''La Peau de chagrin'' is the conflict between desire and longevity. The magic skin represents the owner's life-force, which is depleted through every expression of will, especially when it is employed for the acquisition of power. Ignoring a caution from the shopkeeper who offers him the skin, the protagonist greedily surrounds himself with wealth, only to find himself miserable and decrepit at the story's end. ''La Peau de chagrin'' firmly established Balzac as a writer of significance in France. His social circle widened significantly, and he was sought eagerly by publishers for future projects. The book served as the catalyst for a series of letters he exchanged with a Polish baroness named Ewelina Hańska, who later became his wife. It also inspired Giselher Klebe's opera ''Die tödlichen Wünsche''. ==Background== In 1830 Honoré de Balzac had only begun to achieve recognition as a writer. Although his parents had persuaded him to make his profession the law, he announced in 1819 that he wanted to become an author. His mother was distraught, but she and his father agreed to give him a small income, on the condition that he dedicate himself to writing, and deliver to them half of his gross income from any published work.〔Robb, pp. 52–53; Gerson, p. 29; Maurois, pp. 51–54. The amount he received from his parents is disputed; Gerson says it was 750 francs per year; Maurois indicates 1500. Robb writes that his parents supported his new career "quite generously".〕 After moving into a tiny room near the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal in Paris, Balzac wrote for one year, without success. Frustrated, he moved back to his family in the suburb of Villeparisis and borrowed money from his parents to pursue his literary ambitions further. He spent the next several years writing simple potboiler novels, which he published under a variety of pseudonyms. He shared some of his income from these with his parents, but by 1828 he still owed them 50,000 francs.〔Maurois, pp. 72–128; Gerson, pp. 52–83.〕 He published for the first time under his own name in 1829. ''Les Chouans'', a novel about royalist forces in Brittany, did not succeed commercially, but it made Balzac known in literary circles.〔Gerson, pp. 90–92; Maurois, pp. 142–144.〕 He achieved a major success later the same year when he published ''La Physiologie du mariage'', a treatise on the institution of marriage. Bolstered by its popularity, he added to his fame by publishing a variety of short stories and essays in the magazines ''Revue de Paris'', ''La Caricature'', and ''La Mode''. He thus made connections in the publishing industry that later helped him to obtain reviews of his novels.〔Robb, pp. 162–167; Gerson, p. 92; Maurois, pp. 155–156; Bellos, pp. 5–6.〕 At the time, French literary appetites for fantastic stories had been whetted by the 1829 translation of German writer E. T. A. Hoffmann's collection ''Fantastic Tales''; the gothic fiction of England's Ann Radcliffe; and French author Jules Janin's 1829 novel ''L'Ane Mort et la Femme Guillotinée'' (''The Dead Donkey and the Guillotined Woman'').〔Bertault, pp. 59–60; Pritchett, p. 108.〕 Although he planned a novel in the same tradition, Balzac disliked the term "fantastic", referring to it once as "the vulgar program of a genre in its first flush of newness, to be sure, but already too much worn by the mere abuse of the word".〔Quoted in Bertault, p. 60.〕 The politics and culture of France, meanwhile, were in upheaval. After reigning for six controversial years, King Charles X was forced to abdicate during the July Revolution of 1830. He was replaced by Louis-Philippe, who named himself "King of the French" (rather than the usual "King of France") in an attempt to distance himself from the ''Ancien Régime''. The July Monarchy brought an entrenchment of bourgeois attitudes, in which Balzac saw disorganization and weak leadership.〔Robb, pp. 177–178; Gerson, pp. 98–99; Maurois, pp. 192–193.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「La Peau de chagrin」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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