Georges Simenon Books

I was disappointed in this collection, and it really doesn't show Simenon at his best. In fact, I can't honestly say there is a single compelling story here, which is certainly not something one usually says about Simenon!

Because Simenon wrote in French, the English translations of his works are sometimes confusing, especially the titles. For example, some translations have this title as "Maigret and the Pickpocket," but here it is "Maigret's Pickpocket." One must presume that the stories are the same.

Chief Inspector Maigret rides buses to save taxi fares and because he has mild claustrophobia on the Paris subways. He is not supplied with his own automobile; indeed, he does not have a drivers license. One day he is on the bus platform and has his pocket picked by a young man who leaps off the bus and disappears into the crowd. A few days later the postman brings Maigret an envelope containing his wallet, all his papers, money, and badge. He is also contacted by the pickpocket who asks for help: his wife has been murdered in their grubby apartment.

The famous detective is soon involved in a baffling case, with artsy movie people, free love of a sort, etc. The plot is interesting enough, but once again the real joy in reading Simenon's books is with the prose itself, his economy of language, the atmosphere and the characters. His books should be studied by anyone interested in how to write well.

Maigret is one of the best detective characters in all of crime fiction. He is married, frugal, drinks on duty, kindly, thoughtful, logical, and just plain wonderful. Simenon wrote many, many novels, but never too many. Each of the dozens I've read have been delightful.

I received this as a gift and it was great fun to read. It contains 26 short stories revolving around Xmas by some of the great writers such as Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Ellery Queen, Damon Runyan, etc. A great gift for the mystery lover!

Anglophones know Simenon from the endless pot-boiler Maigret novels. This one is up several notches on Maigret. Superb atmosphere and setting in wartime occupation. A sort of melange of "Crime and Punishment", "Catcher in the Rye" and "Darkness at Noon" but superior to all three. A movie adaptation was made in 1953 but hard to see how it could do justice to this; the apex of criminal psychological writing.

Exodus ii. 22.

Georges Simenon was nothing if not prolific in both his literary and public life. Born in Belgium in 1903, Simenon turned out hundreds of novels. Simenon's obsession with writing caused him to break off an affair (he was prolific in this area of his life as well) with the celebrated Josephine Baker in Paris when he could only write twelve novels in the twelve month period in which they were involved. Although perhaps best known for his Inspector Maigret detective novels, Simenon also wrote over a hundred novels that he referred to as `romans durs' (literally "hard novels"). "Strangers in the House" is one of Simenon's hard novels and to call it noir is not an understatement.

Hector Loursat, an accomplished attorney, has been a stranger in his own house ever since his wife abandoned him and their newborn child eighteen years ago. Since that time Loursat's universe has shrunk to his bedroom, his library and his dining room. He barely speaks to his now 18 year old daughter or their cook. They are for all intents and purposes, strangers. He is a hermit, alone with his books and a profligate amount of burgundy and brandy. It is only the murderous presence of other strangers in his house that may stir him out of his emotional coma. That dark-setting forms the backdrop for "Strangers in the House".

Loursat is roused from his alcohol-induced sleep by what he thinks may be a gunshot. His suspicions are confirmed when he stumbles through portions of the house he hasn't seen in years and discovers a body. He soon discovers that his daughter has fallen in with something of a gang of youths who like to live on the edge. The rest of the novel finds Loursat grappling with the implications of the murder. We see Loursat struggling out of his hermetic cocoon. The reader is left to wonder, as the story progresses, whether Loursat can break out of his cocoon long enough to connect with his daughter and protect her interests through a criminal investigation and trial.

The result is wholly satisfying. I was totally drawn to the character of Loursat. Simenon does not make him particularly attractive. His word pictures of Loursat's appearance and manner are not designed to elicit great sympathy. Nevertheless, the pain Loursat has suffered (although unstated) is palpable and as the story progressed I could not help but hope that Loursat would find the strength to `set things right' both with the criminal investigation and trial and with his life. The result is surprising but it also felt just about right.

