Marcel Aymé was born in France in 1902. ‘The Man Who Walked Through Walls’ is part of a series of absurdist fictions he wrote during the Nazi occupation of France. Written in dead-pan style it concerns a man, Duttilleul, who works in the Ministry of Records. At the age of 43, he discovers he has the power to walk through walls. Aymé has given his character superhuman capabilities, which also happens in other stories in this wonderfully inventive collection.

At first, Duttilleul is disturbed by this ability, and visits a doctor, who diagnoses an ailment of the thyroid, for which he prescribes a bizarre treatment that includes centaur hormones. Aymé’s descriptions are delivered po-faced with a hint of irony, which heightens the sense of absurdism, but allows the reader to suspend belief. (I note that the tilleul, or linden tree, is associated with medical benefits and with truth and liberty. I do not know if this was an intentional reference of the writer.)

What follows is a comedic romp of a story. Dutilleul clashes with his officious new boss who has a “nailbrush moustache” and objects to Dutilleul’s old-fashioned pince-nez and goatee, Moreover, the new man wishes to reform office procedures, and objects to his subordinate’s use of a traditionalist long-winded language in his correspondence. He relocates Dutilleul’s desk to a broom cupboard adjacent to his own office. Dutilleul torments his bullying boss by manifesting his head and upper body through the wall of the man’s office. The outcome of this is that the boss ends up in a mental asylum and Dutilleul is free to return to his usual modus operandi. However, M Dutilleul wonders what good use he could make of his transmural capabilities. He embarks upon a series of robberies, amassing a decent stash of cash and a famous diamond. His calling card is the name ‘Werewolf’ left behind in red chalk. He quickly becomes newsworthy and a folk hero for outsmarting the police. His ever more ambitious thefts undermine the authority of government officials who are forced to resign. Dutilleul becomes a wealthy man. He delights in hearing his colleagues deliver encomiums about his achievements but wishes to become known as the man who is the heroic ‘Werewolf’. This vanity leads him to more spectacular exploits, during which he is arrested and sent to prison, where his abilities allow him to move about the prison and play tricks on the guards. Ultimately, he escapes and changes his appearance, living incognito until he is recognised by the French painter Gen Paul, who had the ability to detect the “least physiological change” in a person. Dutilleul decides to go to Egypt but is stopped in his tracks when he meets an attractive woman. His subsequent amorous adventures weaken his wall-walking abilities, and he develops headaches, for which he takes what he thinks is an aspirin. Of course, it is one of the pills originally prescribed by the doctor. The combined outcome of “over-exertion” and the pill is that he becomes fixed within a wall, where he remains until this day. Herein is the moral! Wonderful stuff and part of a collection of deliciously subversive fiction. There is a sculpture of Aymé portrayed ‘passe-muraille’ in Paris.

First published in French as ‘Le Passe Muraille’ in 1943. Published in English in the collection The Man Who Walked Through Walls, Pushkin Press, 2012