Literary parallels in the images of heroes. Shagreen skin Shagreen skin meaning

In 1831 G.B. published “Shagreen Skin” which, according to him, was supposed to formulate the present century, our life, our selfishness. Philosophical formulas are revealed in the novel using the example of the fate of the main character Raphael de Valentin, who is faced with the dilemma of “willing” and “being able.” Infected by the disease of time, Raphael, who initially chose the thorny path of a scientist-worker, abandons it in the name of brilliance and luxury. Having suffered a complete fiasco in his ambitious aspirations, rejected by the woman with whom he was infatuated, deprived of basic means of subsistence, the hero was ready to commit suicide. It is at this moment that life brings him together with a mysterious old man, an antique dealer, who hands Raphael an all-powerful talisman - shagreen leather, for the owner of which the ability and desire are united. However, the price for all instantly fulfilled desires is life, which decreases along with an unstoppably shrinking piece of shagreen skin. There is only one way to get out of this magic circle - by suppressing all your desires.

This reveals two systems, two types of being: 1) life, full of aspirations and passions that kill a person with their excessiveness.

2) and ascetic life, the only satisfaction of which is passive omniscience and potential omnipotence.

If the reasoning of the old antiquarian contains a philosophical justification and acceptance of the second type of being, then the apology of the first is the passionate monologue of the courtesan Aquilina (in the orgy scene at Taillefer). By allowing both sides to speak, B. reveals both the weaknesses and the strengths of both paths over the course of the novel. Embodied in real life by a hero, who first almost destroyed himself in a stream of passions, and then slowly dies in an existence devoid of any emotions.

Raphael could have done everything, but he did nothing. The reason for this is the hero's egoism. Having wished to have millions and received them, Raphael, once obsessed with great plans and noble aspirations, is instantly transformed. He is consumed by a deeply selfish thought.

With the story of Raphael in Balzac's work, one of the central themes is established - the theme of a talented but poor young man who loses the illusions of youth in a collision with a soulless society of nobles. Also outlined here are such themes as: “arrogant wealth turning into crime” (Taifer), “the splendor and poverty of courtesans” (the fate of Akalina) and others.

The novel outlines many types that will later be developed by the writer: notaries looking for new clients; soulless aristocrats; scientists, doctors, village workers...

Already in the Shk the features of Balzac's fiction are determined. All events in the novel are strictly motivated by a coincidence of circumstances (having just wished for an orgy, Rafael receives it from the tayfer; at the feast, the hero accidentally meets with a notary, who has been looking for him for two weeks to hand over his inheritance).

The French word Le chagrin itself can be translated as “shagreen,” but it has a homonym almost known to Balzac: Le chagrin – “sadness, grief.” And this is important: the fantastic, all-powerful shagreen skin, having given the hero relief from poverty, was in fact the cause of even greater grief. It destroyed the desire to enjoy life, a person’s feelings, leaving him only selfishness, generated to prolong his life slipping through his fingers as long as possible, and, finally, its owner himself.

Thus, behind the allegories of Balzac’s philosophical novel there was hidden a deep realistic generalization.

Compositionally The novel “Shagreen Skin” is divided into three equal parts. Each of them is a constituent element of one large work and, at the same time, acts as an independent, complete story. In "The Talisman" the plot of the entire novel is outlined and at the same time a story is given about the miraculous escape from death of Raphael de Valentin. “A Woman Without a Heart” reveals the conflict of the work and tells the story of unrequited love and the same hero’s attempt to take his place in society. The title of the third part of the novel, “Agony,” speaks for itself: it is both a climax and a denouement, and a touching story about unhappy lovers separated by evil chance and death.

Genre originality The novel “Shagreen Skin” consists of the peculiarities of the construction of its three parts. “The Talisman” combines the features of realism and fantasy, being, in fact, a dark romantic fairy tale in the Hoffmannian style. In the first part of the novel, themes of life and death, gambling (for money), art, love, and freedom are raised. “A Woman Without a Heart” is an exceptionally realistic narrative, imbued with a special, Balzacian psychologism. Here we are talking about true and false - feelings, literary creativity, life. “Agony” is a classic tragedy in which there is a place for strong feelings, all-consuming happiness, and endless grief, ending in death in the arms of a beautiful beloved.

