Shagreen leather read brief. Honoré balzac - pebbled leather

Honore de Balzac

Shagreen leather

Mr. Savary, Member of the Academy of Sciences


I. TALISMAN

At the end of October, 1829, a young man entered the Palais-Royal, just in time for gambling houses to open, according to a law protecting the rights of a passion subject to tax by its very nature. Without hesitation, he climbed the stairs of the brothel, which had the number "36" on it.

Would you like to hand over your hat? - a deadly pale old man shouted to him sternly, who perched somewhere in the shade behind the barrier, and then suddenly got up and exposed his vile physiognomy.

When you enter a gambling house, the first thing the law takes is your hat. Perhaps this is a kind of gospel parable, a warning sent down from heaven, or, rather, a special kind of hellish contract that requires some kind of pledge from us? Perhaps they want to make you respect those who beat you? Perhaps the police, penetrating all public sewers, want to know the name of your hatter, or your own, if you wrote it on the lining of your hat? Or maybe, finally, they intend to take a measurement from your skull, so that later they can compile instructive statistical tables of the mental abilities of the players? On this score, the administration remains completely silent. But keep in mind that as soon as you take the first step towards the green field, the hat no longer belongs to you, just as you do not belong to yourself: you are in the power of the game and you yourself and your wealth, and your hat and cane and cloak. And when you exit, the game returns to you what you deposited - that is, with a murderous, materialized epigram, it will prove to you that it still leaves you something. However, if you have a new hat, then the lesson, the point of which is that the player should get a special costume, will cost you a pretty penny.

The puzzled look on the young man's face when he received a number in exchange for a hat, the brim of which, fortunately, was slightly worn, indicated his inexperience; the old man, probably from a young age immersed in the ebullient pleasures of excitement, gave him a dull, indifferent look, in which the philosopher would have distinguished the squalor of the hospital, the wanderings of bankrupts, the string of drowned men, the indefinite penal servitude, the exile to Guasacoalco.

His drunken and bloodless face, testifying to the fact that he now eats exclusively gelatinous Darce soups, was a pale image of passion, simplified to the limit. Deep wrinkles spoke of constant torment; he must have lost all his meager earnings on pay day. Like those nags that are no longer affected by the blows of the whip, he would not flinch under any circumstances, he remained insensible to the muffled groans of the losers, to their mute curses, to their dull looks. It was the epitome of the game. If a young man had looked at this dull Cerberus, perhaps he would have thought: “There is nothing but a deck of cards in his heart! “But he did not listen to this personified advice, set here, of course, by Providence itself, just as it also communicates something disgusting to the hallway of any brothel. With resolute steps he entered the hall, where the ringing of gold bewitched and blinded the soul, embraced by greed. Probably, the young man was pushed here by the most logical of all the eloquent phrases of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the sad meaning of which, I think, is this: “Yes, I admit that a person can go to play, but only when between himself and death

The philosophical story "Shagreen Skin" is familiar to us from the school bench. Its author, Honore Balzac, believed that this work revealed the formula for the existence of a society of France contemporary to the writer. The work reflects the system of values ​​and relations in society, reveals the egoism of an individual. The genius of realism, Balzac, resorted to mythology and symbolism to make the reader think: what is the true meaning of life.

Name

The word le chagrin used in the title has two meanings. This ambiguity was played by the author. Le chagrin is translated as "shagreen" or shagreen leather, and in another sense it is grief and sadness.

And indeed, a fantastic and omnipotent object gave the protagonist imaginary happiness, saving him from the bonds of poverty. However, in reality, he caused even more trouble for him. This skin deprived the character of the ability to create, deprived of a sense of compassion and the ability to enjoy life. As a result, she completely destroyed the spiritual world of her owner. It is no coincidence that the wealthy banker Taifer killed a man. It is no coincidence that he scoffs at the postulates of the Magna Carta: the French are not equal before the law, there are people who subordinate the law to themselves.

"Shagreen leather": analysis of the work

Balzac in his work depicted the life of the country in the 19th century with a great degree of accuracy. The fantastic rebirth of Raphael exposes the reader to the life of a man who has become a hostage to wealth. In fact, he has become an automaton, an insensitive robot whose only goal is profit. Philosophical fiction combined with realism gives the story a special flavor. Putting on the character what is referred to in the work as "shagreen skin", Balzac describes the condition and physical suffering of a tuberculosis patient. They are so real that the skin goes cold when you read these lines.

