La Peau de chagrin

The Magic Skin or The deadly desires (Fr. La Peau de chagrin ) is a novel by Honoré de Balzac. He appeared in 1831 with great success. Balzac describes in the French and particularly Parisian society at the end of the restoration and the beginning of the July Monarchy.

Content

The novel consists of three parts: Le talisman ( Talisman ), La femme sans cœur ( The heartless woman ) and L' agony (the agony ).

The main character is the young Raphael de Valentin, who is of noble birth, but orphaned and impoverished, who has always dreamed of becoming a writer and devoted to his artistic nature. He is in a crisis and playful his last gold coin in the Palais Royal. This is done in the fall, 1829. Society disintegrates at this time, she hangs out in great festivals that bring erring "way out" and an escape from the events of the Paris society. The desperate and hopeless Raphael realizes that he can solve his problems only by committing suicide. He thus goes to the dirty, cold Seine, which seems to be a logical consequence of his destiny to him. However, he is stopped by a mocking and ironic old woman in rags. He decides to say goodbye to a "dignified " manner, that is to drown himself in the night and not in the middle in broad daylight; because if he can tumble down during the night, his body will no longer be visible.

So he decides to delay his death a few hours, but it will turn out that he will put it off by a few years, without meaning to. He discovers an antique shop, where he encounters an old man who presented to him the shagreen, a piece of " Donkey Skin ". Raphael recognizes an engraved, Arabic script, which tells translated as follows: " Everything you possess if you possess me. However, your life heard me. So it wants the Lord God. Everything you desire is to be satisfied by me. But on your life direct your desires. This is because. As thy days I will remove with a any of your desires. Do you want me? So take me! You heard for God! So it be done " The shagreen is the destructive dichotomy between " "Override will" and " skill in it. But with every wish he met his owner, this talisman shrinks a little, and a complete disappearance means death, as the size of the talisman is proportional to the lifetime of its owner. Valentin buys the shagreen, which is equivalent to a pact with the devil.

Pun in the title

Chagrin is on the one hand, the French word for " sorrow ", on the other hand it denotes (of Turkish Sagri for " horseback " ) is a type of leather from the back skin of horses, camels, donkeys, mules and other animals.

Edits

  • Filmed: France in 1909 or 1911 (directed by M. Carré ), slave of desire, USA 1923 ( Director DG Baker), The sinister desires, Germany 1939 ( Director Heinz Hilpert ), La piel de Zapa, Argentina in 1943 (directed by Mr. B. ), France 2010 ( TV film, directed by Alain Berliner )
  • Setting: Fritz Geissler, opera in seven scenes 1977/78, to a libretto by Günther Deicke
  • Giselher Klebe, The deadly desires, opera in 1959, 1962, UA June 14, 1959, German Opera on the Rhine Dusseldorf, headed by Reinhard Peters
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