The epilogue of the novel draws a line under the two main female images of the work: the pure, gentle, sublime, sincerely loving Polina, symbolically dissolved in the beauty of the world around us, and the cruel, cold, selfish Theodora, who is a generalized symbol of a soulless and calculating society.

History of creation

Balzac called this novel the “starting point” of his creative path.

Main characters

• Raphael de Valentin, young man.
• Emil, his friend.
• Pauline, daughter of Madame Godin.
• Countess Theodora, a secular woman.
• Rastignac, a young man who is Emile's friend.
• The owner of the antiquities shop.
• Taillefer, newspaper owner.
• Cardo, lawyer.
• Aquilina, courtesan.
• Euphrasinya, courtesan.
• Madame Gaudin, a ruined baroness.
• Jonathan, Raphael's old servant.
• Fino, publisher.
• Mister Porique, Raphael's former teacher.
• Mister Lavril, naturalist.
• Mister Tablet, mechanic.
• Spiggalter, mechanic.
• Baron Jafe, chemist.
• Horace Bianchon, a young doctor and friend of Raphael.
• Brisset, doctor.
• Cameristus, doctor.
• Mogredi, doctor.

Composition and plot

The novel consists of three chapters and an epilogue:

Mascot

The young man, Raphael de Valentin, is poor. Education brought him nothing. He wants to drown himself and, to pass the time until nightfall, he goes into an antiquities shop, where the old owner shows him an amazing talisman - shagreen leather. On the reverse side of the talisman there are signs in Sanskrit.; translation reads:

Possessing me, you will possess everything, but your life will belong to me. God wants it that way. Wish and your wishes will be fulfilled. However, balance your desires with your life. She is here. With every wish, I will decrease, as if your days. Do you want to own me? Take it. God will hear you. Let it be so!

Thus, any wish of Raphael will come true, but for this his life will also be shortened. Raphael agrees and plans to organize a bacchanalia.

He leaves the shop and meets friends. One of them, journalist Emil, calls on Raphael to head a wealthy newspaper and reports that he has been invited to a celebration of its establishment. Raphael sees this only as a coincidence, but not as a miracle. The feast truly fulfills all his desires. He admits to Emil that a few hours ago he was ready to throw himself into the Seine. Emil asks Rafael about what made him decide to commit suicide.

Woman without a heart

Rafael tells the story of his life.

He decides to live a quiet life in the attic of a miserable hotel in a remote quarter of Paris. The owner of the hotel, Madame Godin, in Russia, while crossing the Berezina, her baron husband went missing. She believes that someday he will return, fabulously rich. Polina, her daughter, falls in love with Rafael, but he has no idea about it. He completely devotes his life to working on two things: a comedy and a scientific treatise “The Theory of the Will”.

One day he meets young Rastignac on the street. He offers him a way to quickly get rich through marriage. There is one woman in the world - Theodora - fabulously beautiful and rich. But she doesn’t love anyone and doesn’t even want to hear about marriage. Rafael falls in love and begins to spend all his money on courtship. Theodora does not suspect his poverty. Rastignac introduces Raphael to Fino, a man who offers to write a forged memoir for his grandmother, offering a lot of money. Rafael agrees. He begins to lead a broken life: he leaves the hotel, rents and furnishes a house; every day he is in society... but he still loves Theodora. Deeply in debt, he goes to the gambling house where Rastignac was once lucky enough to win 27,000 francs, loses the last Napoleon and wants to drown himself.

This is where the story ends.

Raphael remembers the shagreen leather in his pocket. As a joke, to prove his power to Emil, he asks for six million francs. At the same time, he takes measurements - puts the skin on a napkin and traces the edges with ink. Everyone falls asleep. The next morning, the lawyer Cardo comes and announces that Raphael’s rich uncle, who had no other heirs, died in Calcutta. Raphael jumps up and checks his skin with the napkin. The skin shrank! He's terrified. Emil states that Raphael can make any wish come true. Everyone makes requests half seriously, half jokingly. Rafael doesn't listen to anyone. He is rich, but at the same time almost dead. The talisman works!

Agony

Beginning of December. Rafael lives in a luxurious house. Everything is arranged so that no words are spoken. Wish, Want etc. On the wall in front of him there is always a framed piece of shagreen, outlined in ink.

A former teacher, Mr. Porique, comes to Rafael, an influential man. He asks to secure a position for him as an inspector at a provincial college. Rafael accidentally says in a conversation: “I sincerely wish...”. The skin tightens and he screams furiously at Porika; his life hangs by a thread.

