Aymé, Marcel
Entry updated 29 September 2025. Tagged: Author.
(1902-1967) French author and dramatist, not generally thought of as a contributor to the sf field, though several of his best-known novels, such as La jument verte (1933; appalling anonymous trans as The Green Mare 1938; new trans Norman Denny 1955), are fantasies, usually with a satirical point to make about provincial French life. La belle image (1941; trans Norman Denny as The Second Face 1951; new trans Sophie Lewis 2006) comes close to an sf nightmare of Identity in its rendering of the effect on its protagonist of finding himself suddenly and mysteriously given a second, more attractive face. La vouivre (1943; trans as The Fable and the Flesh 1949) is again a fantasy, its satirical targets again provincial. It has been twice adapted as a film. Le Passe-Muraille (coll 1943; trans Norman Denny with added material as Across Paris and Other Stories 1957; vt The Walker-through-Walls 1962) assembles fantasy and the occasional sf tale. The title story of The Man Who Walked Through Walls (coll trans Sophie Lewis 2012), "Le Passe-muraile" (15 August 1941 Lecture 40), which appears in all translations cited above, inspired Christelle Dabos's Mirror Walker sequence. The Walker-through-Walls and Other Stories (coll 1972 trans Norman Denny) comprises a new selection from more than one volume. Pastorale (1931) is a regressive Utopia that makes more articulate than is perhaps entirely comfortable the nostalgia that lies beneath Aymé's urbane "Gallic" style.
Other works include Clérambard (1950; trans N Denny 1952), a play, and two children's fantasies: The Wonderful Farm (1951) and Return to the Wonderful Farm (1954; vt The Magic Pictures 1954). [JC]
see also: Fantasy Entries; Matter Penetration; Psychology.
Marcel Andre Aymé
born Joigny, Yonne, France: 29 March 1902
died Paris: 14 October 1967
works (selected)
- La jument verte (Paris: Gallimard, 1933) [hb/]
- The Green Mare (London: The Fortune Press, 1938) [anonymous trans of above: hb/Jean de Bosschère]
- The Green Mare (London: The Bodley Head, 1955) [new trans by Norman Denny of the above: hb/K F Rowland]
- La Belle Image (Paris: Gallimard, 1941) [hb/]
- The Second Face (London: The Bodley Head, 1951) [trans by Norman Denny of the above: hb/]
- Beautiful Image (London: Pushkin Press, 2006) [new trans by Sophie Lewis of the above: pb/]
- La Vouivre (Paris: Gallimard, 1933) [hb/]
- The Fable and the Flesh (London: The Bodley Head, 1949) [trans by Eric Sutton of the above: hb/]
- Le Passe-Muraille (Paris: Gallimard, 1943) [coll: binding unknown/]
- Across Paris and Other Stories (London: The Bodley Head, 1957) [coll: trans of above by Norman Denny with added material: with introduction by Denny: hb/Michael Ayrton]
- The Walker-through-Walls (New York: Berkley Medallion, 1962) [coll: vt of the above: pb/Richard Powers]
- The Man Who Walked Through Walls (London: Pushkin Press, 2012) [coll: trans by Sophie Lewis of the above: pb/]
- Across Paris and Other Stories (London: The Bodley Head, 1957) [coll: trans of above by Norman Denny with added material: with introduction by Denny: hb/Michael Ayrton]
- The Proverb and Other Stories (London: The Bodley Head, 1961) [coll: trans by Norman Denny from various sources: hb/John Griffiths]
- The Walker-through-Walls and Other Stories (London: The Bodley Head, 1972) [coll: trans and with introduction by Norman Denny: different selection from the above, with stories from both Across Paris and The Proverb: illus/Jean de Bosschère: hb/Brian Paine]
- The Man Who Walked Through Walls (London: Pushkin Press, 2017) [title story only from the above: trans by Norman Denny: first published in 15 August 1941 Lectures as "Le passe-muraille": pb/]
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