The Magic Skin
E308182
The Magic Skin is an 1831 philosophical novel by Honoré de Balzac that explores themes of desire, power, and self-destruction through a magical talisman that grants wishes at the cost of the owner's life force.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Magic Skin canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2894131 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Magic Skin Context triple: [La Peau de chagrin, alternateTitle, The Magic Skin]
-
A.
The Magic
The Magic is a self-help book by Rhonda Byrne that expands on the themes of The Secret by focusing on the transformative power of gratitude.
-
B.
This Magic Moment
"This Magic Moment" is a classic pop song, originally recorded by The Drifters and later popularized by Jay and the Americans with lead vocals by Jay Black.
-
C.
It's Magic
"It's Magic" is a popular song written by lyricist Sammy Cahn, best known for its introduction in the 1948 film "Romance on the High Seas" and subsequent status as a pop standard.
-
D.
Magia
Magia is the first studio album by Colombian singer Shakira, recorded when she was a teenager and showcasing her early pop and Latin music style.
-
E.
Magique
Magique is the star-shaped, elf-like mascot created to represent the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Magic Skin Target entity description: The Magic Skin is an 1831 philosophical novel by Honoré de Balzac that explores themes of desire, power, and self-destruction through a magical talisman that grants wishes at the cost of the owner's life force.
-
A.
The Magic
The Magic is a self-help book by Rhonda Byrne that expands on the themes of The Secret by focusing on the transformative power of gratitude.
-
B.
This Magic Moment
"This Magic Moment" is a classic pop song, originally recorded by The Drifters and later popularized by Jay and the Americans with lead vocals by Jay Black.
-
C.
It's Magic
"It's Magic" is a popular song written by lyricist Sammy Cahn, best known for its introduction in the 1948 film "Romance on the High Seas" and subsequent status as a pop standard.
-
D.
Magia
Magia is the first studio album by Colombian singer Shakira, recorded when she was a teenager and showcasing her early pop and Latin music style.
-
E.
Magique
Magique is the star-shaped, elf-like mascot created to represent the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (44)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
novel
ⓘ
philosophical novel ⓘ |
| adaptedAs |
film adaptations
ⓘ
stage adaptations ⓘ |
| author | Honoré de Balzac ⓘ |
| belongsTo | French realist tradition with fantastic elements ⓘ |
| centralMotif | magical talisman ⓘ |
| centralObject | shrinking piece of shagreen (magic skin) ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | France ⓘ |
| exploresConcept |
exchange of life for pleasure
ⓘ
limits of human will ⓘ metaphysical implications of desire ⓘ |
| firstPublicationForm | book ⓘ |
| firstPublishedCentury | 19th century ⓘ |
| genre |
fantastic literature
ⓘ
philosophical fiction ⓘ social novel ⓘ |
| hasAlternativeEnglishTitle |
The Wild Ass's Skin
ⓘ
surface form:
The Wild Ass’s Skin
|
| hasCharacter |
Foedora
ⓘ
Pauline ⓘ |
| hasSymbolism | skin shrinking as life diminishes ⓘ |
| includedInCycle | Études philosophiques ⓘ |
| influenced | later French fantastic literature ⓘ |
| literaryMovement | French literature ⓘ |
| literarySignificance | early major work in La Comédie humaine ⓘ |
| mainCharacter | Raphaël de Valentin ⓘ |
| narrativePerspective | third-person narration ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | French ⓘ |
| originalTitle | La Peau de chagrin ⓘ |
| partOf | La Comédie humaine ⓘ |
| plotDevice | talisman that grants wishes at the cost of the owner’s life force ⓘ |
| protagonistOccupation | impoverished young nobleman ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1831 ⓘ |
| publisherCountry | France ⓘ |
| setting | Paris ⓘ |
| theme |
desire
ⓘ
fate ⓘ free will ⓘ power ⓘ self-destruction ⓘ the cost of ambition ⓘ the relationship between desire and life force ⓘ the will to live ⓘ |
| timePeriod | 19th century ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Magic Skin Description of subject: The Magic Skin is an 1831 philosophical novel by Honoré de Balzac that explores themes of desire, power, and self-destruction through a magical talisman that grants wishes at the cost of the owner's life force.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.