Although he preferred the term "philosophical", Balzac's novel is based upon a fantastic premise.
The skin grants a world of possibility to Valentin, and he uses it to satisfy many desires.
Pressured into a duel, for example, he explains how he need neither avoid his opponent's gunshot nor aim his own weapon; the outcome is inevitable.
He fires without care, and kills the other man instantly.
Elsewhere, the supernatural qualities of the skin are demonstrated when it resists the efforts of a chemist and a physicist to stretch it.

This inclusion of the fantastic, however, is mostly a framework by which the author discusses human nature and society.
One critic suggests that "the story would be much the same without it".
Balzac had used supernatural elements in the potboiler novels he published under noms de plume, but their presence in Peau de chagrin signaled a turning point in his approach to the use of symbolism.
Whereas he had used fantastic objects and events in earlier works, they were mostly simple plot points or uncomplicated devices for suspense.
With La Peau de chagrin, on the other hand, the talisman represents Valentin's soul; at the same time, his demise is symbolic of a greater social decline.
Balzac's real foci in the 1831 novel are the power of human desire and the nature of society after the July Revolution.
French writer and critic Félicien Marceau even suggests that the symbolism in the novel allows a purer analysis than the individual case studies of other Balzac novels; by removing the analysis to an abstract level, it becomes less complicated by variations of individual personality.
As an everyman, Valentin displays the essential characteristics of human nature, not a particular person's approach to the dilemma offered by the skin.

In his Preface to the novel's first edition, Balzac meditates on the usefulness of fantastic elements: "[Writers] invent the true, by analogy, or they see the object to be described, whether the object comes to them or they go toward the object ... Have men the power to bring the universe into their brain, or is their brain a talisman with which they abolish the laws of time and space?"
Critics agree that Balzac's goal in La Peau de chagrin was the former.
Although he preferred the term "philosophical", Balzac's novel is based upon a fantastic premise. The skin grants a world of possibility to Valentin, and he uses it to satisfy many desires. Pressured into a duel, for example, he explains how he need neither avoid his opponent's gunshot nor aim his own weapon; the outcome is inevitable. He fires without care, and kills the other man instantly. Elsewhere, the supernatural qualities of the skin are demonstrated when it resists the efforts of a chemist and a physicist to stretch it.
This inclusion of the fantastic, however, is mostly a framework by which the author discusses human nature and society. One critic suggests that "the story would be much the same without it". Balzac had used supernatural elements in the potboiler novels he published under noms de plume, but their presence in Peau de chagrin signaled a turning point in his approach to the use of symbolism. Whereas he had used fantastic objects and events in earlier works, they were mostly simple plot points or uncomplicated devices for suspense. With La Peau de chagrin, on the other hand, the talisman represents Valentin's soul; at the same time, his demise is symbolic of a greater social decline. Balzac's real foci in the 1831 novel are the power of human desire and the nature of society after the July Revolution. French writer and critic Félicien Marceau even suggests that the symbolism in the novel allows a purer analysis than the individual case studies of other Balzac novels; by removing the analysis to an abstract level, it becomes less complicated by variations of individual personality. As an everyman, Valentin displays the essential characteristics of human nature, not a particular person's approach to the dilemma offered by the skin.
In his Preface to the novel's first edition, Balzac meditates on the usefulness of fantastic elements: "[Writers] invent the true, by analogy, or they see the object to be described, whether the object comes to them or they go toward the object ... Have men the power to bring the universe into their brain, or is their brain a talisman with which they abolish the laws of time and space?" Critics agree that Balzac's goal in La Peau de chagrin was the former.
La Peau de chagrin