Marcel Aymé - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Marcel Aymé (March 29, 1902 – October 14, 1967) was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

novelist, children's writer, humour writer and also a screenwriter and theatre playwright.

Biography

Marcel Aymé was born in Joigny

Joigny

Joigny is a commune in the Yonne department in Burgundy in north-central France.It is located on the banks of the Yonne River.-Notable people :...

, in the Yonne

Yonne

Yonne is a French department named after the Yonne River. It is one of the four constituent departments of Burgundy in eastern France and its prefecture is Auxerre. Its official number is 89....

département (Bourgogne

Bourgogne

Burgundy is one of the 27 regions of France.The name comes from the Burgundians, an ancient Germanic people who settled in the area in early Middle-age. The region of Burgundy is both larger than the old Duchy of Burgundy and smaller than the area ruled by the Dukes of Burgundy, from the modern...

). He studied in the Collège de Dole, and worked among other as a journalist in Paris. In literature, his first novel was Brûlebois (1926) and in 1929 La Table aux crevés won the Prix Renaudot

Prix Renaudot

The Prix Théophraste-Renaudot or Prix Renaudot is a French literary award which was created in 1926 by ten art critics awaiting the results of the deliberation of the jury of the Prix Goncourt....

. After the success of his novel La Jument verte (1933), he concentrated mostly on literature. He published children's stories, novels and collections. In 1935 he also started writing movie scripts. In theater, 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

Montmartre

Montmartre is a hill which is 130 metres high, giving its name to the surrounding district, in the north of Paris in the 18th arrondissement, a part of the Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on its summit and as a nightclub district...

Quarter of Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

Work

One of Aymé's most famous short stories is Le Passe-Muraille or The Walker-Through-Walls, for which there is a sculpture in Paris that features the story's main character, Dutilleul. At the age of 42, Dutilleul suddenly discovered he "had 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 more sinister pursuits.

Novels and short stories

Les Jumeaux du diable (1928)
La Table aux crevés (1929)
Brûlebois (1930)
La Rue sans nom
La Rue sans nom
La Rue sans nom is a novel by Marcel Aymé, published in june 1930. It was adapted into a film in 1934 by Pierre Chenal.-Plot:The story focus on a street in the Parisian banlieue where live italian and french workers...

(1930)
Le Vaurien (1931)
Le Puits aux images (1932)
La Jument verte
La Jument verte
La Jumente Verte is the title of a humorous novel by French writer Marcel Aymé first published by Gallimard in 1933.The story is divided into seventeen chapters written using the third person narrative mode; interspersed between them are a number of interludes all entitled "The Observations of the...

(1933) novel translated as The Green Mare
Maison basse (1934)
Le Nain (1934)
Le Moulin de la Sourdine (1936) novel translated as The Secret Stream
Derrière chez Martin (1936)
Silhouette du scandale (1938)
Gustalin (1938)
Le Bœuf clandestin (1939)
La Belle image (1941) novel translated as The Second Face and Beautiful Image
La Vouivre (1941)
Travelingue (1941) novel translated as The Miraculous Barber
Le Passe-muraille (1943) adapted into the musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

Amour
Amour (musical)
Amour is a musical fantasy with an English book by Jeremy Sams, music by Michel Legrand, and lyrics by Didier Van Cauwelaert, who wrote the original French libretto....

by Michel Legrand
Michel Legrand
Michel Jean Legrand is a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, and pianist...

and a film
Mr. Peek-a-Boo
Mr. Peek-a-Boo or Le Passe-muraille is a 1951 French comedy farce film, directed by Jean Boyer. The film is based on the novel by Marcel Aymé about a "man who could walk through walls". The film premiered on April 6, 1951.-Plot:...

(1951)
Le Chemin des écoliers (1946) novel translated as The Transient Hour
Le Vin de Paris (1947) adapted into a film
La Traversée de Paris (film)
La Traversée de Paris , is a French comedy drama film from 1956, directed by Claude Autant-Lara, written by Marcel Aymé, starring Jean Gabin, Bourvil and Louis de Funès...

(1956)
Uranus (1948) novel translated as The Barkeep of Blémont
Les Bottes de sept lieues (1950)
En arrière (1950)
Les Contes du chat perché (1934-1946) translated as The Magic Pictures and The Wonderful Farm
Les Tiroirs de l'inconnu (1960)
Enjambées (1967)
La fille du shérif (1987) posthumous collection of short stories, compiled by Michel Lecureur

Theater plays

Lucienne and the Butcher (Lucienne et le boucher) (1948)
Clérambard (1950)
Vogue la galère (1951), adapted into a film
Vogue la galère
Vogue la galère is a 1973 French film directed by Raymond Rouleau.-Cast:* Claude Dauphin - Le capitaine* Robert Hossein - Simon* Henry Czarniak - Hardouin* Gérard Lartigau - Lazare* Mario David - Hersandieu* Xavier Depraz - Comité...

in 1973
Other People's Heads (La tête des autres) (1952)
Les quatre vérités (1954)
The Salem Witches (Les sorcières de Salem) (1954), adapted from The Crucible
The Crucible
The Crucible is a 1952 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693. Miller wrote the play as an allegory of McCarthyism, when the US government blacklisted accused communists...

by Arthur Miller
The Moon Birds (Les oiseaux de lune) (1955)
The Blue Fly (La mouche bleue) (1957)
Vu du pont (1957)
Louisiane (1961)
The Maxibules (Les Maxibules) (1961)
La consommation (1963)
The Wall Cupboard (Le placard) (1963)
The Night of the Iguana (La nuit de l'iguane), adapted from The Night of the Iguana
The Night of the Iguana
The Night of the Iguana is a stageplay written by American author Tennessee Williams, based on his 1948 short story. The play premiered on Broadway in 1961. Two film adaptations have been made, including the Academy Award-winning 1964 film of the same name....

by Tennessee Williams (1965)
The Belzébir Convention (La convention Belzébir) (1966)
Le minotaure (1967)

Memory

His works have inspired a number of movies, television shows, songs and comic strips.

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

External links

PushkinPress.com English editions of works by the author
Le roman selon les romanciers: bibliographie critique de l'Université McGill (French) Inventory and analysis of Marcel Aymé's non-novelistic writings about the novel
Marcel Aymé (Writer - filmography) in IMDb
Link to several short stories by Marcel Ayme including The Man Who Could Walk Through Walls or Le Passe-Muraille
Marcel Aymé at Find-A-Grave
About Marcel Aymé (personal web site)