Follow the author

Marcel Ayme

Follow

The Man Who Walked Through Walls Paperback – August 21, 2018

by Marcel Ayme (Author), Sophie Lewis (Translator)

4.4 72 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$11.99

—

Paperback

"Please retry"

$47.94

$68.08

$47.94

Paperback, August 21, 2018

—

$24.37

Kindle
$11.99 Read with our free app
Paperback
from $24.37

1 Used from $24.37

The excellent Monsieur Dutilleul has always been able to pass through walls, but has never seen the point of using his gift, given the general availability of doors. One day, however, his tyrannical boss drives him to desperate, creative measures — he develops a taste for intramural travel and becomes something of a super-villain. How will the unassuming clerk adjust to a glamorous life of crime?
Aymé’s genius lies in imagining the practical unfolding of bizarre and difficult situations. In each story, anarchic comedy is arrested by moments of pathos, only to descend into anarchy and hilarity once more ...

Pushkin Collection editions feature a spare, elegant series style and superior, durable components. The Collection is typeset in Monotype Baskerville, litho-printed on Munken Premium White Paper and notch-bound by the independently owned printer TJ International in Padstow. The covers, with French flaps, are printed on Colorplan Pristine White Paper. Both paper and cover board are acid-free and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified.

Print length

160 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Pushkin Press
Publication date

August 21, 2018
Dimensions

5.11 x 0.9 x 7.76 inches
ISBN-10

1782273271
ISBN-13

978-1782273271
See all details

Italo Svevo
9
Paperback
30 offers from $6.48

Editorial Reviews

Review

"I have fallen utterly, completely and eternally in love with this writer. And, as with all true love, I am neither ashamed nor afraid to declare it to the world." - Nicholas Lezard, Guardian

"A subtle blend of dry humour, surrealism and social critique." — The Lady (UK Magazine)

"The greatest French writer of the day." - Georges Simenon

"All of his writings are characterized by their irony, humour and realism, and are concerned with unearthing and examining ... the workings of society and ordinary people's darker motives." - Bloggerel.com

About the Author

Marcel Aymé (1902-67) was one of the great French writers of the twentieth century. Born in the Franche-Comté of Eastern France, he never lost touch with his rural origins, which influenced much of his work. Initially perceived as a man of the left, throughout his life Aymé espoused causes from across the political spectrum, for example apparently supporting Mussolini’s colonialism in Africa whilst also campaigning for the abolition of the death penalty. He attracted much controversy for his writings for collaborationist magazines during the Second World War, and his defence of Nazi-sympathising friends including Louis-Ferdinand Céline and Robert Brasillach in the post-war years. Nevertheless Aymé has remained hugely popular in France – this collection is particularly famous, and a dozen of his novels have been turned into films, among them the classics of French cinema La Traversée de Paris, La Vouivre and Uranus.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pushkin Press (August 21, 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 160 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1782273271
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1782273271
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.11 x 0.9 x 7.76 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,587,771 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #10,206 in Psychological Fiction (Books)
- #33,917 in Classic Literature & Fiction
- #65,692 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.4 72 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

Important information

To report an issue with this product, click here.

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Marcel Ayme

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

72 global ratings

1 star

0%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Tracy Doran

A wonderful storyteller to discover

Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2018

Verified Purchase

Absolutely remarkable tales! Ayme draws one in immediately, the fantastic becomes not only real, but believable.
Another in a series of superior small Pushkin Press paperbacks...love the small books with the French flaps and beautiful paper.
I have been collecting these Pushkin Press books for years - an exceptional roster of writers, mostly in translation. I find these books not only a pleasure to read, but also s pleasure to hold!

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Freelancer Frank

The Ticket On Time

Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2012

Verified Purchase

This is a book about space, time, story telling and civic responsibility (among other things). It is a flawless collection of conceptual pieces, each written in the kind of clear prose that belies the work that went into it. Each story presents fresh insights and provokes new thoughts. It is difficult to understand how one writer can have so much range. 'Tickets On Time' is the best story about death that I have ever read - and there's lots of them so it takes something to do that. A life-enhancing game-changer of a book.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Michael S. Clark

More space required, even if the writer is devoid of all thought.

Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2021

Verified Purchase

I dislike the question.

Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2016

Verified Purchase

The best was The Man who walked through walls... humorous... fun. Totally different stories. I liked them, but my husband lost interest...

Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2016

Verified Purchase

A delightful story. The title says it all.

Helpful

E. Howard

Ten imaginative short stories

Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2019

This title has 10 short stories, so far my favorite is "The Seven-League Boots". A beautifully written classic short story. Best if you like "magical realism", this collection is timeless yet of its period and very "French". Lovely.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Ralph Blumenau

The Man Who Has A Fertile Imagination

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 21, 2012

Verified Purchase

The title is that of the first of a set of mostly surrealist short stories in which a man can really walk through walls, and we see the uses to which he puts this gift. A beautifully judged story of just the right length.

