Ludwig Bemelmans’s “The Isle of God”

From The New Yorker's archive: a piece about about the peculiarities of a small island located off the coast of France.  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌   View in browser | Update your preferences     Our Footloose Correspondents The Isle of God Once you arrive at the beach, it's yours. By Ludwig Bemelmans The author and illustrator Ludwig Bemelmans, best known for writing the Madeline children's books, excelled at producing vivid works of fiction and humor. In the late thirties and forties, Bemelmans contributed more than twenty-five pieces to The New Yorker, including a series of short mysteries and an eclectic assortment of travel reportage. The author of more than forty books, Bemelmans matched his creative breadth of view with a peerless artful intuition. In 1939, the same year he released his first Madeline book, Bemelmans published "The Isle of God," about the peculiarities of a small island located off the coast of France. The writer visits the Ile d'Yeu and proceeds to capture the unique spirit of the island and its residents. "There are no tourists, and there seem to be only three kinds of people: sailors, with every shade of color in their sensible pants and blouses a hundred times patched; children; and little, bent old women, who are called by the islanders les vieux corbeaux because they are always in twos, their sharp profiles hooked together, gossiping like crows in a tree," he writes. Bemelmans brings the same wry, colorful approach to his description of the island that he does to his other work. He captures amusing chance encounters with locals, including a female tavern keeper with an enduring antipathy toward Americans sparked by an abbreviated love affair with a submarine sailor years earlier. As the piece unfolds, the author wanders the isle's inlets and modest landmarks, unveiling new discoveries along the way. In his own singular vision, it's as if the narrow streets themselves are brought to life—each offering a vibrant, dappled gouache of the rendezvous and convergences that make up the lifeblood of a community.   —Erin Overbey, archive editor More from the Archive     Shouts & Murmurs Stylish New York Couples From 1982: One couple may prefer an eclectic style, another retro-amalgam or mixed-soupçon, yet each couple stands on their own as a single, unique personality. By Veronica Geng     Fiction "The Trouble With Mrs. Blynn, the Trouble With the World" From 2002: "What remained was a feeling that she had been imperfect, wrong, like Mrs. Blynn's presence now, wrong for the time and the occasion." By Patricia Highsmith You're receiving this e-mail because you signed up for the New Yorker Classics newsletter. Was this e-mail forwarded to you? Sign up.   Unsubscribe | Manage your e-mail preferences | Send newsletter feedback | View our privacy policy    The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products and services that are purchased through links in our newsletters as part of our affiliate partnerships with retailers.    Copyright © Condé Nast 2021. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.