New York Review of Books should be congratulated for bringing Simenon's classic `romans durs' back into print. The paperback quality is excellent and each novel in the series is introduced by a writer of note. In this instance the marvelous P.D. James writes a brief but powerful introduction. I recommend all of Simenon's books and Strangers in the House is no exception. L. Fleisig

This volume of "Three Nouvelles" by George Simenon is offered as a reading text for students of French who have studied the language for at least two semesters in college or four semesters in secondary school.
The editors consider these stories to be particularly suitable for class use at this level.

In addition this anthology presents modern characters, offers concrete action, and grips the attention by generous suspense... qualities generally sought by teachers and students alike.

The features of this book enhance the languagelearning process by promoting not only compatability between student and text, but also ease of understanding through structural simplicity and ease of retention through frequent repetition.

As a further aid to understanding, the editors have prepared a questionnaire designed to encourage conversational exchange in the classroom while eliciting a resume' of the main points, both factual and psychological, of each story. (Includes a series of pattern drills and exercises as well as an extensive vocabulary in the back).

Georges Simenon, as everybody knows, was a Belgian who went to live in Switzerland. Well, that's about what I knew of the fellow before reading this interesting partial autobiography. I think it says somewhere at the beginning that he had intended not to write about himself ever, but that some event involving a child of his changed his mind. Whatever the reason, this look at part of a writer's hectic life is not without interest.

Simenon lived in a mist of rumour and legend. Of course, this was largely of his own making and he does little to correct matters in the book. Although known as something of a, to put it politely, lover of women's company, he does not go into this Paris Match side of things at all. Instead, he lets us see a bit of the inner man, or what a clever writer may be selling to us as such, and, all the criticism of him after his death notwithstanding, I for one felt that I got somewhat closer to the enigma. It was almost as if he was saying (in about 1963) that he wasn't such a bad fellow after all.

There is much of interest to anyone wondering about the author of Maigret, but precious little about Maigret himself. Just some tedious details of how he could write a novel a week and live rather handsomely without even getting tendinitis. It's hard to know how you can take Georges Simenon seriously. He led a charmed life in many ways, and his famous temper (like that of Peter Sellers) and love of womankind if not mankind, made him a force to be reckoned with. In "When I Was Old," we get a glimpse of the man who held millions in thrall for so many years. It's worth the look.

but another man shall lie with her." Deuteronomy 28:30

Georges Simenon was nothing if not prolific in both his literary and public life. Born in Belgium in 1903, Simenon turned out hundreds of novels. Simenon's obsession with writing caused him to break off an affair (he was prolific in this area of his life as well) with the celebrated Josephine Baker in Paris when he could only write twelve novels in the twelve month period in which they were involved. Although perhaps best known for his Inspector Maigret detective novels, Simenon also wrote over a hundred novels that he referred to as `romans durs' (literally "hard novels"). These hard stories typically involve a person's descent from normality (or a life that seems to bear the appearance of normality) into nihilism and despair. Usually there is a triggering event, a murder, a bankruptcy, or simply too much to drink on a road trip. The publishing arm of `"The New York Review" NYRB Books is reissuing Simenon's hard novels. "The Engagement" is one of Simenon's earliest hard novels and it was hard to put down. The story line is rather a simple one.

Mr. Hire is a quiet man. But he isn't quiet in the way that he blends into the background. He's quiet in the way that his neighbors find him odd and more than a bit scary. Odd in such a way that children are pulled into their parent's apartment when he is heard walking around in his Paris apartment. And, critically for "The Engagement", odd in such a way that when a neighborhood prostitute is found murdered, the concierge in his apartment tells the police Hire is the culprit. "The Engagement" is a study in contrasts. It gives us Mr. Hire, going about his daily business and gives us the police (with the helpful assistance of Hire's neighbors) going about their business and slowly obtaining enough information to arrest him for murder.

The storyline may not sound unique but the devil is always in the details. Simenon's prose may be direct and to the point but he manages to paint a compelling picture of his protagonists. Mr. Hire, the concierge, and the young girl across the street with whom Mr. Hire shares a voyeuristic relationship that holds the key to the story line, are all wonderfully drawn. Hire is not an attractive person yet this reader could not help but feel no small amount of empathy toward. It is hard to give examples without divulging too much of the plot. Suffice it to say that Simenon knows how to craft sentences that keep the reader turning page after page after page.

