title: La Peau de chagrin (French Edition)
author: Honor de Balzac
description: Honor de Balzac, n Honor Balzac  Tours le 20 mai 1799, et mort  Paris le 18 aot 1850, est un crivain franais.
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  # The Village Rector
  
  
  ### Honore de Balzac
  
  
  ##### Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley
  
      
      
      
  
  DEDICATION
  
  
  
    To Helene.
  
  
  
    The tiniest boat is not launched upon the sea without the
  
    protection of some living emblem or revered name, placed upon it
  
    by the mariners. In accordance with this time-honored custom,
  
    Madame, I pray you to be the protectress of this book now launched
  
    upon our literary ocean; and may the Imperial name which the
  
    Church has canonized and your devotion has doubly sanctified for
  
    me guard it from perils.
  
  
  
  De Balzac.
  
  
  
  ### I. THE SAUVIATS
  
  
    
  In the lower town of Limoges, at the corner of the rue de la Vieille- Poste
  and the rue de la Cite might have been seen, a generation ago, one of those
  shops which were scarcely changed from the period of the middle-ages. Large
  tiles seamed with a thousand cracks lay on the soil itself, which was damp in
  places, and would have tripped up tho