He goes to the theater and meets Polina there. She is rich - her father has returned, and with a large fortune. They meet in Madame Godin's former hotel, in that same old attic. Rafael is in love. Polina admits that she has always loved him. They decide to get married. Arriving home, Rafael finds a way to deal with the shagreen: he throws the skin into the well.

April. Rafael and Polina live together. One morning a gardener comes, having caught shagreen from the well. She became very small. Rafael is in despair. He goes to see the learned men, but everything is useless: the naturalist Lavril gives him a whole lecture on the origin of donkey skin, but he can’t stretch it; mechanic Tablet puts it in a hydraulic press, which breaks; the chemist Baron Jafe cannot break it down with any substances.

Polina notices signs of consumption in Rafael. He calls Horace Bianchon, his friend, a young doctor, who convenes a consultation. Each doctor expresses his own scientific theory, they all unanimously advise going to the water, placing leeches on your stomach and breathing fresh air. However, they cannot determine the cause of his illness. Raphael leaves for Aix, where he is treated poorly. They avoid him and declare almost to his face that “since a person is so sick, he should not go to the water.” A confrontation with the cruelty of secular treatment led to a duel with one of the brave brave men. Raphael killed his opponent, and the skin shrank again. Convinced that he is dying, he returns to Paris, where he continues to hide from Polina, putting himself into a state of artificial sleep in order to last longer, but she finds him. Burnt with desires at the sight of her, he dies.

Epilogue

In the epilogue, Balzac makes it clear that he does not want to describe Polina’s further earthly path. In a symbolic description, he calls her either a flower blooming in a flame, or an angel coming in a dream, or the ghost of a Lady, depicted by Antoine de la Salle. This ghost seems to want to protect his country from the invasion of modernity. Speaking about Theodora, Balzac notes that she is everywhere, as she personifies secular society.

Screen adaptations and productions

• Shagreen skin () - teleplay by Pavel Reznikov.
• Shagreen skin () - short film by Igor Apasyan
• Shagreen Bone () is a short pseudo-documentary feature film by Igor Bezrukov.
• Shagreen Skin (La peau de chagrin) () - a feature film based on the novel by Honoré de Balzac, directed by Berliner Alain.
• Shagreen skin () - radio play by Arkady Abakumov.

Notes

Links

• Shagreen leather in the library of Maxim Moshkov
• Boris Griftsov - translator of the novel into Russian

Wikimedia Foundation.

2010.

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French novelist, considered the father of the naturalistic novel. Honore de Balzac was born on May 20, 1799 in the city of Tours (France). Honore de Balzac's father, Bernard François Balssa (some sources indicate Vals's surname), is a peasant who became rich during the revolution by buying and selling confiscated noble lands, and later became an assistant to the mayor of Tours. Having entered the service in the military supply department and finding himself among officials, he changed his “native” surname, considering it plebeian. At the turn of the 1830s. Honore, in turn, also modified his surname, arbitrarily adding the noble particle “de” to it, justifying this with the fiction of his origins from the noble family of Balzac d’Entregues.

In 1807-1813, Honore studied at the college of Vendôme; in 1816-1819 - at the Paris School of Law, while serving as a clerk in a notary's office. The father sought to prepare his son for lawyering, but Honoré decided to become a poet. At the family council, it was decided to give him two years to fulfill his dream. Honore de Balzac writes the drama “Cromwell,” but the newly convened family council recognizes the work as worthless and the young man is denied financial assistance. This was followed by a period of material adversity. Balzac's literary career began around 1820, when he began publishing action-packed novels under various pseudonyms and composing morally descriptive “codes” of secular behavior. Later, some of the first novels were published under the pseudonym Horace de Saint-Aubin. The period of anonymous creativity ended in 1829 after the publication of the novel “Chouans, or Brittany in 1799.” Honore de Balzac called the novel “Shagreen Skin” (1830) the “starting point” of his work. Since 1830, short stories from modern French life began to be published under the general title “Scenes of Private Life.” Honoré de Balzac considered Moliere, Francois Rabelais and Walter Scott to be his main literary teachers. Twice the novelist tried to make a political career, nominating his candidacy for the Chamber of Deputies in 1832 and 1848, but failed both times. In January 1849, he also failed in the elections to the French Academy.