Characters

The story “Shagreen Skin”, the summary of which cannot convey the atmosphere of the era, delights and captures. To enhance the contrast, Honore uses two female images that are radically different from each other. On the one hand, this is Polina, the embodiment of selfless love and kindness. And on the other - Theodora, distinguished by callousness, narcissism, ambition, vanity, experiencing deadly boredom. These are precisely the qualities possessed by the representatives of a society that worships the world of money, a society in which there is no place for a loving human heart. An important figure in the story is the antiquarian who revealed to Raphael the secret of human life. Critics believe that Balzac himself, who wanted to convey his personal thoughts to us, addresses the reader with his words.

Conclusion

Shagreen leather is a complex story. Behind the fairy-tale plot, a warning is read to all of us. Stop people! Look at yourself. Do you really want to live where there is no place for sincere feelings and real joy, and how can wealth, no matter how huge it may be, replace the meaning of life?

History of creation

Balzac called this novel the "starting point" of his career.

Main characters

• Raphael de Valentine, young man.
• Emil, his friend.
• Pauline, daughter of Madame Godin.
• Countess Theodora, a society woman.
• Rastignac, young man, friend of Émile.
• The owner of the antiquities shop.
• Tyfer, owner of the newspaper.
• Cardo, lawyer.
• Akilina, courtesan.
• Euphrasinia, courtesan.
• Madame Godin, ruined baroness.
• Jonathan, Raphael's old servant.
• Fino, publisher.
• Mister Porique, Raphael's former teacher.
• Monsieur Lavril, naturalist.
• Mr Tablet, mechanic.
• Shpiggalter, mechanic.
• Baron Jafe, chemist.
• Horace Bianchon, young doctor, friend of Raphael.
• Brisset, physician.
• Kameristus, doctor.
• Moghredi, doctor.

Composition and plot

The novel consists of three chapters and an epilogue:

Mascot

The young man, Rafael de Valentin, is poor. Education brought him nothing. He wants to drown himself and, in order to pass the time until night, he enters an antiquities shop, where the old owner shows him an amazing talisman - shagreen leather. On the underside of the talisman, signs in Sanskrit are squeezed out.; the translation reads:

Possessing me, you will possess everything, but your life will belong to me. So please God. Wish - and your desires will be fulfilled. However, measure your desires with your life. She is here. With every desire, I will decrease, like your days. Do you want to own me? Take it. God will hear you. Let it be so!

Thus, any desire of Rafael will be fulfilled, but for this, his life time will also be reduced. Rafael agrees and thinks to arrange an orgy.

He leaves the shop and meets friends. One of them, the journalist Emil, calls on Raphael to head a wealthy newspaper and informs him that he has been invited to the celebration of its establishment. Rafael sees this as a coincidence, but not a miracle. The feast really corresponds to all his desires. He confesses 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 beggarly hotel in a remote quarter of Paris. The hostess of the hotel, Madame Godin, in Russia, while crossing the Berezina, her husband-baron went missing. She believes that someday he will return, fabulously rich. Polina - her daughter - falls in love with Rafael, but he does not know about it. He devotes his entire life to working on two things: comedy and the scientific treatise The Theory of Will.

One day he meets a young Rastignac in 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 does not love anyone and does not even want to hear about marriage. Raphael falls in love, begins to spend all the money on courtship. Theodora is unaware of his poverty. Rastignac introduces Raphael to Fino, a man who offers to write a fake memoir of his grandmother, offering him big money. Raphael agrees. He begins to lead a broken life: he leaves the hotel, rents and furnishes the house; every day he is in society ... but he still loves Theodora. Deep in debt, he goes to a 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 pebbled leather in his pocket. As a joke, to prove his power to Emil, he asks for six million francs. Along the way, he takes measurements - puts the skin on a napkin and circles the edges with ink. Everyone falls asleep. The next morning, the lawyer Cardo comes and announces that Raphael's rich uncle died in Calcutta, who had no other heirs. Raphael jumps up, checking his skin with a napkin. The skin has shrunk! He is horrified. Emil declares that Raphael can grant any wish. All half-serious, half-jokingly make applications. Raphael doesn't listen to anyone. He is rich, but at the same time almost dead. The talisman works!

Agony

Beginning of December. Raphael lives in a luxurious house. Everything is arranged so as not to utter words Wish, Want etc. On the wall in front of him there is always a framed shagreen paper, circled in ink.

To Rafael - an influential person - comes a former teacher, Mr. Porique. He asks to secure for him a position as an inspector at a provincial college. Raphael accidentally says in a conversation: "I sincerely wish ...". Skin tightens, he screams with rage at Porik; his life hangs in the balance.