Simenon's hard novels are often referred to as psychological novels but I find that term a bit misleading. Simenon does not analyze. He does not delve deep into his protagonists' minds. He presents a story stripped of moralizing or analysis. He presents the reader with a slice of the human condition, usually an unpleasant slice, and lets the reader deal with the implications, the psychoanalysis if you like. They do offer glimpses into his protagonists' lives even though (or perhaps because) he does not fill in the blanks for you. His character's actions speak for themselves and what they have to say is not always pleasant. In a world of fiction filled with happiness and redemption and the ultimate triumph of good against evil, Simenon is a breath of fresh (if pessimistic) air. I recommend highly all of Simenon's romans durs and The Engagement is no exception. L. Fleisig

Georges Simeon was the ultimate spy. He perched on the edge of everyone's lives and wrote down in novel form exactly what he saw. The characters in his novels are more real than the characters in real life. All of the action takes place in a field that can only be described as the color gray-the rain cloud field in which our human tragedies and redemptions occur.

I don't know why in lists of great writers of the twentieth century Simenon is not listed - up there with the likes of Kafka, Joyce, Proust, Lovecraft, Chesterton, Djuna Barnes, and all of the other players. Simenon was born for the twentieth century - it finds its most major representation in no other writer.

No question that for Simenon, less is more, as this enormously talented writer in "The Engagement" sketches out the essential lines of his protagonists and their rather drab and robotic lives with such skill that he engages us at every turn. What's real to Simenon is desire, greed, and death. There's little room here for sentiment, and if you're looking for a sweet confection, you've definitely entered the wrong door.

Simenon has created a "modern" twentieth-century man, Mr. Hire, who really has no spiritual or moral center. He simply is a collection of habits and fears, spiced with perverse self-flagellating pleasures and one great but rather ridiculous skill. His alienation from society, which itself is presented as crude and hard and bordering on a violent mob, is sad and almost understandable, considering his dysfunctionality may have a basis in the gross nature of those who surround him. Yet his one soft spot is the highly sexual dairy maid, Alice, who lives directly across from him. Her little piece of paradise is so close that he can see right into her windows.

So goes this Hitchcockian plot as Mr. Hire's robotic life is disrupted by this seductress and by the police. Underlying this plot is Simenon's writing machinery, which carries with it a valueless worldview. The author is really telling us we all amount to very little in the end: a collection of habits, enactments of our desires, and vain hopes for a better life. Why we are who we are is not of any significance to what we do while we are here in this life.

I found this work to be extraordinary in its philosophical and psychological implications. Simenon was way ahead of his time as a writer and thinker. Not only that, his selection of detail and his ability to draw up whole scenes through the skillful use of the five senses could teach many a writer how to make the page come alive.

Originally published in 1933, this slim volume already showcases Simenon's unique brand of realism, which eschews easy humanism in favor of a punishingly bleak moral universe. The story centers on Mr. Hire, the middle-aged son of working class immigrant parents. When a prostitute is murdered in his neighborhood, Hire's asocial habits, petty criminal record and ethically dubious profession leads the police to his door. Fed by the suspicions of vindictive neighbors, detectives tail him relentlessly, waiting for Hire to slip up and yield any evidence linking him to the crime. Readers of Simenon's so called 'romans durs' will find The Engagement to be an excellent early example of its type. Furthermore, the brief afterword by John Gray provides informative context for the novel as well as evidence of a rare instance of autobiographical sourcing.

When a prostitute is murdered in an abandoned lot, all eyes look towards Mr. Hire as the suspect. The reader can certainly understand why. Hire makes his income in a petty postal scam and his main hobby is peeping on the woman across the courtyard as she undresses. His past is no better, with a conviction for petty sex offenses and some time in prison. No wonder the guy is in the crosshairs.

Yet THE ENGAGEMENT is one of Simenon's roman durs (hard novels) with more of a noir edge to them. Hire is innocent of the crime but, as is true for the roman durs, hardly innocent in any other application of the term. Hire's apparently empty internal world collides with the external as Hire realizes that some others, specifically the police, do not consider him to be as inconsequential as he thought. The scene in which Hire discovers at the train station that he is being watched and followed was among the most simple yet powerful scenes I have encountered of a character's horror at having his comfortable little world disturbed through no fault of one's own.