Balzac's main creation is The Human Comedy. It unites all the works of the mature stage of his work, everything he wrote after 1830. The idea of ​​combining his separately published novels, stories, and short stories into a single cycle of works first arose from Balzac in 1833, and initially he planned to call the gigantic work “Social Studies” - a title emphasizing the similarity of the principles of Balzac as an artist with the methodology of science of his time. However, by 1839 he settled on a different title - “Human Comedy”, which expresses both the author’s attitude towards the mores of his century, and the literary audacity of Balzac, who dreamed that his work would become for modern times what Dante’s “Divine Comedy” was for Middle Ages. In 1842, the “Preface to the Human Comedy” was written, in which Balzac outlined his creative principles and described the ideas underlying the compositional structure and figurative typification of the Human Comedy. The author's catalog and final plan date back to 1844, which contains the titles of 144 works; Of these, Balzac managed to write 96. This is the largest work of literature of the 19th century, which for a long time, especially in Marxist criticism, became the standard of literary creativity. The gigantic edifice of the “Human Comedy” is cemented by the personality of the author and the unity of style determined by it, the system of transitional characters invented by Balzac and the unity of the problematics of his works.

In 1832, Balzac began corresponding with the Polish aristocrat E. Hanska, who lived in Russia. In 1843, the writer went to visit her in St. Petersburg, and in 1847 and 1848 - to Ukraine. The official marriage with E. Ganskaya was concluded 5 months before the death of Honore de Balzac, who died on August 18, 1850 in Paris. In 1858, the writer’s sister, Madame Surville, wrote his biography - “Balzac, sa vie et ses oеuvres d"apres sa correspondance.” The authors of biographical books about Balzac were Stefan Zweig (“Balzac”), Andre Maurois (“Prometheus, or the Life of Balzac"), Wurmser ("Inhuman Comedy") Balzac shagreen leather novel).

“Shagreen Skin” is a work of extraordinary depth. Many researchers are attracted by the sharpness of its problems, unusual aesthetics, and innovative methods of the author against the backdrop of the literature of the era. Each of the novel's many aspects holds great potential and suggests different points of view. Balzac himself gives hints in which directions the scientist’s thought might move. In his notes, he gave the following definitions of the novel: “philosophical study”, “oriental fairy tale”, “system”.

The novel is, of course, a “synthetic” work. In it we will see the vicissitudes of an individual’s life, a stage in the development of society, a historical era, a philosophical idea and an entire ideological system. Each of these meanings deserves detailed study, and together they give an idea of ​​the scale of the novel and Balzac’s work in general.

This work is devoted to the most interesting aspects of the work, and also pays attention to Balzac’s artistic synthesis. The purpose of the work is to familiarize yourself with the various semantic facets of the novel, with the existing points of view of literary scholars and critics.

The novel Shagreen Skin (1831) is based on the conflict of a young man's encounter with his time. Since this novel belongs to the section of the “Human Comedy” called “Philosophical Studies”, this conflict is resolved here in the most abstract, abstract form, moreover, in this novel the connection of early realism with the previous literature of romanticism is more clearly demonstrated than in Stendhal’s. This is one of Balzac's most colorful novels, with a dynamic, whimsical composition, a flowery, descriptive style, and a fantasy that excites the imagination.

The idea of ​​“Shagreen Skin,” as will be the case with many of Balzac’s works, went through several stages. According to a contemporary, Balzac initially wanted to write a short story in which the idea of ​​the power of the psyche over the vital forces should have been expressed differently. The properties of the talisman, according to this plan, were assumed to be an invention of the antiquarian; the hero believed the gross deception and died only from horror in front of his imaginary ruler. It is clearly visible how far the author was from mysticism - and this feature of the plan has been fully preserved. This plan did not promise much artistic depth, and a major shift occurred. Balzac announced a metamorphosis of the plot: the talisman would be “real.” Science fiction left the basis of the plan intact - the idea of ​​an inextricable connection between the physical and spiritual principles, but complicated it: a contrast between two types of life, “economical” and “wasteful”, appeared, the idea of ​​​​switching energy from passions to “pure” contemplation and knowledge.

In Balzac’s workbook “Shagreen Skin” several entries are dedicated: “Skin was invented that personifies life. Eastern fairy tale." “Shagreen skin. An expression of human life as such, its mechanics. At the same time, the personality is described and assessed, but poetically.”

The creative history of the novel lies between two milestones: from the “oriental fairy tale” to the “formula of the present century.” The old meaning was synthesized with the burning modernity.