He goes to the theater and meets Polina there. She is rich - her father has returned, and with a large fortune. They see each other in Madame Godin's former hotel, in the same old attic. Raphael is in love. Polina admits that she has always loved him. They decide to get married. Arriving home, Raphael 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 in the well. She became very small. Rafael is desperate. He goes to the learned men, but everything is useless: the naturalist Lavril reads him a whole lecture on the origin of donkey skin, but he cannot stretch it; the mechanic Tablet puts her in a hydraulic press, which breaks; the chemist Baron Jafe cannot break it down with any substances.

Polina notices Raphael showing signs of consumption. He calls Horace Bianchon - his friend, a young doctor - he convenes a council. Each doctor expresses his scientific theory, they all unanimously advise to go to the waters, put leeches on the stomach and breathe fresh air. However, they cannot determine the cause of his illness. Rafael leaves for Aix, where he is mistreated. He is avoided and almost to his face they say that "since a person is so sick, he should not go to the water." An encounter 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. After making sure 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 stretch it out longer, but she finds him. Burning with desire at the sight of her, he dies.

Epilogue

In the epilogue, Balzac makes it clear that he does not want to describe Pauline's further earthly path. In a symbolic description, he calls her either a flower blooming in flames, or an angel who comes in a dream, or the ghost of the Lady, depicted by Antoine de la Salle. This ghost, as it were, wants to protect his country from the invasion of modernity. Speaking of Theodore, Balzac notes that she is everywhere, as she personifies secular society.

Screen adaptations and productions

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

Notes

Links

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

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .

« Sha green skin "(fr. La Peau de Chagrin), 1830-1831) - a novel by Honore de Balzac. Dedicated to the problem of the collision of an inexperienced person with a society teeming with vices.

A deal with the devil - this question was of interest to more than one writer, and not one of them has already answered it. What if everything can be turned in such a way that you will win? What if this time Fate smiles at you? What if you become the only one who manages to outwit the forces of evil? .. So the hero of the novel “Shagreen Skin” thought.

The novel consists of three chapters and an epilogue:

Mascot

The young man, Rafael de Valentin, is poor. Education has given him little, he is not able to provide for himself. He wants to commit suicide, and, waiting for the right moment (he decides to die at night, throwing himself off the bridge into the Seine), he enters the antiquities shop, where the old owner shows him an amazing talisman - shagreen leather. On the underside of the talisman, signs in “Sanskrit” are squeezed out (in fact, it is an Arabic text, but it is Sanskrit that is mentioned in the original and in translations); the translation reads:

Possessing me, you will possess everything, but your life will belong to me. So please God. Wish - and your desires will be fulfilled. However, measure your desires with your life. She is here. With every desire, I will decrease, like your days. Do you want to own me? Take it. God will hear you. Let it be so!

Woman without a heart

Rafael tells the story of his life.

The hero was brought up in severity. 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 a fortune. The revolution ruined it. 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 bought up land on the border of the empire, which has now gone to other countries. A long lawsuit, in which he dragged his son - the future doctor of law - ended in 1825, when Mr. de Ville "dug out" the imperial decree on the loss of rights. Ten months later, my father died. Rafael sold all his property and was left with an amount of 1120 francs.

He decides to live a quiet life in the attic of a beggarly hotel in a remote quarter of Paris. The hostess of the hotel, Madame Godin, lost her husband, a baron, in India. She believes that someday he will return, fabulously rich. Polina - her daughter - falls in love with Rafael, but he does not know about it. He devotes his entire life to working on two things: comedy and the scientific treatise The Theory of 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 does not love anyone and does not even want to hear about marriage. Raphael falls in love, begins to spend all the money on courtship. Theodora is unaware of his poverty. Rastignac introduces Raphael to Fino, a man who offers to write a fake memoir of his grandmother, offering him big money. Raphael agrees. He begins to lead a broken life: he leaves the hotel, rents and furnishes the house; every day he is in society ... but he still loves Theodora. Deep in debt, he goes to a 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 pebbled leather in his pocket. As a joke, to prove his power to Emil, he asks for two hundred thousand francs of income. Along the way, they take measurements - they put the skin on a napkin, and Emil circles the edges of the talisman with ink. Everyone falls asleep. The next morning, the lawyer Cardo comes and announces that Raphael's rich uncle died in Calcutta, who had no other heirs. Raphael jumps up, checking his skin with a napkin. The skin has shrunk! He is horrified. Emil declares that Raphael can grant any wish. All half-serious, half-jokingly make applications. Raphael doesn't listen to anyone. He is rich, but at the same time almost dead. The talisman works!

