A distinguishing characteristic of Marcel Aymé, when set beside other contemporary novelists in France, is the fact that he neither comes from nor has ever really been assimilated to the Paris bourgeoisie…. He is most at home within the microcosm of the small provincial village, where peasants, animals and small-scale local powers achieve a healthy, if somewhat uninspiring, pattern of existence. (p. 89)

It is not difficult to see why [La Jument verte] was, and still is, a best-seller in France. Aymé knows how to tell a story, to arouse our attention and curiosity…. Aymé, moreover, is on extremely intimate terms with life, its material necessities, difficulties and pleasures. A man in full possession of his five senses, he … is gifted with a direct, almost physical flair for the elementary and generally unacknowledged motives of human behavior. He has a fertile and salty imagination. The supernatural, a frequent element...