StartGroepenDiscussieMeerTijdgeest
Doorzoek de site
Onze site gebruikt cookies om diensten te leveren, prestaties te verbeteren, voor analyse en (indien je niet ingelogd bent) voor advertenties. Door LibraryThing te gebruiken erken je dat je onze Servicevoorwaarden en Privacybeleid gelezen en begrepen hebt. Je gebruik van de site en diensten is onderhevig aan dit beleid en deze voorwaarden.

Resultaten uit Google Boeken

Klik op een omslag om naar Google Boeken te gaan.

Bezig met laden...

De Huid van Chagrijn (1831)

door Honoré de Balzac

Andere auteurs: Zie de sectie andere auteurs.

Reeksen: Philosophical Studies, The Human Comedy (67)

LedenBesprekingenPopulariteitGemiddelde beoordelingAanhalingen
1,4902712,115 (3.66)42
Famous perfectionist Honore de Balzac labored for years to bring the fascinating idea behind The Magic Skin to life in a novel, and critics and fans alike agree that it is one of the French writer's masterworks. The story follows the experiences of a young man who finds a small piece of animal skin that magically fulfills his every desire. However, over time, he discovers that the seeming miracle has exacted a terrible toll on his body -- and his soul.… (meer)
  1. 20
    Het portret van Dorian Gray door Oscar Wilde (Lapsus_Linguae)
    Lapsus_Linguae: Both novels use fantastic elements and focus on the depiction of moral degradation of the main heroes.
Bezig met laden...

Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden.

Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek.

» Zie ook 42 vermeldingen

Engels (19)  Frans (4)  Catalaans (2)  Spaans (1)  Duits (1)  Alle talen (27)
1-5 van 27 worden getoond (volgende | toon alle)
La Peau de chagrin is one of Balzac's earliest and best known full length efforts and an important step in the formation of the Human Comedy for its weaving together of various key themes and character strands. Drawing heavily from his Swedenborgian influence, Balzac tells the story of young Raphael, a man on the verge of suicide who comes across a talisman that allows him whatever he desires at the cost of a portion of his life each time it's used. The tale progresses through the highs the new power allows its bearer as well as the inevitable and sad undoing that it leads to in the end.

This definitely had its longueurs, particularly some of the more drawn out descriptive passages (though others, such as the antique shop near the beginning, were wonderfully evocative), the denouement feels somewhat drawn out and meandering, and there's an inevitably moral rectitude from Balzac here that puts this in sharp contrast to what the Decadents might have done with such a story half a century later, but the strong stuff here is really good - the whole melodrama of the 2nd part was particularly delicious even though it's where the chagrin is least relevant, I really liked the contrast between Pauline and Foedora as embodiments of a certain kind of feminine ideal, and it was pleasant to see the return of Dr. Bianchon as well as the first appearance of Rastignac in my Balzac reading experience.

I know there's better to come from this writer but this was a promising kick-off to longer Balzac nonetheless.

_________

The most difficult work I've read in French once again, as I continue to push up the difficulty on my endeavours - this is really dense prose and I can't say I wasn't warned this is a hard novel to read but I definitely ended up slowing to a crawl for a lot of the first part. By the end though I was rolling forward once again and the confidence I feel in my reading competence in the language now I'm done is stronger than ever. ( )
  franderochefort | Aug 8, 2023 |
It's possible that there's something less about this book because it's translated to english (this was said to me by a French speaker), but as for me, Balzac's words are like eating a piece of the delicious cakes I make for the birthday of a loved one: made from scratch, rich, delicious, sparing no effort or cost.

If Pauline already loved raphael, why did the ass's skin shrink when she began to love him? My conundrum.

When the protagonist is not happy, his friend Rastignac recommends this woman to him, a Young Rich widow named Foedora. She's single and wants to stay that way, so no man, rich and handsome, gets to be her mate. But the protagonist, despite not having any money (but he does have a title), tries to pretend he does in order to hang around with her, determined that he will be the one to win her.
But there's no swaying her, despite his handsomeness. He devises a plan to hide in her bedroom, and wait till all visitors are gone, in order to observe her sleeping. Who knows why?
He later tries to impress her that he knows much about her, by spilling the beans to her. She's only more disgusted with him.

