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$4.50 If one present-day writer embodies Gallic wit and charm, it is Marcel Aymé. His short stories and novels, plays and films contain old France, modern France, France everlasting, the French essence. And here is his first new novel in twelve years.
The Conscience of Love is a kind of fantasia on contemporary morals and values; love, sex, violence, money, big business, society. As a story, it is a straightforward mystery, and the who-doneit—and to whom—will keep any reader who wants to be entertained, and prodded to think, turning pages quickly. As a fantasia, however, it is securely fastened to a reality anyone can recognize: the troubles and temptations of the times lie heavily upon the story. And in the end there emerges Aymé’s belief that underlying the aberrations of our day—cynicism, doublethink, violence, sexual promiscuity
and
the
rest—is
something
far
stronger: a deeply rooted instinct that is at the base of bourgeois society, and that this plain morality contains the survival of the species.
This survival of the species, according to Aymé, depends greatly on one thing: the ability of the female to locate and ensnare a suitable mate. “Suitable” is the precise word. And upon this thought Aymé gives a virtuoso performance on the forms and fashions of love; a delightful, elegant, amazing (continued on back flap)
Jacket design by Chermayeff & Geismar Associates
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The conscience of love
BUflimGAME PUBLIC UBMRY Burlingame, California HOMO
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1. UNLESS OTHERWISE DESIGNATED, books may be kept for two weeks and may be renewed once for the same length of time. 2. Overdue fees will be levied on all magazines, books, and phonograph record albums according to the schedule posted at the main desk. 3. DAMAGES AND LOSSES of Library-owned property will be paid for by the borrower. 4. RESPONSIBILITY for all books taken on his card rests with the borrower as well as for all fees accruing to his card. Notification of loss of card does not free the borrower of his responsibility.
BY MARCEL AYMÉ NOVELS THE CONSCIENCE OF LOVE
1^02
(Les Tiroirs de /’Inconnu) THE GREEN MARE
Jp55
(La Jument Verte) THE SECRET STREAM
1Ç53
(La Moulin de la Sourdine) THE SECOND FACE
lÇjl
(La Belle Image) THE BARKEEP OF BLEMONT
1Ç50
( Uranus) THE MIRACULOUS BARBER
ÎÇ^O
( Travelingue) THE TRANSIENT HOUR
1948
(Les Chemin des Ecoliers) SHORT STORIES THE PROVERB
lÇÔl
ACROSS PARIS
Ip5p
FOR CHILDREN RETURN TO THE WONDERFUL FARM THE WONDERFUL FARM
ip5^
1951
(both from Les Contes du Chat Perché)
The Conscience of Love
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation
https://archive.org/details/conscienceofloveOOayme
The Conscience of Love
MARCEL AYME Me Translated from the French by NORMAN DENNY
ATHENEUM NEW YORK
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3549 Atheneum 9-10 (12) Bembo by 17 picas First published in France in i960 by Librairie Gallimard as LES TIROIRS DE L’ INCONNU; copyright © i960 by Librairie
Gallimard; all rights rese