Despite his initial shock, Hire soon comes to enjoy being the center of someone's attention and starts showing off for the detectives on his tail. This excitement is heightened when the girl on whom Hire peeps starts showing some romantic interest. But in a morally vacuous world, it is all a ruse. Hire is being played for the sap. Even if the police knew of Hire's innocence, it is questionable whether they would care. They show the same apathy towards the lives of others as everyone else and seem less concerned with nabbing the real murderer than they are in getting the case behind them. They are just playing a different role in the game.

In his roman durs, Simenon shows no concern for issues of right and wrong. The amorality of the world simply is a given in which people are thrust and left to their own devices. It is an interesting world to visit while hoping we never find ourselves as its tenants.

Firstly, I must complain about this book cover!!!! Do these people actually read the books they are trying to sell? Anyway, no use getting academic about this wonferful book by the beloved Inspector Maigret author. This novel makes you forget everything around you, and you simply become part of the protagonist's luggage on his way from Holland to Paris one cold evening. I am sure many of us wish we could just get up and leave everything behind like this family man and correct employee did. Only we hope it doesn't end like his spontaneous little outing. Oh it is a lovely WINTER book. ENDULGE under a cozy quilt.

Simenon in a slow but progressive manner has the ability to draw the reader into the life of the protaganist no matter how heinous the situation. This is well manifest in this typical Simenon psychological thriller. If you like this type of ouevre The Man Who Watched Trains will fit the bill.

This book stands as evidence of the literary crime that has been perpetrated against the legacy of Georges Simenon over the last century. Written in 1938, 'The Man Who Watched Trains Go By' predates Camus' 'l'etranger' by eight years. Simenon's work is the study of what happens when a once uber-respectable bastion of bourgeois values watches as the very foundations of his existence crumble before his eyes. The pace at which the novel's central figure degenerates from an upstanding business leader obsessed with managing appearances to a bestial creature succumbing to every whim and fancy--all the while meticulously recording each step of his progress in his little red notebook--is dizzying. The questions raised by Simenon regarding man's confrontation with the ephemeral nature of meaning in existence are addressed at least as skillfully as Camus would nearly a decade later. This work--and many of Simenon's other romans durs--remain an essential link in the chain of existential novels ranging from Dostoevsky to Camus and Sartre. The fact that Simenon's works are not celebrated as such represents a significant injustice.

but above all the desire to despair and to negate. Camus.

Despair and negation predominate in Georges Simenon's "The Man Who Watched Trains Go By", a book that I considered to be darker than noir.

Simenon was nothing if not prolific in both his literary and public life. Born in Belgium in 1903, Simenon turned out hundreds of novels. Simenon's obsession with writing caused him to break off an affair (he was prolific in this area of his life as well) with the celebrated Josephine Baker in Paris when he could only write twelve novels in the twelve month period in which they were involved. Although perhaps best known for his Inspector Maigret detective novels, Simenon also wrote over a hundred novels that he referred to as `romans durs' (literally "hard novels"). As with many of his contemporaries such as Chandler and Hammett, Simenon's books were marketed and sold as popular, pulp fiction. Also like Chandler and Hammett, Simenon's books have stood up well over time. The New York Review of Books publishing division has reissued much of Simenon's books. They are well worth reading and "The Man Who Watch Trains Go By" is an excellent place to start.

The story's protagonist and narrator is Kees Poppinga. As the book opens Kees is seen and sees himself as a stolidly middle-class Dutch citizen living a life of relative comfort in the coastal town of Groningen. He is secure in his job as the manager of a ship's supply company. His sense of security is reflected in an attitude best described as smug and more than a bit conceited. On the surface, Kees' life seems well insulated from the harsher side of life. But Simenon shows us quickly that this appearance of security was really a thin veneer that could be washed away at a moment's notice. One night, Kees discovers that his company's owner has driven the company into bankruptcy. Kees will soon be out of the job and will likely lose everything he holds dear.