Raphael decides he's going to kill himself, because he's so poor and so miserable. But he doesn't want to throw himself in the Seine in the daylight, so he goes in an antique shop to pass the time until night falls. This antique shop has amazing properties inside of it, and Raphael meets the owner, who admits that there's thousands of millions worth of property inside of his shop. For some reason this owner gives Raphael a magic donkey skin, when Rafael admits that he was going to kill himself for his poverty. He tells him that the donkey skin will grant him any wish, but that it will at the same time shorten his life, For every wish granted. Raphael thinks it's pretty much a joke, but decides to try it out by wishing for a splendid party in a mansion with women and everything to eat and drink that goes on for 24 hours. Right away this happens, when he steps out the door, and some friends of him say "there you are! we've been looking for you" and sweep him off to a badass party in a badass mansion. But only let the people hear that Raphael is now rich, when a notary comes in the door and announces that he is so, then they all start asking him for money.
" 'oh, Raphael dear, I should like a set of pearl ornaments!' Euphrasia exclaimed.
'If he has any gratitude in him, he will give me a couple of carriages with fast steppers,' said Aquilina.
'Wish for a hundred thousand a year for me!'
'Indian shawls!'
'pay my debts!'
'send an apoplexy to my uncle, the old stick!'
'10,000 a year in the funds, and I'll cry quits with you, raphael!'
'Deeds of gift and no mistake,' was the notary's comment.
'He ought, at least, to rid me of the gout!'
'Lower the funds!' Shouted the banker.
These phrases flew about like the last discharge of rockets at the end of a display of fireworks; and were uttered, perhaps, more in Earnest than in jest."

There was a young girl named Pauline, living with her mother, in their house where they rented the Garret room to Raphael. She was a beautiful young girl, and she would do anything for raphael. He always saw her busy at work at some little hand paintings when he went in and out.
Well, sometime later, he sees her at the Opera, all grown up, and outshining even the beautiful Foedora. It turns out, as her mother always hoped, her father came back from India with riches, and set them up in style, before he died from tuberculosis.
Now Pauline and Raphael are both rich, and he finds out that she loved him all the time, and would do anything for him.
" 'Kiss me!' She cried, 'after all the pain you have given me; to blot out the memory of the grief that your joys have caused me; and for the sake of the nights that I spent in painting hands-screens -'
'those hand screens of yours?'
'now that we are rich, my darling, I can tell you all about it. Poor boy! How easy it is to delude a clever man! could you have had white waistcoats and clean shirts twice a week for three francs every month to the laundress? Why, you used to drink twice as much milk as your money would have paid for. I deceived you all around - over firing, oil, and even money. Oh Raphael mine, don't have me for your wife, I am far too cunning!' She said laughing.
'But how did you manage?'
'I used to work till 2:00 in the morning; I gave my mother half the money made by my screens, and the other half went to you.'
they looked at one another for a moment, both bewildered by love and gladness.

For all his wishing for wealth and love, Raphael loses many years off his life. He's already old and sickly and he's still in his late 20s. He calls in a set of specialists; they recommend him to go "take waters." this was the popular thing for rich people to do when they were sick or out of sorts, would be go to some lake that had a resort.
But he's surprised at people's treatment of him:
"he would no more meet with sympathy here for his bodily ills then he had received it at her hands [Foedora's] for the distress in his heart. The fashionable world expels every suffering creature from its midst, just as the body of a man in robust health rejects any germ of disease. The world holds suffering and misfortune in abhorrence; it dreads them like the plague; it never hesitates between vice and trouble, for vice is a luxury. Ill Fortune May possess a Majesty of its own, but society can belittle it and make it ridiculous by an epigram. Society draws caricatures and in this way flings in the teeth of fallen Kings their affronts which it fancies it has received from them; society, like the Roman youth at the circus, never shows Mercy to the fallen gladiator; mockery and money are its vital necessities. 'Death to the weak!' That is the oath taken by this kind of equestrian order, instituted in their midst by all the nations of the world; everywhere it makes for the elevation of the rich, and its motto is deeply graven in hearts that wealth has turned to stone, or that have been reared in aristocratic prejudices."

So Rafael has no sympathy, no he's rolling in dough.

I would say balZac is making a moral here for rich people who think that money will make them happy. And why they're so stingy when they have plenty of money: that first hit of money is like the first hit of cocaine: it makes you feel good. But after that you can't ever reach that same good feeling, all you have left is the aching need for more and more and more. ( )
  burritapal | Oct 23, 2022 |
8474640571
  archivomorero | Jun 25, 2022 |
This entry in Balzac's "The Human Comedy" (also known as "The Wild Ass's Skin") is the first of the Philosophical Studies division and I think that has a lot to do why I didn't really like it that much. Or maybe it was the character of Raphael (before he comes across the eponymous skin) - I was frustrated while he described his relationship with Feodora since basically his attitude was because he loved her and she didn't love him, she must be a horribly heartless woman. His love was entirely selfish and when he hid himself in her bedroom so he could spy on her while she thought she was alone, I almost stopped reading right then.

