Honore de Balzac 
Elixir of Life [PDF ebook] 

Some of the short stories in the Philosophical Studies section of Honore de Balzac’s The Human Comedy have hints of the mystical and supernatural. These elements are very pronounced in the spine-chilling tale "The Elixir of Life, " which veers into the territory of gothic horror. In the story, a dying man confides to his son that he has found a way to cheat death and achieve immortality.