AYME, Marcel (Andre)

(1902-1967)

   French novelist 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 UK; retrans N.Denny 1955), are fantasies, usually with a satirical point to make about provincial French life. La belle image (1941; trans as The Second Face 1951 UK) comes close to sf nightmare in its rendering of the effect of being given a second, more attractive face. La vouivre (1943; trans as The Fable and the Flesh 1949 UK) is again a fantasy, its satirical targets again provincial. Across Paris and Other Stories (coll trans 1957 UK; vt The Walker through Walls 1962 US) assembles fantasy and the occasional sf tale. Pastorale (1931 France) is a regressive UTOPIA that makes more articulate than is perhaps entirely comfortable the nostalgia that lies beneath MA's urbane Gallic style. Other works: Clerambard (1950; trans N.Denny 1952 UK), a play; two children's fantasies, The Wonderful Farm (1951 US) and Return to the Wonderful Farm (1954 UK; vt The Magic Pictures 1954 US).

   See also: PSYCHOLOGY.