Another small negative was the narration by John Bolen, which was done with a strong French accent but with very little difference in the voices of the varying characters. I'd give the narration (separate from the content) a 3* but it needed a better narration than that to bring up my rating for the book overall. ( )
  leslie.98 | Feb 3, 2021 |
This book by Balzac is quite good but it pretty much tops me up and out of wanting to read more by him.

Not that it's bad, mind you. It's really quite wonderful when I think about it.

It starts out with a gambling addiction resulting in a desire to kill himself, but then he comes across this strange individual who offers him what appears to be a cursed item. (Yes, realism, no one really disputes that magic happens back then. The wild ass's skin works simply. You can shorten your life but get wonderful things. Kinda like the Monkey's Paw, but totally worldly and not always that evil. :) Riches, women... the whole thing reads with a very familiar theme from Cousin Bette.

Death and Life always in opposition, and both these novels presage Freud.

Ennui, satisfaction ending in boredom and the ever need to drive oneself forward. The alternative is all the crap that makes generally happy folk kinda self-destruct. Art plays a big role here, as does sex and money.

It's quite fascinating for what it is and I am REALLY glad I don't live in France during this time. I think I would hate just about everything. :) But this is a really interesting novel, for all that. ( )
  bradleyhorner | Jun 1, 2020 |
1-5 van 27 worden getoond (volgende | toon alle)
geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe

» Andere auteurs toevoegen (53 mogelijk)

AuteursnaamRolType auteurWerk?Status
Balzac, Honoré deAuteurprimaire auteuralle editiesbevestigd
Allem, MauriceRedacteurSecundaire auteursommige editiesbevestigd
Barbéris, PierreVoorwoordSecundaire auteursommige editiesbevestigd
Chamarat, GabrielleRedacteurSecundaire auteursommige editiesbevestigd
Hegenbarth, JosefIllustratorSecundaire auteursommige editiesbevestigd
Hunt, Herbert J.IntroductieSecundaire auteursommige editiesbevestigd
Hunt, Herbert J.VertalerSecundaire auteursommige editiesbevestigd
Pieyre de Mandiargues, AndréVoorwoordSecundaire auteursommige editiesbevestigd
Sacy, S. deRedacteurSecundaire auteursommige editiesbevestigd
Je moet ingelogd zijn om Algemene Kennis te mogen bewerken.
Voor meer hulp zie de helppagina Algemene Kennis .
Gangbare titel
Oorspronkelijke titel
Alternatieve titels
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis. Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
Oorspronkelijk jaar van uitgave
Mensen/Personages
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis. Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
Belangrijke plaatsen
Belangrijke gebeurtenissen
Verwante films
Motto
Opdracht
Eerste woorden
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis. Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
Towards the end of October 1830 a young man entered the Palais Royal just as the gambling houses were opening in conformity with the law which protects an essentially taxable passion.
Citaten
Laatste woorden
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis. Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
(Klik om weer te geven. Waarschuwing: kan de inhoud verklappen.)
Ontwarringsbericht
Uitgevers redacteuren
Auteur van flaptekst/aanprijzing
Oorspronkelijke taal
Informatie afkomstig uit de Duitse Algemene Kennis. Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
Gangbare DDC/MDS
Canonieke LCC

Verwijzingen naar dit werk in externe bronnen.

Wikipedia in het Engels

Geen

Famous perfectionist Honore de Balzac labored for years to bring the fascinating idea behind The Magic Skin to life in a novel, and critics and fans alike agree that it is one of the French writer's masterworks. The story follows the experiences of a young man who finds a small piece of animal skin that magically fulfills his every desire. However, over time, he discovers that the seeming miracle has exacted a terrible toll on his body -- and his soul.

Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden.

Boekbeschrijving
Haiku samenvatting

Actuele discussies

Geen

Populaire omslagen

Snelkoppelingen

Waardering

Gemiddelde: (3.66)
0.5
1 4
1.5 1
2 16
2.5 5
3 48
3.5 18
4 47
4.5 6
5 44

Ben jij dit?

Word een LibraryThing Auteur.

Penguin Australia

Een editie van dit boek werd gepubliceerd door Penguin Australia.

» Informatiepagina uitgever

Tantor Media

2 edities van dit boek werden gepubliceerd door Tantor Media.

Edities: 1400100305, 1400110866

 

Over | Contact | LibraryThing.com | Privacy/Voorwaarden | Help/Veelgestelde vragen | Blog | Winkel | APIs | TinyCat | Nagelaten Bibliotheken | Vroege Recensenten | Algemene kennis | 203,191,437 boeken! | Bovenbalk: Altijd zichtbaar