I recently read, for the first time, the great novel “La Peau de chagrin” (The Skin of Sorrow or The Wild Ass’s Skin) by Honoré de Balzac. Balzac is considered to be one of the great 19th century French writers. He is regarded as one of the founders of the Realism in Europe’s literature. The guy, apart from being a great writer and journalist (when it was still a worthy profession), was also very red pill. At the age of 30, still not married, he published the book: “The Physiology of Marriage” where one can find the following text:
Marriage is a fight to the death, before which the wedded couple ask a blessing from heaven, because it is the rashest of all undertakings to swear eternal love; the fight at once commences and victory, that is to say liberty, remains in the hands of the cleverer of the two…
Find some means by which her sum of force which inconveniences you may be carried off, by some occupation which shall entirely absorb her strength. Without setting your wife to work the crank of a machine, there are a thousand ways of tiring her out under the load of constant work.
Satire or not, the guy actually understood females.
You may find the text here
The book
The book consists of three sections: “Le Talisman” (“The Talisman”), “La Femme sans cœur” (“The Woman without a Heart”), and “L’Agonie” (“The Agony”). The first edition contained a Preface and a “Moralité”, which were excised from subsequent versions. A two-page Epilogue appears at the end of the final section.
“Le Talisman” is the plot of a young man named Raphaël de Valentin, who wagers his last coin and loses, then proceeds to the river Seine to drown himself. On the way, he decides to enter an unusual shop. The elderly shopkeeper leads him to a piece of Chagrin hanging on the wall. It is inscribed with “Oriental” writing. The skin promises to fulfill any wish of its owner, shrinking slightly upon the fulfillment of each desire, until its owner dies. Valentin waves away the shopkeeper’s warnings and takes the skin, wishing for a royal banquet, filled with wine, women, and friends. He is immediately met by acquaintances who invite him to such an event; they spend hours eating, drinking, and talking.
Part two, “La Femme sans cœur”, is narrated as a flashback from Valentin’s point of view. He tells about his early days as a scholar, living in poverty with an elderly landlord and her daughter Pauline, while trying fruitlessly to win the heart of a beautiful but aloof woman named Foedora (yes, like the hat). Unable to win her affection, however, he becomes the miserable and destitute man found at the start of “Le Talisman”.
“L’Agonie” begins several years after the feast of parts one and two. Valentin, having used the talisman to secure a large income, finds both the skin and his health dwindling. He tries to break the curse by getting rid of the skin, but fails. He organizes his home to avoid the possibility of wishing for anything. Events beyond his control cause him to wish for various things, however, and the skin continues to recede. Desperate, the sickly Valentin tries to find some way of stretching the skin, and takes a trip to a spa town in the hope of recovering his health.
With the skin no larger than a leaf, he is visited by Pauline in his room. She expresses her love for him. When she learns the truth about the Chagrin, she is horrified. Raphaël cannot control his desire for her and she rushes out to escape him and so save his life. He pounds on the door and declares both his love and his desire to die in her arms. She, meanwhile, is trying to kill herself to free him from his desire. He breaks down the door, they consummate their love in a fiery moment of passion, and he dies.
Lessons learned from the book
The first, and maybe the most important one is, “Don’t get sucked into oneitis”. Balzac masterfully portrays the way our hero gets oneitis for Foedora. This girl collects orbiters who provide attention, and showers her with resources. And of course, they don’t get to touch her. She clearly states in the book that she likes the situation as it is. As a Femme Fatale, she takes advantage of societies rules in her favor. So there is nothing new under the sun.
That oneitis destroy’s our hero’s life and send him to “make a deal with the devil,” which drives the story. The reason for that affection is more than looks, it’s her un-attainability.
The next lesson is that passivity will make you pay dearly. Our hero is driven by others and his emotions. Every one he comes across spins him to a new trail. It is a “Dog Eat Dog” world, and Balzac’s portrait of early 19th century society shows it. Everyone has an angle. The only one who actually takes care of him (Pauline) is pushed aside by him. He also doesn’t take his goals seriously (he writes a book for three years and then just gives up). When he understand that he will die, he makes an effort to “freeze” his life in order to preserve it.
The next one is that a balanced life and fortitude wins in the end. Our hero suffers poverty and goes to extreme wealth. He also swings from mania (being in love) to depression. Almost all other characters seem more balanced. They may stumble from time to time, but they show fortitude and balance. Even if their goals are dubious (Rastignac) or honorable (Pauline) they have a far balanced life and character. So they succeed more in getting what they want.
I recommend the book, if you can muster the patience to read through all the detailed description and nuances that Balzac provides.
Click here to view the book on Amazon.
Read Next: 16 Things I Learned From Mark Twain
All 19th Century and early 20th Century French novels (those written by men – of course), aere full of red pill wisdom. See: Balzac, Zola, and (of course) Proust!
I teach all bitches to ‘Honoré de Balzac’.
YOU NEED TO GET A BETTER COMMENTING SYSTEM IN PLACE HERE, A BIG PART OF THE OLD RK SITE WAS THAT PEOPLE BUILT UP A SENSE OF COMMUNITY WITH OTHER POSTERS OVER TIME.