A gonia

Beginning of December. Raphael lives in a luxurious house. Everything is arranged so as not to utter words Wish, Want etc. On the wall in front of him there is always a framed shagreen paper, circled in ink.

To Raphael - an influential person - comes a former teacher, Mr. Porrique. He asks to secure for him a position as an inspector at a provincial college. Raphael accidentally says in a conversation: "I sincerely wish ...". Skin tightens, he screams with rage at Porik; his life hangs in the balance.

Raphael goes to the theater and meets Polina there. She is rich - her father has returned, and with a large fortune. They see each other in Madame Godin's former hotel, in the same old attic. Raphael is in love. Polina admits that she has always loved him. They decide to get married. Arriving home, Raphael 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 in the well. She became very small. Rafael is desperate. He goes to the learned men, but everything is useless: the naturalist Lavril reads him a whole lecture on the origin of donkey skin, but he cannot stretch it; the mechanic Tablet puts her in a hydraulic press, which breaks; the chemist Baron Jafe cannot break it down with any substances.

Polina notices signs of consumption in Raphael. He calls Horace Bianchon - his friend, a young doctor - he convenes a council. Each doctor expresses his scientific theory, they all unanimously advise to go to the waters, put leeches on the stomach and breathe fresh air. However, they cannot determine the cause of his illness. Rafael leaves for Aix, where he is mistreated. He is avoided and almost to his face they say that "since a person is so sick, he should not go to the water." An encounter 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. After making sure 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 stretch it out longer, but she finds him. At the sight of her, he lights up with desire, rushes at her. The girl runs away in horror, and Rafael finds Polina half-dressed - she scratched her chest and tried to suffocate herself with a shawl. The girl thought that if she dies, she will leave the life of her lover. The main character's life is cut short.

e pilogue

In the epilogue, Balzac makes it clear that he does not want to describe Pauline's further earthly path. In a symbolic description, he calls her either a flower blooming in flames, or an angel who comes in a dream, or the ghost of the Lady, depicted by Antoine de la Salle. This ghost, as it were, wants to protect his country from the invasion of modernity. Speaking of Theodore, Balzac notes that she is everywhere, as she personifies secular society.

At the end of October 1829, a young man comes to the gambling hall. The face of the fair-haired young man still glows with the charm of innocence, but at the same time there is also a reflection of voluptuous vice on it. The stranger loses his last gold coin and decides to commit suicide. Before his death, he walks around Paris, studies books for sale, gives the last to the poor, admires a pretty woman.

In the antiquities shop, the whole history of the world passes in front of the face of the young man, starting from Ancient Egypt and ending with the Renaissance. After sunset, a small, thin old man in a black robe appears before the hero and offers to show him the image of Jesus Christ by Raphael.

The picture shocks the young man with its realism. He confesses to the owner of the shop that he wanted to commit suicide due to humiliating poverty. The old man offers to help. He points to the shagreen leather hanging opposite the Raphael painting. The shred, the size of a fox skin, on the reverse side contains the seal of Solomon and a warning inscription. The old man says that he himself has never tried to own shagreen leather, and built his well-being on the rejection of two principles that tear a person apart - desire and opportunity. He preferred to know and see and live with his mind rather than his heart. Unlike the old man, the young man wants to live a stormy life in the enjoyment of wine, fun and women. The old man laughs at his wish. The young man grabs the shagreen leather and runs out into the street, where he meets three of his friends.

Rafael de Valantin (that is the name of the protagonist of the novel) goes with them to dinner with the banker Tailfer, who decided to organize a newspaper that is in opposition to the royal power. A community of up-and-coming young writers, artists and scientists enjoy food and wine, chatter about politics, talk about the structure of the state. After dinner, young people go to the hall, where they are met by a seraglio of charming women of various nationalities. Beautiful ladies look innocent, but hide inside themselves the most exquisite vice.

Raphael and his friend, journalist Emil, are talking with two girls - the majestic beauty Akilina, whose lover died on the scaffold, and the fragile maiden Euphrasia, who does not believe in love.

Part II. Woman without a heart

Raphael tells Emil the story of his life. He graduated from college, then, under the guidance of his father, he studied the profession of a lawyer. Rafael's father, a serious and dry man, kept him in a strict leash. After receiving education, the hero joins the family lawsuit. Judgment ends in ruin. Ten months later, Raphael's father dies.

Relatives turn away from the poor young man. For three years he lives on the money left after the sale of the property, eating only bread, sausage and milk. While studying science, Rafael closely converges with his landlady, Madame Godin, and her fourteen-year-old daughter Polina, whom, in gratitude for her care, begins to teach her to play the piano. He treats the girl like a sister, partly because he does not want to seduce her innocence, partly because she is poor. One day Raphael meets Rastignac. He introduces him to the highest Parisian society and introduces him to the impregnable beauty of Russian origin, Countess Theodora. Trying to fall in love with her, Raphael falls in love himself. Desperately seeking the love of Theodora, the young scientist spends the last money on visits to her. At some point, an explanation takes place between them, in which the girl warns Rafael against any love confessions. As a friend, she needs a hero, as a lover - no.

Rastignac helps Raphael get 50 écus by finding a man willing to pay for a manuscript of historical memoirs. On a walk, Theodora asks the young man to write a letter to a relative, the Duke de Navarren, asking him to put in a good word for her. As soon as Rafael does this, the Countess immediately removes him from her. The young man begins to penetrate the secrets of her soul - hard, cold, selfish.

Polina throws money at Rafael so that he can go to the theater with Theodora. The young man is trying to recognize his beloved from the bodily side. He hides in her bedroom, listens to the countess sing, watches her peaceful sleep. Raphael then asks Theodora for a date. He behaves with her as charmingly as possible, but does not take possession of the body, wanting to take possession of the soul. An ardent declaration of love causes boredom in the countess.

Rafael confesses to Rastinok that he wants to commit suicide. Eugene invites a friend to kill himself more elegantly - through pleasure. Raphael leaves Madame Godin's attic. Polina says goodbye to him with tears. Rastignac wins 27,000 francs with the money received by Raphael for his work. The main character begins to burn life. He skips all the money, makes debts, pays off creditors by selling the island with the grave of his mother. Raphael has 2 thousand francs left, but he cannot return to the quiet life of a scientist - Theodore still occupies his heart.

Drunk Raphael interrupts his story to wish to become a millionaire. He shares with Emil the secret of the pebbled skin that shrinks with his every desire and shortens his lifespan.

In the morning, the banker Cardo informs Rafael that he has become the heir of six million. Their young man was left by a relative of his mother - a certain Calcutta major O'Flaherty.

Part III. Agony

At the mansion of the Marquis de Valentin, the old servant Jonathan meets Raphael's teacher, Mr. Porriquet. Jonathan tells him about the strange way of life of his master: the latter demands that everything in the house obey a strictly established order; he asks the old servant to anticipate his desires and not to ask him questions with the words "please" or "wish". Porrique asks Raphael to help him, and he, out of the kindness of his heart, wants his old teacher to be returned to a lucrative position. The shagreen skin hanging in front of the hero, circled in red, immediately shrinks. Rafael is horrified, but understands that what has been done cannot be returned.

In the Italian theater the hero meets Polina. She is so beautiful that the eyes of the whole society are riveted to her. Rafael wants the girl to love him. Shagreen leather does not change its size.

Polina and Raphael confess their love to each other. The girl tells how she earned money on fans so that the young man could wear clean shirts and drink plenty of milk during his poverty. Young people decide to get married. Rafael sees that the pebbled skin continues to shrink. In a fit of rage, he throws the patch into the garden.

Polina and Raphael enjoy happiness. The gardener fishes out the rest of the shagreen leather in the well. Rafael quarrels with Polina.

The zoologist, Mr. Lavril, defines shagreen leather as the skin of a rare breed of donkey, the onager, found in Persia, and says that, like all elements of our world, it can shrink and stretch. Professor of Mechanics Tablet takes Rafael to Spieghalter. There they try to stretch the skin under huge pressure, but the skin remains unchanged. The chemist Jafe tries to expose her to chemicals, and this also does not give any results.

Raphael begins to cough like a consumptive. Bianos gathers a medical council. One of the doctors believes that Raphael has a sick stomach, the second - the soul, the third - both. The hero is sent to the waters. The local society does not accept it. Raphael is challenged to a duel. He kills the enemy, after which he moves to another area. The hero lives his last days in the wild. When the villagers begin to feel sorry for him, Raphael returns to Paris. He asks Byanosh to write him an opium tincture so that he can live at least in his sleep.

Death comes to Rafael in the arms of Pauline, whom he desires more than anything else.