The Conscience Of Love

WKSS&VMV Bw3raiaflg8&fô $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 DATE DUE OCT *• ü i_r_L 'St 3 ia:a V iL k — a t: W ^H993 IAY2B s^/X ! - - — JS 78 9 1993 2 5 1981 U6 2 8 * RQM- m WWfW^guCUBBfeg , MM6 wr s i 384 DEC 2 3 987 ^; • 1 mm - 7 2- yrne, hs. reel ^ % t ^ 1... OJL. ; The conscience of love BUflimGAME PUBLIC UBMRY Burlingame, California HOMO y QI 5 >y v WWM 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 ig62 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