Honoré de Balzac 
The Elixir of Life [PDF ebook] 

This is one of Balzac’s fantastic reality tales, not only resounding in the supernatural and the occult, in diabolical elixirs, eternal life or in a piece of the conscious body that returns to the life of a corpse.
The short story is about eternal life. However, this is an eternal life story with a horrific twist. 
Balzac makes another social critique, pointing out how the failing society in the ethics from this tale’s time views some types of people: ‘Truly tender, delicate, fair, generous, prudent and brave did not deserve the least regard among men.’
In other words, behind the beautiful curtain of fantasy and the satanic, there is a tale that defies the moral and common standards of the institutions that underpin that society.