The Magic Skin
by Honoré de Balzac 1799–1850
The book, and the century it came out of.
Translated by Ellen Marriage
A ruined young man about to drown himself steps into a curiosity shop and is offered a piece of shagreen that grants every wish — and shrinks with each one, dragging his life in with it. Balzac wrote it at thirty-two and made his name; he worked nights on fifty cups of coffee a day and died at fifty-one, which gives the parable an edge he did not intend. Illustrated with 60 full-page plates — paintings by Bouhot, de Saint-Martin and Lebelle among them.
Toward the end of the month of October 1829 a young man entered the Palais-Royal just as the gaming-houses opened, agreeably to the law which protects a passion by its very nature easily excisable.
The Magic Skin, by Honoré de Balzac, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.
It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.
- Series
- Salon & Steppe
- Format
- Ebook
- Extent
- about 216 pages
- Reading time
- about 4 hours
- Illustrations
- Full-page plates, credited
- Text
- Complete, unabridged
- Translation
- Ellen Marriage
- Language
- en
- This edition
- 2026
- ISBN
- 9785501000094
60 paintings are bound into this edition
Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.
This book in culture: 4 versions
Most people meet a book like this one on a screen first. Here is what was made of it — and none of these is the book.
The whole afterlife of The Magic Skin — screen, stage and beyond →
- 2010 The Skin of Sorrow Alain Berliner TV film
- — Piel de zapa Román Chalbaud TV series
- — Magic Skin Konstantinos Samaras
- — Die tödlichen Wünsche Giselher Klebe dramatico-musical work
A page from this edition
Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.
Both photographed from the finished volume.
The Magic Skin, first published 1831, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Salon & Steppe shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.
Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785501000094, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.
Questions readers ask
- Is this the whole of The Magic Skin?
- Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
- What exactly did you change?
- The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Honoré de Balzac's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
- Are the pictures really in the book?
- Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
- How long is it?
- About 216 pages, which is roughly about 4 hours of reading.
- What do I actually get?
- An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
