planettom ([info]planettom) wrote,
2005-08-12 08:46:00
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Fattypuffs and Thinifers

When I was a kid, I had this strange book (and still have) that nobody else ever seems to have read. FATTYPUFFS & THINIFERS, by Andre Maurois, 1930. Wonderfully illustrated by Fritz Wegner. My edition is 1968. The book seems to be out of print now, probably due to its rather politically incorrect plotline. I'm not even sure how I got it, it just seemed to appear on my bookshelf one day.

to the center of the Earth!


In the book, two brothers, a fat one and a thin one, find an escalator that goes down to the center of the Earth. There they find a hollow world: a sea, on either side of which are two nations, Fattipuff, and Thinifer, inhabited entirely by fat people and thin people, respectively.

Fattipuffs!

The Fattipuffs are obviously meant to be rather German, the Thinifers English. Their architecture, trains, even their farm animals are all as fat or as thin as they are.

Thinifers!

The brothers are separated, the fat one to Fattipuff, the thin one to Thinifer. Eventually the Fattipuffs and the Thinifers go to war, in a very World War I-style conflict.

War!

The Fattipuffs are roundly trounced and surrender to the Thinifers.

Eventually there is somewhat of a meeting of the cultures. Occupying Thinifer soldiers take Fattipuff warbrides. Thinifer children get hooked on Fattipuff culinary treats.

Still, I decided early on I'd better stay on the side of the Thinifers.
Tags: books

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  • 24 comments

[info]terracinque

August 12 2005, 13:57:34 UTC 6 years ago

Looks like a wonderful book!

[info]nightingal_echo

November 9 2005, 18:28:14 UTC 6 years ago

Did you scan those pictures? or were they found online?

[info]planettom

November 11 2005, 11:22:47 UTC 6 years ago

I scanned them. Just a small sampling of the many illustrations in the book.

Unfortunately, the book appears to be out of print right now.

And somehow, I don't expect to see an animated or live action FATTIPUFFS AND THINIFERS movie anytime soon. :)

[info]nightingal_echo

November 11 2005, 15:17:08 UTC 6 years ago

If they were to come out with a movie/tv show, who would play who?

[info]planettom

November 11 2005, 15:39:55 UTC 6 years ago

Gee, I don't know; even supermodels are positively Rubenesque in comparison to Thinifers.

And for Fattipuffs, I guess with a Fat Suit, anybody could play one.

On the animated front, the teenage girl in THE INCREDIBLES would be a good Thinifer.

I'm no Fattipuff, but I'm not as Thinifer as I used to be. :)

[info]nightingal_echo

November 11 2005, 15:57:55 UTC 6 years ago

hey, you seem worthy enough to be added to my flist.. would you like to be?

[info]planettom

November 11 2005, 16:02:23 UTC 6 years ago

Sure, I would be honored!

"I'd like to thank the Academy for this nomination..."

[info]nightingal_echo

November 11 2005, 16:31:57 UTC 6 years ago

added!
feel free to add me back :D

[info]planettom

November 11 2005, 23:25:51 UTC 6 years ago

done!

Anonymous

April 30 2007, 12:51:13 UTC 5 years ago

I had the book too!

I had the book too, and really liked it. Came across a copy in a 2nd hand shop recently and read it again for the first time in probably getting on for 20 - 30 years! I remember the way that the entrance to the escalator was between two large upright stones - really caught my imagination!

Anonymous

May 28 2007, 12:31:04 UTC 4 years ago

Fattypuffs and Thinnifers

Have to confess I had the original English edition as a child - twas probably my older brother's. The illustrations were, in my memory at least, far superior to the examples you shewed.

[info]planettom

May 28 2007, 13:37:36 UTC 4 years ago

Re: Fattypuffs and Thinnifers

I think you're misremembering. It's extremely unlikely that the illustrations in the volume you had as a child were any different from these, which are the same in the original French version.

Anonymous

May 30 2007, 16:13:12 UTC 4 years ago

Re: Fattypuffs and Thinnifers

(I'm the "found one in a 2nd hand shop" poster above). Yes, I remember the illustrations were definitely the same in the book I originally had. Very distinctive!!

[info]masterkreed

November 25 2007, 21:26:45 UTC 4 years ago

guess a great book
how old was you when you read it first time?
i really like such kind of books and have many times reread my childhood collection
btw- pics not displaying
my blog

Anonymous

January 10 2008, 16:00:16 UTC 4 years ago

Fattypuffs and Thinifers

This is a genius book and I recently read it to my daughter - she loved it.

Anonymous

January 24 2008, 04:46:42 UTC 4 years ago

thinifers and fattifpuffs

The book was by the French author Andre Maurois, which I first read in the
early 1940's. The Thinifers, in retrospect, were obviously
German, who were ultradisciplined, slept in a tube at a 45 degree angle downwards, woken up by an alarmwhich dispatched them into a tub of ice water. The Fattifpuffs,
by contrast, were hedonists, who loved life and were obiously French. The war between the Thinifers and the Fattipuffs left the French defeated. The Germans, literal-minded as they were,
missed the symbolism. Neither did they the understand the symbolism of Camus' "The Plague", also written during the German occupation of France, and which was also was really about
the German occupation of France.

[info]jaobedoza

March 6 2008, 10:21:32 UTC 4 years ago

Why did the Thinifers win the war? I figured they are no match for the more robust Fattipuffs army.

Anonymous

May 7 2008, 17:31:36 UTC 4 years ago

I have fattipuffs and thinifers and even now, at 34 I love this book!

Anonymous

June 21 2008, 11:36:36 UTC 3 years ago

So glad to find others have heard of it!

I was just googling as i remember Fattypuffs and Thinifers very fondly from Jackanory (BBC tv) in my childhood - i don't think i ever held the book in my hands. I had no idea it was by André Maurois, and Wikipedia tells me it's Patapoufs et Filifers in French.
Also, at the bottom of the Wikipedia article: "The Film Consortium has the rights to make a film of the story and has even received £20,000 of UK National Lottery funding."
I've also just found it on Amazon for less than £4! yippee 80)
mand

[info]easytiger1

May 16 2009, 18:46:49 UTC 3 years ago

galdi

I also had this book in the seventies and although I thought it was good it always creeped me out a bit. I remember one trench warfare sketch where the fattipuffs had huge bulbous trenches to accommodate their girth and the thinnifers had tall narrow trenches....

Anonymous

April 22 2010, 01:03:04 UTC 2 years ago

I also had this book as a child and absolutely loved it. I read it over and over. There was so much humor, both in the texts and the illustrations. It was a satire of human nature, in some ways a little like Gulliver's Travels. Nobody I have ever met has ever heard of the book. Thanks for posting -- now I know I am not alone!

[info]planettom

April 22 2010, 12:01:23 UTC 2 years ago

I should point out, I thought this book was out of print --- and maybe it is ---- but there's a 2000 paperback reprint that can be found on Amazon for between $10-$20: Amazon.

Anonymous

July 7 2010, 21:33:07 UTC 1 year ago

oh my god i remember this book typed it in google to find it and this came up ......

Anonymous

January 27 2012, 15:36:37 UTC 3 months ago

I too read the book & loved it. I've never forgotten it & can still vividly remember the artwork. It's a shame that it probably would be considered politically incorrect as it is one of those rare things...A perfect book for kids. Happy memories !
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