I DON’T THINK THE CURRENT SYSTEM IS VERY GOOD.
unz.com has a pretty sweet system. Maybe Roosh could use it too?
It wasnt red pill to be unmarried at 30,not when women were WOMEN !!!!
Many men are attracted to unattainable bitches like Foedora who offer the experienced a challenge to overcome and conquer, the rich to attempt to buy and the meek an easy smile and the glimpse of a life denied to them.
Had the novel been written in the 21st century she would well have been an Instahoe.
I came across two sisters attempting to add me to their collection the other night, they were trying to become the new Kardashian Kunts on the backs of beta males. Thing is, once you suspect a girl you haven’t banged is attempting to play you for any reason you should next her. The attention these girls get warps their tiny lizard brain, ‘likes’ becomes her validation and they can’t ever step backwards from that- just look at that girl who was recently banned from Instagram weeping into a camera like her Dad had just died. And besides, assuming that you’re your best self there are still plenty of attainable women.
Unless you’ve embraced inceldom like a fool, that is.
Dude lived in times when probably over 90% of people were simple peasants with patriarchal families but he instead prefers to exercise his superior intellectualism in writing. The same problem I noticed in the early female feminist protestant writers, they write endlessly about feelings, emotions, love and all the cliches bla bla but they miss the point that the reason u just crave these things is because u are too occupied writing about them instead of experiencing them in real life. The curse of the intellectual and book, they twist ur understanding of reality, u live in ur own imaginary world and completely loose touch with reality.
Graham Greene mentioned “The Physiology of Marriage”, but not the author, in “The Quiet American” as one of the books among Pyle’s personal possessions. Until now, I had no idea that it was real.
What happened to the ROK site? It used to very organized and have actual categories. Also, the old ROK posts were much higher quality. And the comment system sucks. Someone fix this please.
The US is collapsing.
The USA is now an immoral bankrupt warmongering police state, but Americans think that they live in a moral, peaceful, free country with a balanced budget.
The elites control the government, media, and corporations.
Bankers who committed fraud received billion dollar bailouts instead of being jailed.
Jobs are being offshored, illegal immigrants are flooding the country, wages are flat, homelessness is growing, and debt is rising, but our overlords say that the economy is booming.
There are nanny state laws, regulations, security cameras, license plate readers, checkpoints, redlight cameras, speed cameras, FBI facial and voice recognition, curfews, gun bans, searches without warrants, mandatory minimums, DNA databases, CISPA, SOPA, NDAA, IMBRA, private prison quotas, no knock raids, take down notices, no fly lists, terror watch lists, Constitution free zones, stop and frisk, 3 strikes laws, kill switches, National Security Letters, kill lists, FBAR, FATCA, Operation Chokepoint, civil forfeiture, CIA torture, NDAA indefinite detention, secret FISA courts, FEMA camps, laws requiring passports for domestic travel, IRS laws denying passports for tax debts, gun and ammo stockpiles, laws outlawing protesting, police militarization, NSA wiretapping, the end to the right to silence, free speech bans, private prisons, FOSTA, TSA groping, and Jade Helm.
One reason the US is collapsing today is because Americans are lazy cowards. Americans may think deep down inside that immorality, debt, endless wars, and tyranny are wrong, but there are perverse incentives that encourage people to remain silent. Anyone who is quiet and compliant is rewarded with food stamps, a paycheck, or a sale. Anyone who questions the status quo is called a racist, nutjob, gets an IRS audit, is arrested, or killed.
How much more will you take? Does your conscience bother you? Do you think that the 1% are just going to turn around and start reducing the debt, restore the Bill of Rights, and end the wars on their own?
Silence means consent.
You carefully avoided mentioning (((who))) are the elites, bankers, and others you spoke of.
And many of the things you mentioned came about after 9-11 and the threat of terrorism. Ask yourself why the USA and Americans in particular are the main targets of Islamic terror.
If silence means consent, I’m wondering what actions you yourself are taking while preaching to us?
The fat dude on the title picture looks like an incel.
No wonder the commenters on here would love him.
This is becoming an incel site
Says you, shitskin
White women like to eat my shithole
So they like to eat the apartment you live in???
Nah–the most important lesson is this: Given the opportunity to have several wishes granted, first wish for perfect health, THEN for immortality (or at least longevity), THEN for wealth, THEN use any remaining wishes as you like. Plan carefully, and you just might outwit the system.
(That is, if magical wishes were actually a thing–which of course they’re not. Which may be the real message.)
Read “Une ténébreuse affaire” (“A murky business”) before you start calling Balzac “red pilled on women”. In that book, one character was exactly the same as today’s red pill men, and Balzac’s comment was that men like him are a better fit for the Middle Ages than for early 19th century when the novel takes place. Also he did get married to a woman who was already married when they met, and they wrote love letters to each other for 10 years til her husband died. They got married several years later. It’s convenient to blame feminism for everything today, but plenty of these things were around since the dawn of time.