In the collection "Thoughts, topics, excerpts from Honoré de Balzac", published by Jacques Crépet in 1910, there is this note by Balzac: "An invention: the skin that symbolizes life. Oriental myth." This is the first idea for "The Magic Skin". It seems that at first Balzac had it in mind as a fantastic story. The fantastic comes from the supernatural and the supernatural cannot be verified. Therefore, its events should be placed in an area inaccessible to observation, far away in time or space, such as the East, according to the author's original plan. However, Balzac did not write an oriental story, with the idea we noted above. Nor did he take the subject from ancient times. On the contrary, he wrote a contemporary Parisian novel.