“Shagreen Skin” was written hot on the heels of the July Revolution of 1830, and the time of action in the novel almost coincides with the time of writing. The novel is replete with signs of those years. To depict this time with its spiritual atmosphere meant to portray the discontent and deep disappointment that dominated the minds. “The disease of the century” is lack of faith and longing for integrity, for meaningfulness, involuntary egoism. Longing for an ideal, young people of the century asked the question in different ways: “Oh world, what have you done to me to cause such hatred? What high hopes have you disappointed? All these sentiments were embodied in the novel.

The main character of "Shagreen Skin" is Raphael de Valentin. The reader gets to know him at the moment when he, exhausted by humiliating poverty, is ready to commit suicide by throwing himself into the cold waters of the Seine. On the verge of suicide, chance stops him. In the shop of an old antique dealer, he becomes the owner of a magical talisman - shagreen leather, which fulfills all the wishes of the owner. However, as wishes are fulfilled, the talisman decreases in size, and with it the owner’s life shortens. Raphael has nothing to lose - he accepts the antiquarian's gift, not really believing in the magic of the talisman, and begins to waste his life in the desires of all the pleasures of his youth. When he realizes that the shagreen skin is actually shrinking, he forbids himself to desire anything at all, but late - at the height of wealth, when he is passionately loved, and without the shagreen skin, charming Polina, he dies in the arms of his beloved . The mystical, fantastic element in the novel emphasizes its connection with the aesthetics of romanticism, but the very nature of the problems and the way they are presented in the novel are characteristic of realistic literature.

Raphael de Valentin is a sophisticated aristocrat by birth and upbringing, but his family lost everything during the revolution, and the action in the novel takes place in 1829, at the end of the Restoration era. Balzac emphasizes that in post-revolutionary French society, ambitious desires naturally arise in a young man, and Raphael is overwhelmed by desires for fame, wealth, and the love of beautiful women. The author does not question the legitimacy and value of all these aspirations, but accepts them as a given; the center of the novel's problems shifts to the philosophical plane: what is the price that a person has to pay for the fulfillment of his desires? The problem of a career is posed in “Shagreen Skin” in the most general form - boiling pride, faith in one’s own destiny, in one’s genius force Raphael to experience two paths to fame. The first is hard work in complete poverty: Raphael proudly tells how for three years he lived on three hundred and sixty-five francs a year, working on the works that were to glorify him. Purely realistic details appear in the novel when Raphael describes his life in a poor attic “for three sous - bread, for two - milk, for three - sausages; you won’t die of hunger, and your spirit is in a state of special clarity.” But passions carry him away from the clear path of a scientist into the abyss: love for the “woman without a heart,” Countess Theodora, who embodies secular society in the novel, pushes Raphael to the gambling table, to insane spending, and the logic of the “hard labor of pleasure” leaves him the last way out - suicide.

The sage antiquarian, handing over the shagreen leather to Raphael, explains to him that from now on his life is only a delayed suicide. The hero has to comprehend the relationship between two verbs that govern not just human careers, but the entire human life. These are the verbs to desire and to be able: “To desire burns us, and to be able destroys us, but to know gives our weak body the opportunity to forever remain in a calm state.” This is the symbolism of the talisman - in shagreen skin the ability and desire are united, but for its power there is the only possible price - human life.

The main character is the embodiment of Balzac's ideas about the high mission of the artist-creator, combining in himself a “true scientist”, endowed with “the ability to compare and reflect,” who considers it natural to “enter the field of fine literature.”

Balzac called his novel “philosophical.” “Shagreen skin represents a new quality of the genre. It combines the artistic techniques of a philosophical story of the 18th century with the breadth and ambiguity of symbolic images and episodes. Balzac implemented in the novel the idea of ​​freedom from genre restrictions. This novel was an epic, a history, and a pathetic satire; it was a “philosophical study” and a “fairy tale.”

Balzac himself called this novel, later referred to as “philosophical studies,” “the beginning of my whole business.” In it, in the form of a parable, something that would later be developed realistically in dozens of novels was put into the form of a parable. The form of a parable does not change the fact that this work provides a condensed picture of real life, full of contrasts and seething passions. Raphael receives a talisman that grants wishes at the cost of his life. “To desire” and “to be able” - between these two words, according to the mysterious antiquarian, is all human life. A young man finds himself at a crossroads and must choose a path. Gaining a position in society means selling your own soul. This is one of many cases when Balzac's artistic generalization rises to the level of myth. A true myth is an image, a situation that is deeply meaningful and has great universal significance. In myth, the eternal and the historical are merged as the general and the specific.

