Marcel Aymé

Marcel Aymé
Aymé in 1929
Aymé in 1929
BornMarcel André Aymé
(1902-03-29)29 March 1902
Joigny
Died14 October 1967(1967-10-14) (aged 65)
Paris
Resting placeCimetière Saint-Vincent
OccupationAuthor and dramatist
LanguageFrench
EducationCollège de l'Arc (Dole) [fr]
Notable worksLa Jumente verte
Le Passe-muraille
Notable awardsPrix Renaudot
SpouseMarie-Antoinette Arnaud
Marcel Aymé's grave. Cimetière Saint-Vincent, Paris.

Marcel Aymé (29 March 1902 – 14 October 1967) was a French novelist and playwright,[1][2] who also wrote screenplays and works for children.

Biography

Marcel André Aymé was born in Joigny, in the Burgundy region of France, the youngest of six children. His father, Joseph, was a blacksmith, and his mother, Emma Monamy, died when he was two years old, after the family had moved to Tours.[3] Marcel was sent to live with his maternal grandparents in the village of Villers-Robert, a place where he would spend the next eight years, and which would serve as the model for the fictitious village of Claquebue in what is perhaps the most well-known of his novels, La Jument verte. In 1906 Marcel entered the local primary school. Because his grandfather was a staunch anti-clerical republican, he was looked down upon by his classmates, many of whose parents held more traditional views. Accordingly, Marcel was not baptized before reaching the age of eight, nearly two years after the death of his grandfather in 1908. Orphaned once more when his grandmother died two years later, he briefly lived with other family members before moving to Dole, a small town of the Franche-Comte region, to stay with an aunt and attend the Collège de l'Arc, where he demonstrated more ability in mathematics than in literature. His years at school there were an unpleasant experience he would never look back on fondly.[4][5][6]

Despite ongoing issues with his health that had begun when he was a child, Aymé was able to perform his military service, which began in 1919, as part of an artillery unit in the occupied Rhineland. In 1923 he moved to Paris where he worked unsuccessfully at a bank, an insurance company, and as a journalist. Though he failed in his career as a reporter, his stint at the newspaper allowed him to discover his love of writing.[4][5][7]

His first published novel was Brûlebois (1926), and in 1929 his La Table aux crevés won the Prix Renaudot. After the great success of his novel La Jument verte (1933), translated into English as The Green Mare, he concentrated mostly on writing and publishing children's stories, novels, and collections of stories. In 1935 he also started writing movie scripts. In theatre, Marcel Aymé found success with his plays Lucienne et le boucher, Clérambard (1949), a farce, and Tête des autres (1952), which criticized the death penalty.

He died in 1967 and was buried in the Cimetière Saint-Vincent in the Montmartre Quarter of Paris.

Work

One of Aymé's most famous short stories is Le passe-muraille or "The Walker-Through-Walls". At the age of 42, Dutilleul suddenly discovers that he has "the remarkable gift of being able to pass through walls with perfect ease". What begins as a novelty that gives him pleasure ends up pushing Dutilleul toward ever more sinister pursuits.

Legacy

Visitors to Paris can see a monument in his honour at Place Marcel-Aymé, in the Montmartre Quarter. The statue is based on his short story "Le passe-muraille" ("The Walker through Walls").

