Marcel Aymé was a protean writer whose work cannot be classified by genre, "ism," or mood. Nor does Aymé's career resemble that of the typical French author. He was not shaped by classical and humanistic disciplines or fashioned in the usual university mold. He was always a nonconformist, rejecting political and literary labels and steadfastly refusing to be considered an intellectual. His experience of the world and his transposition of that experience were essentially pragmatic and individualistic. Consequently he has appealed to many audiences. Some have seen in Aymé an amusing author of improbable and risqué tales; others have described him as an indulgent moralist whose work is a mixture of irony and tenderness; still others have considered him a bitter spectator of the human comedy whose caustic humor spares neither men nor institutions, however sacred. His vivid and unusual style, the unexpected...