La Peau de chagrin
The popularity of the novel extended to Ukraine, where a baroness named Ewelina Hańska read about Balzac's novels in newspapers she received from Paris. Intrigued, she ordered copies of his work, and she read them with her cousins and friends around Volhynia. They were impressed by the understanding he showed toward women in "La Physiologie du mariage", but felt that "La Peau de chagrin" portrayed them in a cruel and unforgiving light. Hańska wrote a letter to Balzac, signed it as "L'Étrangère" ("The Stranger"), and mailed it from Odessa on 28 February 1832.