Marcel Aymé

Marcel Aymé (born March 29, 1902, Joigny, France—died Oct. 14, 1967, Paris) was a French novelist, essayist, and playwright, known as a master of light irony and storytelling.

He grew up in the country among farmers, in a world of close-knit families bounded by the barnyard on one side, the schoolhouse on the other. Aymé drew most of his characters from this setting. After a short-lived attempt at a career in journalism, he launched into writing. His first novels, Brûlebois (1926) and La Table-aux-crevés (1929; The Hollow Field, 1933; Prix Théophraste-Renaudot), are comedies on rural life. The broad wit of La Jument verte (1933; The Green Mare, 1938) runs through his next novels, La Vouivre (1943; The Fable and the Flesh, 1949) and Le Chemin des écoliers (1946; The Transient Hour, 1948). In these works the universe of Aymé takes shape. Through the familiar sites of town and field, strange denizens roam unquestioned, side by side with normal beings who, in turn, often act in absurd ways. This counterpoint of fantasy and reality finds its perfect format in the short story. “Le Nain” (1934; “The Dwarf”) is about a dwarf who starts growing at 30, and “Le Passe-muraille” (1943; “The Man Who Could Pass Through Walls”) deals with a timid clerk who walks through walls and mystifies the police. Les Contes du chat perché, which appeared in three series in 1939, 1950, and 1958, delighted a vast public of children from “4 to 75” with its talking farm animals that include an ox that goes to school and a pig that thinks it is a peacock. Selections were published in English as The Wonderful Farm (1951).

Aymé made a late debut in the theatre with Lucienne et le boucher (1947; “Lucienne and the Butcher”). Clérambard (1950) begins with St. Francis of Assisi appearing to a country squire. The initial absurdity is developed with rigorous logic in the manner of the Theatre of the Absurd. The mood in La Tête des autres (1952; “The Head of Others”), an indictment of the judicial corps, is one of savage humour.

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Though Aymé’s theatrical works are often cruel and heavy-handed, the wit, wisdom, and morality of his short stories place them in the tradition of the fables of Jean de La Fontaine and the fairy tales of Charles Perrault. Aymé was long considered a secondary writer whose extravagant creations could not be taken seriously; only belatedly was he recognized for his skill in tone and technique.