This novel's protagonist is not surprised in the ";incompetence and failure of science and of fire"; after visiting the mechanic Herr Spieghalter, though after the protagonist visits Baron Japhet breaks a razor, he is angered.
This novel's protagonist is not surprised in the ";incompetence and failure of science and of fire"; after visiting the mechanic Herr Spieghalter, though after the protagonist visits Baron Japhet breaks a razor, he is angered. A notary named Cardot asks this novel's protagonist if his last name is O'Flaherty, since he would be the sole heir of Major O'Flaherty, a nawab who left him a massive fortune. As a youth, this novel's protagonist loses much of his fortune when the Comte de Villele becomes prime minister; he later pursues Countess Feodora to enter high society. While at the spa town of Aix-les-Bains in Savoy, this novel's protagonist wins a duelthat he tried to intentionally lose. A curved line from Tristram Shandy opens this novel, in which the main character is about to throw himself into the Seine, until he wanders into a curiosity shop and purchases the title ever-shrinking object. For 10 points, name this novel in which Raphael de Valentin postpones his own suicide by using the wish-granting title object, a novel by Balzac. 
This novel's protagonist is not surprised in the ";incompetence and failure of science and of fire"; after visiting the mechanic Herr Spieghalter, though after the protagonist visits Baron Japhet breaks a razor, he is angered.
The Wild Ass's Skin [or The Magic Skin or La Peau de chagrin]