of the story, a 1923 American silent film called Slave of Desire starring George Walsh and Bessie Love. In 1960 Croatian animator Vladimir Kristl made an animated short entitled Šagrenska koža (The Piece of Shagreen Leather) inspired by Balzac's novel. It was adapted for French television in 1980, with Marc Delsaert, Catriona MacColl, Anne Caudry, Richard Fontana and Alain Cuny. In 2010, a French and Belgian television production featured Thomas Coumans, Mylène Jampanoï, Jean-Paul Dubois, Julien Honoré, Jean-Pierre Marielle and Annabelle Hettmann. Toward the end of his life, Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud felt a special connection to Balzac's novel, since he believed that his world was shrinking like Valentin's talisman. Diagnosed with a fatal tumor, Freud resolved to commit suicide. After re-reading La Peau de chagrin, he said to his doctor: "This was the proper book for me to read; it deals with shrinking and starvation." The next day, his doctor administered a lethal dose of morphine, and Freud died. In 2011 French director Marianne Badrichani staged an adaptation of La Peau de Chagrin in London's Holland Park. Notes References Affron, Charles. Patterns of Failure in La Comédie Humaine. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1966. . Balzac, Honoré de. "The Magic Skin". The Works of Honoré de Balzac. Vol. I. Trans. Ellen Marriage. Philadelphia: Avil Publishing Company, 1901. . Bertault, Philippe. Balzac and the Human Comedy. Trans. Richard Monges. New York: New York University Press, 1963. . Dargan, E. Preston and Bernard Weinberg. The Evolution of Balzac's Comédie humaine. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1942. . Dedinsky, Brucia L. "Development of the Scheme of the Comédie Humaine: Distribution of the Stories". The Evolution of Balzac's Comédie humaine. Ed. E. Preston Dargan and Bernard Weinberg. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1942. . pp. 22–187. Dunn, Ruth B. "L'Auberge rouge". The Evolution of Balzac's Comédie humaine. Ed. E. Preston Dargan and Bernard Weinberg. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1942. . pp. 378–382. Gerson, Noel B. The Prodigal Genius: The Life and Times of Honoré de Balzac. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1972. . Hunt, Herbert J. Balzac's Comédie Humaine. London: University of London Athlone Press, 1959. . Kanes, Martin. Balzac's Comedy of Words. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975. . Marceau, Felicien. Balzac and His World. Trans. Derek Coltman. New York: The Orion Press, 1966. . Maurois, André. Prometheus: The Life of Balzac. New York: Carroll & Graf,