The fifty stories that balzac wrote during his working life display all the qualities of his novels, and many of them feature the characters that throng thecomedie humaine. Nevertheless, while they do offer an interesting counterpoint to the great novels, the stories as themselve.

This meticulously edited Honoré de Balzac collection is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents: Novels The Chouans At the Sign of the Cat and Racket Vendetta The Magic Skin The Exiles Louis Lambert Eugenie Grandet The Country Doctor Ferragus The Duchesse de Langeais The Alkahest Seraphita Father Goriot The Lily of the Valley The Marriage Contract The Old Maid Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau The Collection of Antiquities A Daughter of Eve Beatrix The Village Rector Ursule Mirouet Letters of Two Brides Paz A Woman of Thirty Albert Savarus The Two Brothers A Start in Life Two Poets Honorine Modeste Mignon Cousin Betty Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Cousin Pons Brotherhood of Consolation Sons of the Soil Catherine de' Medici A Distinguished Provincial at Paris The Lesser Bourgeoisie Novellas The Ball at Sceaux Sarrasine A Second Home Domestic Peace Gobseck El Verdugo Colonel Chabert The Vicar of Tours Girl with the Golden Eyes Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan Z. Marcas Pierrette The Muse of the Department Two Poets Eve and David Bureaucracy Short Stories Study of a Woman Another Study of Woman The Grand Breteche Farewell The Unknown Masterpiece The Recruit The Red Inn The Purse La Grenadiere The Message A Drama on the Seashore The Atheist's Mass Facino Cane Gambara Massimilla Doni Pierre Grassou An Episode Under the Terror Madame Firmiani The Deserted Woman The Commission in Lunacy The Illustrious Gaudissart A Prince of Bohemia A Man of Business Gaudissart II The Unconscious Comedians The Firm of Nucingen A Passion in the Desert Christ in Flanders The Napoleon of the People Droll Stories

How even a desired and socially brilliant marriage can lead a young girl to misfortune. How a young mother resists an adulterous passion, but sinks into grief. How a young woman in all the splendour of her maturity rediscovers the taste for love and then finds herself punished in the tragic fate of her own children. That's the plot of the novel.

The Magic Skin (La Peau de chagrin) is set in early 19th-century Paris and 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. Although the novel uses fantastic elements, its main focus is a realistic portrayal of the excesses of bourgeois materialism. Balzac's renowned attention to detail is used to describe a gambling house, an antique shop, a royal banquet, and other locales. He also includes details from his own life as a struggling writer, placing the main character in a home similar to the one he occupied at the start of his literary career. The central theme of La Peau de chagrin 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 him the skin, the protagonist greedily surrounds himself with wealth, only to find himself miserable and decrepit at the story's end. (source: Wikipedia)