SOURCE: “Marcel Aymé, Fabulist and Moralist,” in The French Review, Vol. XXXV, No. 5, April, 1962, pp. 453–62.

In the following essay, Temmer examines Aymé's fables and classifies the writer as a traditional French fabulist.

Fables should have a moral that pleases the reader's mind as well as his heart, and there is no doubt that Aymé's tales meet this first condition. He appeals to the intellect, and, as for matters of conscience, he follows the tradition of French fabulists who are not intent upon improving the world but prefer to analyze it in a manner that is both lucid and humorous. His Contes du Chat Perché is a lively commentary on French life, and his wit spares neither beast nor man. The viewpoint is more fantastic than poetic, the language more natural than formal, and it is precisely this smooth juxtaposition of the fantastic and the natural which...