Bibliography

Novels

Short story collections

French

  • 1932 Le Puits aux images (contains, in addition to the title story, "La Retraite de Russie," "Les Mauvaises Fièvres," "Noblesse," "A et B," "Pastorale," "Les Clochards," "L'Individu," "Au clair de la lune," "La Lanterne," "Enfants perdus")
  • 1934 Le Nain (contains, in addition to the title story, "La Canne," "La Liste," "Deux victimes," "Rue Saint-Sulpice," "Bonne vie et mœurs," "L'Affaire Touffard," "Le Mariage de César," "Trois faits divers," "L'Armure," "Sporting," "La Clé sous le paillasson," "Le Dernier")
  • 1934-1946 Les Contes du chat perché (translated as The Magic Pictures and The Wonderful Farm)
  • 1938 Derrière chez Martin (contains "Le Romancier Martin," "Je suis renvoyé," "L'Élève Martin," "Le Temps mort," Le Cocu nombreux," "L'Âme de Martin," "Rue de l'Évangile," "Conte de Noël," "La Statue")
  • 1943 Le Passe-muraille (contains, in addition to the title story, "Les Sabines," "La Carte," "Le Décret," "Le Proverbe," "Légende poldève," "Le Percepteur d'épouses," "Les Bottes de sept lieues," "L'Huissier," "En attendant")
  • 1947 Le Vin de Paris (contains, in addition to the title story, "L’Indifférent," "La Traversée de Paris," "La Grâce," "Dermuche," "La Fosse aux péchés," "Le Faux Policier," "La Bonne Peinture")
  • 1950 Les Bottes de sept lieues
  • 1950 En arrière (contains, in addition to the title story, "Oscar et Erick," "Fiançailles," "Rechute," "Avenue Junot," "Les Chiens de notre vie," "Conte du milieu," "Josse," "La Vamp et le Normalien," "Le Mendiant")
  • 1967 Enjambées (first posthumous collection contains seven stories, all of which appeared earlier except for "La Fabrique")
  • 1987 La fille du shérif

English

  • 1958 Across Paris and Other Stories
  • 1961 The Proverb and Other Stories (contains, in addition to the title story, "Three News Items," "Knate," "The Retreat from Moscow," "Josse," "Backwards," "The Boy Martin," "The Life-Ration," "The Bogus Policeman," "Couldn't-Care-Less," "La Bonne Peinture," "The Last")
  • 1972 The Walker-through-walls and Other Stories
  • 2012 The Man Who Walked through Walls (contains, in addition to the title story, "Sabine Women," "Tickets on Time," "The Problem of Summertime," "The Proverb," "Poldevian Legend," "The Wife Collector," "The Seven-League Boots," "The Bailiff," "While Waiting")

Plays

  • 1948 Lucienne et le boucher (Lucienne and the Butcher)
  • 1950 Clérambard translated by Norman Denny
  • 1951 Vogue la galère (adapted into a a film in 1973)
  • 1952 La tête des autres (Other People's Heads)
  • 1954 Les quatre vérités
  • 1954 Les sorcières de Salem (The Salem Witches, adapted from The Crucible by Arthur Miller)
  • 1955 Les oiseaux de lune (The Moon Birds)
  • 1957 La mouche bleue (The Blue Fly)
  • 1957 Vu du pont
  • 1961 Louisiane
  • 1961 Les Maxibules (The Maxibules)
  • 1963 La consommation
  • 1963 Le placard (The Wall Cupboard)
  • 1965 La nuit de l'iguane (The Night of the Iguana, adapted from The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams)
  • 1966 La convention Belzébir (The Belzébir Convention)
  • 1967 Le minotaure

Screenwriter

Filmography

See also

References

  1. ^ "Marcel Aymé | French author | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  2. ^ "SFE: Aymé, Marcel". sf-encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  3. ^ "Biographie de Marcel Aymé avant 1920". www.marcelayme.net. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
  4. ^ a b Brosman, Catharine Savage (1988). French novelists, 1930-1960. Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Inc. pp. 32–41. ISBN 978-0-8103-4550-8 – via Internet Archive.
  5. ^ a b Brodin, Dorothy R. (1968). Marcel Aymé. Internet Archive. New York, Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-03128-8.
  6. ^ Brodin, Dorothy (1964). The Comic World of Marcel Aymé. Paris: Nouvelles éditions Debresse. p. 13.
  7. ^ Lord, Graham (1980). The short stories of Marcel Aymé. Internet Archive. Nedlands : University of Western Australia Press. ISBN 978-0-85564-180-1.