10 h 55 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if every wish you grant yourself takes away a piece of your life?
In Honoré de Balzac’s The Magic Skin, Raphaël de Valentin has good family connections but no money and little reason to live. In a crowded antique shop in Paris, an old dealer offers him a scrap of leather that grants whatever he desires. Each wish makes it smaller—and shortens his life.
An extravagant feast puts the bargain to the test. Around Raphaël, Balzac gathers gamblers, a wealthy countess named Foedora, and Pauline, who cares for him in poverty while he barely notices her. Money, ambition, and love press against a frightening question: how can he live without wanting?
What you’ll discover
- A bargain with teeth Watch a promise of limitless pleasure turn every ordinary wish into a threat.
- Paris in sharp detail Step among gambling tables, crowded curiosities, and lavish feasts where money shapes desire.
- Two contrasting women Meet the admired Foedora and kind Pauline, whose care Raphaël struggles to see.
- A life spent wanting Follow a harsh moral puzzle that makes pleasure and survival pull against each other.
- Fantasy meets close observation Discover how Balzac places a supernatural threat within the concrete habits of Parisian life.
Is it for you?
This book suits readers who like a story with a fable at its heart, and who enjoy old Paris, moral puzzles and Balzac's close eye for money and ambition. If you want a fast, light plot, its long speeches and detours may feel heavy.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A last coin lost at the tables
- An antique shop offers a dangerous bargain
- The first wish is granted, and the skin shrinks
- Raphaël tells his friend how he fell
- Wanting and living cannot both be spent
- A fable told in the voice of a realist
Who’s who
- Raphaël de ValentinA proud, ruined young nobleman and would-be writer who takes the magic skin and must learn what his wishes cost.
- The antique dealerA very old shopkeeper who owns the skin and explains its terms, seeming to know exactly what Raphaël needs to hear.
- ÉmileA journalist and old friend who brings Raphaël to a banquet and listens to the long story of his past.
- FoedoraA beautiful, wealthy countess, admired throughout Paris and thought to have no heart, who becomes Raphaël's great obsession.
- PaulineThe kind young daughter of Raphaël's landlady, who cares for him in his poverty while he hardly notices her.
- JonathanRaphaël's devoted old servant, who helps run a strict household meant to shield his master from desire.
- TailleferA rich banker who gives the wild banquet where Raphaël first sees the skin begin to shrink.
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- Audiobook
- 10 h 55 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 8 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Language: Français
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
A last coin lost at the tables
The novel opens in Paris in the early years of the 1830s. A young man climbs the stairs of a gambling house in the Palais-Royal, a district of arcades, shops and vice. He is Raphaël de Valentin, and he has one coin left. He leaves his hat with the doorkeeper, as the rules require, and goes in to stake the coin.
Balzac describes the gaming room with a cold, almost comic detail. There are the bored attendants, the silent players and the old men who seem part of the furniture. Raphaël bets his last piece and loses it. Nobody looks at him twice, and the loss means nothing to anyone in the room except him.
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The author
Honoré de Balzac
1799–1850 · French novelist
Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright born in Tours in 1799. He lived and worked in Paris, where he died in 1850. He wrote The Magic Skin in 1831, Eugénie Grandet in 1833, and Father Goriot in 1835. Many of his works belong to La Comédie humaine.
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What is The Magic Skin about?
It is about Raphaël de Valentin, a ruined young man who receives a piece of leather that grants every wish. Each wish shrinks the leather and shortens his life, so he must weigh desire against survival.
What does the magic skin symbolize?
The skin stands for the life energy that every desire uses up. As it shrinks, it makes visible the cost of ambition, pleasure and greed, and it shows that wanting and living draw on the same supply.
When was The Magic Skin written?
Balzac published it in 1831, in Paris. It is a work of fantasy and not a true story, though it paints a detailed picture of the city and its society at that time.
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