"The Dead Donkey or the Guillotined Woman," the first novel by Jules Gabriel Janin (1804-1874), was first published in 1829. In February 1830, Honoré de Balzac added a thirtieth chapter to the twenty-nine chapters of the novel in the magazine "Le Voleur," remarking: "Such a title, Monsieur, and 29 chapters! Lazybones! Don't you know that the number thirty has a magical quality?" There are few books like this one: Arsène Houssaye called it a "remarkable masterpiece." Mario Praz even dedicated several pages to it in his seminal work "Love, Death, and the Devil - The Black Romanticism." In Germany, "The Dead Donkey" was published only once in 1830 and has not been reissued since. This novel is an exaggerated, highly readable parody of the roman-charogne, of the cadaver novel, pushing every kind of horror to its limits.