Originally published 1933 | ||
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Similar Works by Marcel Aymé, Other books | ||
The Green Mare (French: La Jument Verte) is a humorous novel by French writer Marcel Aymé first published by Gallimard in 1933.
The story is divided into seventeen chapters written using the third person narrative mode; interspersed between them are a number of interludes all entitled "The Observations of the Green Mare" which are written as first person narratives. These two different narrative modes used throughout the book allow the reader to observe the characters and situations from slightly different perspectives.
The novel is essentially an examination of the sexual mores and behaviors of the members of a small 19th century French village some time shortly following the Franco-Prussian War. The plot concerns a feud that has taken place for generations between the Hadouin and Maloret families, and a missing letter that contains revealing secrets relating to the conflict. The green mare of the title is in fact a magical painting of an unusually-colored horse owned by one of the Hadouins that has somehow been imbued with an observing consciousness by the artist who painted it.
The Green Mare has been translated into English by Norman Denny.
The book was filmed by Claude Autant-Lara in 1959 as The Green Mare.