La Peau de chagrin
La Peau de chagrin (, "The Skin of Shagreen"), known in English as The Wild Ass's Skin 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 (untanned skin from a wild ass) 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".