Shagreen leather. “Symbol” for Balzac is a broad concept, one of the central and most stable in his aesthetics. He also refers to his own types or those created by other artists as symbols.

The talisman, created by the imagination of Balzac, has become a widespread symbol and has the widest appeal. It is constantly found in various contexts, in speech and literature, as a generally understood image of necessity and inexorable objective law. What exactly does the talisman represent in the novel? The symbol is far from unambiguous, and many very different answers have been given to this question. Thus, F. Berto sees in shagreen skin only the embodiment of consumption devouring Raphael, turning the symbolism of the novel into a fable-type allegory; B. Guyon is a symbol of the fundamental depravity and immorality of civilization, of any social system. M. Shaginyan and B. Raskin connect the power of the skin with “things,” the power of things over people. I. Lileeva highlights the following idea in the novel: “The image of shagreen skin provides a generalization of bourgeois life, subordinated only to the pursuit of wealth and pleasure, a generalization of the power of money, the terrible power of this world, which devastates and cripples the human personality.” Most of the proposed solutions are not mutually exclusive and find their basis in the text of the novel, which, thanks to its artistic richness, naturally lends itself to many interpretations. All decisions have one common premise: shagreen skin is a symbol of the immutability of objective law, against which any subjective protest of the individual is powerless. But what kind of law is this according to the author’s intention? What did Balzac see as the problematic axis of his novel? There is an Arabic inscription on the shagreen, the meaning of which is explained by the antiquarian: “All forms of two reasons come down to two verbs, to desire and to be able... to desire burns us, and to be able destroys us.” Longevity is achieved by a vegetative or contemplative existence, excluding exhausting passions and actions. The more intensely a person lives, the faster he burns out. Such a dilemma leaves a choice, and this choice between opposing decisions determines the essence of a person.

A game. Raphael's visit to the gambling house and losing his last gold is an image of extreme despair caused by poverty and loneliness. The gambling house in all its squalor is a place where “blood flows in streams,” but is invisible to the eye. The word “game” is highlighted twice in the text in large font: the image of the game symbolizes the reckless wastefulness of a person in excitement, in passion. This is how the old wardrobe keeper lives, losing all his earnings on the day he receives them; such is the young Italian player, from whose face one could smell “gold and fire”; so is Raphael. In the acute excitement of the game, life flows out like blood through a wound. The hero’s state after the loss is conveyed by the question: “Wasn’t he drunk with life, or perhaps with death?” - a question that is in many ways key to the novel, in which life and death are constantly and acutely correlated with each other.

Antique shop. The antique store stands in opposition to the roulette scene as a symbolic representation of a different way of life. On the other hand, the shop is a hyperbolic collection of values; in the museum world, opposites collide, contrasts of civilizations are outlined. Raphael’s thought, while inspecting the shop, seems to follow the development of mankind; he turns to entire countries, centuries, kingdoms. The shop fully reflects the mutual influence of verbal and visual art. One of the symbolic meanings is that the shop represents a condensed image of world life of all ages and in all its forms. The antique store is also called “a kind of philosophical garbage dump”, “a vast marketplace of human follies.” The law inscribed on the skin must appear as substantiated by the experience of centuries, therefore an antiquarian shop is a worthy environment for a talisman.

Orgy. The next of the main symbolic scenes of the novel is the banquet on the occasion of the founding of the newspaper. An antique shop is the past of humanity, an orgy is living modernity, which poses the same dilemma to a person in an aggravated form. Orgy - the fulfillment of Raphael's first requirement for a talisman. In the romantic literature of the thirties, descriptions of feasts and revelries were common. In Balzac's novel, the orgy scene has many functions in his "analysis of the ills of society." An excess of luxury expresses a reckless waste of vitality in sensual passions and pleasures. The orgy is a show of skepticism of the era in the main issues of social and spiritual life - in a “mass stage”, where the characters of the interlocutors are clearly depicted in remarks and the author’s remarks. Balzac mastered the art of creating an image with the help of one or two lines, one gesture.

In the complaints of disappointed “children of the century” about unbelief and inner emptiness, the main place is occupied by the destruction of religious feeling, disbelief in love; unbelief in other questions of existence seems to be a derivative of this main thing.

