For those like me who didn't know the reference, see [1] Aaron Schuster, "Bachelors, Snakes, and Squiggles: The brief history of a famous literary doodle" (2009

For those like me who didn't know the reference, see [1] Aaron Schuster, "Bachelors, Snakes, and Squiggles: The brief history of a famous literary doodle" (2009). Not only is the squiggle part of [2] _Tristram Shandy_ (1759), it — the squiggle — was also quoted by Balzac as the epigraph to [3] his novel _The Wild Ass's Skin_ (1832). Wikipedia [4] says: "Balzac never explained his purpose behind the use of the symbol, and its significance to _La Peau de chagrin_ is the subject of debate." [1] https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/36/schuster.php https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/36/schuster.php [2] https://archive.org/details/lifeopinionsoft00ster/page/554/ https://archive.org/details/lifeopinionsoft00ster/page/554/ [3] https://archive.org/details/tudesphilosoph01balz/page/n12 https://archive.org/details/tudesphilosoph01balz/page/n12 [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Peau_de_chagrin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Peau_de_chagrin