La estética del horror en tres relatos fantásticos de Honoré de Balzac

Abstract

This study wants to emphasize the topic of horror in Honoré de Balzac’s wri­tings, mainly through the analysis of three fantastic stories: La Peau de chagrin, Melmoth réconcilié and L’Elixir de longue vie. These three stories are included in the Études philosophiques, the part of La Comédie Humaine in which Balzac intends to show the invisible mechanisms of mankind and society. So, it is in the Études philosophiques where one of the most important ideas of Balsac’s writings is expressed: the power of thought which, in Balzac’s fantastic stories, reveals itself to be destructive.