The revelry also has its own poetry; Raphael puts into his mouth a unique experience of explaining it, almost a panegyric. Revelry attracts, like all abysses, it flatters human pride, it is a challenge to God. But, having depicted the intoxication of the senses in its seductiveness, Balzac will also paint the morning in a merciless light. This is the author's usual method - to show both sides of the coin.

The fantastic image of shagreen skin, a symbol of diminishing life, combined generalization with the possibilities of an entertaining story. Balzac veils the fantasy, depicting the fantastic action of the talisman, leaving room for a possible natural explanation of the events. The fantastic is presented in such a way as not to exclude the substitution of the natural. The second path is truly original: Balzac brought together and correlated the fantasy theme with the scientific one, imbued fantasy with the spirit of science, moving it onto new tracks. Whenever fantasy appears in action, the break from the probable occurs gently. The author achieves the impression of naturalness by various means. For Balzac, the miraculous, equal to the inexplicable, is truly impossible and unthinkable, hence the realistic motivations. His workbook says: “There is nothing fantastic. We imagine only what is, will be or was.”

The artistic symbolism of the novel diverges from tradition and is full of surprises. A pact with diabolical power is a fairly common motif in pre-romantic and romantic literature, but there is no religious feeling in the novel, the pact is irreversible, the talisman is inalienable. While the skin exists outside of the contract, it is neutral, but once connected to the owner, it comes to life.

Balzac's fiction develops in a different sphere than, for example, Hoffmann's fiction. The highest manifestations of life destroy it most of all, bringing it closer to death. This is hidden in everyday life. For Balzac, the truth is obvious that “the negation of life is essentially contained in life itself.” His fiction is like the accelerated scrolling of a film, “compressing” time and making obvious a process that, due to its slowness, is invisible to the eye.

Fantastic symbolism best suited the goal that Balzac set in this novel. And here fantasy is one of the means in his artistic arsenal.

Literature

1. Brahman, S.R. Balzac//History of foreign literature of the 19th century. -M., 1982. - P. 190-207.

2. Griftsov, B. The genius of Balzac // Questions of literature. - 2002. -№3. - P.122-131.

3. Reznik, R. How we see Balzac // Questions of literature. - 1990. -№6. - P.242-250.

4. Reznik, R.A. Balzac's novel "Shagreen Skin". - Saratov, 1971.

5. Elzarova, G.M. “Fantastic” works of Balzac // Bulletin of the Leningrad University. Series 2. - 1986. - Issue 1. - P. 180-110.

« Shagren skin"(French La Peau de Chagrin), 1830-1831) - novel by Honoré de Balzac. Dedicated to the problem of the collision of an inexperienced person with a society infested with vices.

A deal with the devil - this question has interested more than one writer and not one of them has already answered it. What if everything can be turned around so that you end up winning? What if Fate smiles on you this time? What if you become the only one who manages to outwit the forces of evil?.. So thought the hero of the novel “Shagreen Skin”.

The novel consists of three chapters and an epilogue:

Mascot

The young man, Raphael de Valentin, is poor. Education has given him little; he is unable to provide for himself. He wants to commit suicide, and, waiting for the right moment (he decides to die at night, throwing himself from a bridge into the Seine), he enters an antiquities shop, where the old owner shows him an amazing talisman - shagreen leather. On the back of the talisman there are embossed signs in “Sanskrit” (in fact, it is an Arabic text, but in the original and in the translations it is Sanskrit that is mentioned); translation reads:

Possessing me, you will possess everything, but your life will belong to me. God wants it that way. Wish and your wishes will be fulfilled. However, balance your desires with your life. She is here. With every wish, I will decrease, as if your days. Do you want to own me? Take it. God will hear you. Let it be so!

A woman without a heart

Rafael tells the story of his life.

The hero was brought up in strictness. His father was a nobleman from the south of France. At the end of the reign of Louis XVI he came to Paris, where he quickly made his fortune. The revolution ruined him. However, during the Empire he again achieved fame and fortune thanks to his wife's dowry. The fall of Napoleon was a tragedy for him, because he was buying up lands on the border of the empire, which were now transferred to other countries. A long trial, in which he also involved his son, a future doctor of law, ended in 1825, when M. de Villele “unearthed” the imperial decree on the loss of rights. Ten months later, the father died. Raphael sold all his property and was left with 1120 francs.