This cannot be said of the next one, entitled "Sabine Women", is about a woman called Sabine who has the ability at will to multiply herself with identities that live in totally different locations. Moreover, each of the likenesses has the capacity to do the same, so in the end there are sixty-seven thousand look-alikes all over the world, each of them in some way linked to the experiences of any one of them. Not only does their ability to multiply run out of control (like the broom in the Sorcerer's Apprentice), but so, I think, does the story itself, which is wild and much too long.

The title of the next story is "Tickets in Time". In this one the government has a way (unexplained) of temporarily killing unproductive citizens - they disappear from the land of the living for a number of days each month. They are given tickets to indicate the number of days docked each month, the number depending on the degree of their unproductivity. They come back to life when the new month begins. What would be the effect of such a scheme?

"The Problem of Summertime": if governments can add an hour to summer time, why stick at one hour? In 1942 the Vatican gave relief to a world weary of the war by ordaining that time should advance by seventeen years. What happens to a Frenchman when he suddenly finds himself living seventeen years later with the knowledge of what happened in the interval? And after he has lived for some time in that future, what happens when, for some unaccountable reason, he suddenly finds himself back in 1942?

There is nothing surrealistic about the next story, "The Proverb", a painful story of paternal bullying, with an unexpectedly charitable ending.

"Poldevian Legend": the wrong people are given precedence in entering Heaven through the Pearly Gates.

"The Wife Collector" is about a tax-collector who is in arrears with his own taxes. The title gives you a clue to this the zaniest of all the stories in the book.

"The Seven League Boots": a gang of young schoolboys are obsessed by a pair of boots which a weird junk-shop owner has displayed in his window with the label that they are Seven League Boots. Until the last paragraph this story is less supernatural than the others, but examines gang-relationships and the touching relationship of one of the gang to his mother.

"The Bailiff": another story involving the Pearly Gates: when a bailiff approaches the Pearly Gates, St Peter and God disagree whether a bailiff should be cast into Hell, and he is given his life back so that - he is told - by the time of his next death the evidence will be clearer one way or the other. But when the time comes, God and St Peter are still at odds.

"While Waiting": The opening sentence of this story; "During the 1939-1972 war, in Montmartre, at the door of the grocer on rue Caulincourt, there was a queue of fourteen people who, having become friendly, decided never to part again." For what was there to go home for? They explain the misery of their lives in war-time, mostly at great length. The war seems never-ending, and so does this story.

7 people found this helpful

memoirsofabooknerd

Not sure why he's so famous for this story

Reviewed in Canada on September 15, 2023

Verified Purchase

Very underwhelming short story

R. L. Simpson

Some gems, some not

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 26, 2012

Verified Purchase

I am glad I read this collection, and found it a fascinating to hold in mind the background of war-time occupied France as I did so. I mainly enjoyed the first four stories - real gems - in which fantasy is used to explore human emotions and relationships very effectively. They felt like a meeting of Kafka and magical realism. I'd have given 5 stars for these. The other stories interested me far less, and some seemed to me to be pretty weak moralistic fables. But I do recommend the book for the first four tales alone.

One person found this helpful

Andy Richley

Vignettes of French Surrealism

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 28, 2013

Verified Purchase

This new translation of Marcel Ayme's collection of short stories was a surprising delight. From the bitter-sweet and sudden ending of the title tale, to the weird and wonderful concept of the ubiquitous lady and her thousands of sisters across the world Ayme provides the reader with plenty to enjoy and admire.

The book is certainly of its time and place, with the impact of the First and Second World Wars on the pysche of France and coming through in a number of places. A number of the stories are also rooted in French life of the 1940s and 50s, which then provides the author with a springboard for his flights of fancy.

Definitely worth a go and I really enjoyed it.

One person found this helpful

Slim Moran

Brilliant and deservedly famous title story: The Man Who Walked Through Walls

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 29, 2013

Verified Purchase

This book recommended to me by a dear friend
Margaret Crisp, is a delight, both in its physical printing and design, and in the absorbing stories by Marcel Ayme. A modern statue of a man half-walking out through a wall at the spot in Paris where the title story ends is a famous landmark. Marcel Ayme is a writer to be admired - and I say that as the author of eight novels and two books of short stories myself. I have a photograph of my friend Margaret Crisp in Paris, standing beside the staute mentioned above. Well worth its modest price as a collectors item for those who love fiction. - Anthony Grey

See more reviews

Image Unavailable

Follow the author

The Man Who Walked Through Walls Paperback – August 21, 2018

Customers who bought this item also bought

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Videos

Important information

About the author

Marcel Ayme

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries