La Peau de chagrin is an 1831 novel by French novelist and playwright
Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850). Set in early 19th-century Paris, it tells
the story of a young man who finds a magic piece of shagreen that
fulfills his every desire. For each wish granted, however, the skin
shrinks and consumes a portion of his physical energy. La Peau de
chagrin belongs to the Études philosophiques group of Balzac's sequence
of novels, La Comédie humaine. Although the novel uses fantastic
elements, its main focus is a realistic portrayal of the excesses of
bourgeois materialism. The book's central theme is the conflict between
desire and longevity. The magic skin represents the owner's life force,
which is depleted through every expression of will, especially when it
is employed for the acquisition of power. Ignoring a caution from the
shopkeeper who offers the skin to him, the protagonist greedily
surrounds himself with wealth, only to find himself miserable and
decrepit at the story's end. La Peau de chagrin firmly established
Balzac as a writer of significance in France and abroad. His social
circle widened significantly, and he was sought eagerly by publishers
for future projects. It inspired Giselher Klebe's opera Die tödlichen
Wünsche and may have influenced Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of
Dorian Gray.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Peau_de_chagrin>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1588:
Anglo-Spanish War: The Spanish Armada , with 130 ships and over 30,000
men, set sail from Lisbon for the English Channel to engage English
naval forces.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Armada>
1644:
English Civil War: Royalist troops allegedly slaughtered up to 1,600
people during their storm and capture of the Town of Bolton.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolton_Massacre>
1892:
Aided by a group of professors from the University of California at
Berkeley and Stanford University, Preservationist John Muir founded the
environmental organization Sierra Club in San Francisco.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir>
1936:
English mathematician Alan Turing submitted his paper "On Computable
Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem" for
publication, introducing the Turing machine, a basic abstract
symbol-manipulating device that can simulate the logic of any computer
algorithm.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing>
1961:
The British newspaper The Observer published English lawyer Peter
Benenson's article The Forgotten Prisoners, starting a letter-writing
campaign that grew and became the human rights organization Amnesty
International.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amnesty_International>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
unsung (adj):
1. Not having been lauded or appreciated.
2. Not sung
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/unsung>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
In my books I have lifted bits from various religions in trying to come
to a better understanding; I've made use of religious themes and
symbols. Now, as the world becomes more pagan, one has to lead people
in the same direction in a different way...
--Patrick White
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Patrick_White>