He decides to live a quiet life in the attic of a miserable hotel in a remote quarter of Paris. The owner of the hotel, Madame Godin, has a baron husband who has gone missing in India. She believes that someday he will return, fabulously rich. Polina, her daughter, falls in love with Rafael, but he has no idea about it. He completely devotes his life to working on two things: a comedy and a scientific treatise “The Theory of the Will”.

One day he meets young Rastignac on the street. He offers him a way to quickly get rich through marriage. There is one woman in the world - Theodora - fabulously beautiful and rich. But she doesn’t love anyone and doesn’t even want to hear about marriage. Rafael falls in love and begins to spend all his money on courtship. Theodora does not suspect his poverty. Rastignac introduces Raphael to Fino, a man who offers to write a forged memoir for his grandmother, offering a lot of money. Rafael agrees. He begins to lead a broken life: he leaves the hotel, rents and furnishes a house; every day he is in society... but he still loves Theodora. Deeply in debt, he goes to the gambling house where Rastignac was once lucky enough to win 27,000 francs, loses the last Napoleon and wants to drown himself.

This is where the story ends.

Raphael remembers the shagreen leather in his pocket. As a joke, to prove his power to Emile, he asks for two hundred thousand francs in income. Along the way, they take measurements - put the skin on a napkin, and Emil traces the edges of the talisman with ink. Everyone falls asleep. The next morning, the lawyer Cardo comes and announces that Raphael’s rich uncle, who had no other heirs, died in Calcutta. Raphael jumps up and checks his skin with the napkin. The skin shrank! He's terrified. Emil states that Raphael can make any wish come true. Everyone makes requests half seriously, half jokingly. Rafael doesn't listen to anyone. He is rich, but at the same time almost dead. The talisman works!

And persecution

Beginning of December. Rafael lives in a luxurious house. Everything is arranged so that no words are spoken. Wish, Want etc. On the wall in front of him there is always a framed piece of shagreen, outlined in ink.

A former teacher, Mr. Porrique, comes to Rafael, an influential man. He asks to secure a position for him as an inspector at a provincial college. Rafael accidentally says in a conversation: “I sincerely wish...”. The skin tightens and he screams furiously at Porika; his life hangs by a thread.

Rafael goes to the theater and meets Polina there. She is rich - her father has returned, and with a large fortune. They meet in Madame Godin's former hotel, in that same old attic. Rafael is in love. Polina admits that she has always loved him. They decide to get married. Arriving home, Rafael finds a way to deal with the shagreen: he throws the skin into the well.

End of February. Rafael and Polina live together. One morning a gardener comes, having caught shagreen from the well. She became very small. Rafael is in despair. He goes to see the learned men, but everything is useless: the naturalist Lavril gives him a whole lecture on the origin of donkey skin, but he can’t stretch it; mechanic Tablet puts it in a hydraulic press, which breaks; the chemist Baron Jafe cannot break it down with any substances.

Polina notices signs of consumption in Rafael. He calls Horace Bianchon, his friend, a young doctor, who convenes a consultation. Each doctor expresses his own scientific theory, they all unanimously advise going to the water, placing leeches on your stomach and breathing fresh air. However, they cannot determine the cause of his illness. Raphael leaves for Aix, where he is treated poorly. They avoid him and declare almost to his face that “since a person is so sick, he should not go to the water.” A confrontation with the cruelty of secular treatment led to a duel with one of the brave brave men. Raphael killed his opponent, and the skin shrank again. Convinced that he is dying, he returns to Paris, where he continues to hide from Polina, putting himself into a state of artificial sleep in order to last longer, but she finds him. When he sees her, he lights up with desire and rushes at her. The girl runs away in horror, and Rafael finds Polina half-naked - she scratched her chest and tried to strangle herself with a shawl. The girl thought that if she died, she would leave her lover alive. The life of the main character is cut short.

E pilog

In the epilogue, Balzac makes it clear that he does not want to describe Polina’s further earthly path. In a symbolic description, he calls her either a flower blooming in a flame, or an angel coming in a dream, or the ghost of a Lady, depicted by Antoine de la Salle. This ghost seems to want to protect his country from the invasion of modernity. Speaking about Theodora, Balzac notes that she is everywhere, as she personifies secular society.

Honore de Balzac. Shagreen skin - summary updated: December 20, 2016 by: website