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{{Short description|1941 French novel}}
{{Infobox book|
| name =
| title_orig = La Belle Image
| translator = Norman Denny & Sophie Lewis
| image = File:La_Belle_Image_(novel).jpg
| caption = 1972 edition book cover
| author = [[Marcel Aymé]]
| cover_artist =
| country = [[France]]
| language = [[French language|French]]
| series =
| genre = Fiction
| publisher = [[Gallimard]]
| release_date = 1941
| english_pub_date = 1951
| media_type = Print
| pages =
| isbn =
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
}}

'''''La Belle Image''''' (1941) is a [[novel]] by [[France|French]] writer [[Marcel Aymé]] that has been described as "[[Kafka]]'s ''[[The Metamorphosis|Metamorphosis]]'' in reverse."<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Marcel Aymé La Belle Image|url=https://www.marcelayme.net/marcel_ayme/oeuvre/romans/la_belle_image/la_belle_image.html|access-date=2021-10-20|website=www.marcelayme.net}}</ref>

== Composition ==
After [[France]] and the [[United Kingdom]] declared war on [[Germany]] on 3 September 1939, and during the [[Battle of France]], Aymé was in [[Cape Ferret]], but returned to [[Paris]] at the end of August. ''La Belle Image'' was begun during the summer of 1940 and completed between September and October of that year. Aymé believed that the war would last at least ten years, and his [[Pessimism|pessimistic]] mood is apparent throughout the novel.<ref name=":0" />

The work first appeared as a [[Serial (publishing)|serial]] in ''[[Aujourd'hui]]'', from 15 December 1940 to 14 January 1941, with illustrations by {{interlanguage link|Chas Laborde|fr}}. It was published by [[Gallimard]] towards the end of January 1941.<ref name=":0" />

== Plot ==
''La Belle Image'' is the story of Raoul Cerusier, an upstanding, hard-working, but suspicious businessman, whose dull and unattractive face is transformed into one that is young, handsome, and seductive.<ref>{{Cite web |title=SFE: Aymé, Marcel |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/ayme_marcel |access-date=2022-04-10 |website=sf-encyclopedia.com}}</ref> His office colleagues no longer recognize him, nor does his wife, whom he must then seduce, thereby cuckolding himself.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Aymé|first=Marcel|title=The Second Face|publisher=Harper & Brothers|year=1951|location=New York|translator-last=Denny|translator-first=Norman}}</ref>

== English translations ==
''La Belle Image'' was translated as ''The Second Face'' by [[Norman Denny]] for the [[Bodley Head]] in 1951<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Aymé|first1=Marcel|title=La Belle image.] The Second Face ... Translated ... by Norman Denny.|last2=DENNY|first2=Norman George|date=1951|publisher=London|location=Bodley Head|language=English|oclc=557584272}}</ref> and by [[Sophie Lewis]] as ''Beautiful Image'' for [[Pushkin Press]] in 2008;<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Aymé|first1=Marcel|title=Beautiful image|last2=Lewis|first2=Sophie|date=2008|publisher=Pushkin|isbn=978-1-901285-67-3|location=London|oclc=65768151}}</ref> Denny's translation has also appeared under the title ''The Grand Seduction''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Aymé|first=Marcel|title=The grand seduction;|date=1969|publisher=Sphere Books|isbn=978-0-7221-1311-0|location=London|language=English|oclc=47154}}</ref>

==Film adaptation==
The book was [[The Beautiful Image|filmed]] by [[Claude Heymann]] in 1951.

==See also==
* ''[[The Face of Another]]'' by [[Kōbō Abe]], a novel with a similar premise

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{Marcel Aymé}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Belle Image (novel), La}}
[[Category:1941 French novels]]
[[Category:Novels by Marcel Aymé]]
[[Category:1940s French-language novels]]

{{1940s-novel-stub}}

La Belle Image (novel) - Revision history

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