The rest of the book focuses on Kees' decent from smug satisfaction to nihilism and despair. Stripped of his middle-class sense of security Kees finds that he is also stripped of all those societal restraints that most civilized members of society have. Kees embarks on a journey of death, deceit, and madness. The only character trait that remains is one of conceit and superiority as he travel to Paris and falls in with the Parisian underworld.

The reader experience this journey through the narration of Kees and Simenon does an excellent job of allowing the reader to look out at the world through the eyes of a madman. It is something of an uncomfortable feeling but it made for compelling reason. I have already compared Simenon to Chandler and Hammett because they wrote in a similar genre and were contemporaries. As far as contemporary writers are concerned, the French-writer Michel Houellebecq (Elementary Particles) seems remarkably similar in both tone and style.

I have now read two of Simenon's romans durs and three of his Inspector Maigret mysteries. They have all been worth reading and if you are interested in either the detective genre or the type of dark psychological novel described here, Simenon is well worth discovering. L. Fleisig

Kees Popinga, a conventional Dutch family man, learns that his employer has bankrupted the firm, thus depriving him of both income and savings. With all the underpinnings of his life gone, he suddenly takes one of those trains he had been watching for so long and goes to Paris, committing a more or less accidental murder along the way. The rest of the book shows him on the run, wanted by the police of two countries.

Although Simenon is most famous as the author of the Inspector Maigret mysteries, and there is certainly a police investigation in this book, the story is told from the point of view of the criminal, not the detective. There is no mystery here; Popinga leaves more than enough evidence to be identified easily, and he soon starts writing letters to the papers and the police. Even the term "on the run" is wrong; "on the walk" would be more appropriate, for Popinga remains icily calm. Although the press describe him as a madman, he has never felt more in control; it was his previous bourgeois life that was the lie, not this one.

Why does Simenon choose a Dutch protagonist and set the opening of his novel in the far North of Holland? As a French-speaking Belgian, it seems he despised the phlegmatic Flemish and Dutch temperament, and viewed their smug respectability as the death of the soul. For Kees Popinga, nearing 40, epitomizes the family values. He is a good provider, with a solid job; he has a good house in a good neighborhood, equipped with the most modern appliances; he has two perfectly-spaced children that he sends to good schools, and a wife who is so faceless that she is referred to from beginning to end as Mother. Yet, as Luc Sante describes it in his fine introduction to the NYRB edition (though NOT to be read before the novel itself), "whatever pin was holding Popinga together has been pulled out." Like a grenade, he explodes.

But unlike a grenade, he does so gradually, retaining traces of his bourgeois habits to the end. Clerklike, he keeps a meticulous notebook of his doings. Although described as a sex fiend, his relationships with the women he picks up are almost sexless. He approaches his life as a wanted man with the same care he might have used to organize an office. This is the second of Simenon's so-called "hard novels" (romans durs) that I have read, after his earlier TROPIC MOON. Both are relentless psychological studies of men who lose their hold on normal life. But whereas the earlier book was as hot as its African setting, the hardness here is that of ice; imagine a Balzac or a Dostoyevsky describing an inevitable degeneration, but in compressed form and without the passion. Chilling.

All the same, I preferred TROPIC MOON, because of the wider sweep of its indictment of colonialism. There is social criticism here too, of a certain ideal of respectability; but that is less easily localized . . . and perhaps just a little too close to home.

Great dealer, excellent service buy with confidence. Great book too! funny, fast and well written. Simenon says in one sentence what many writers struggle to say in a paragraph.

Georges Simenon created 75 short novels and nearly 30 short stories featuring Inspector Maigret. With such prodigious output there was considerable danger of repetition, even monotony. And yet, the Maigret mysteries are notable for their variety.

The Madman of Bergerac is a classic example of Simenon's ability to surprise the reader. Within pages we find our friend (and indeed it is difficult not to like and to admire Maigret) shot for no apparent reason. Feverish and in pain, Maigret tries to unravel two murders from his bed in a small hotel in Bergerac before more killings occur.

Maigret (and the reader) must rely on second hand accounts and descriptions of various locales related to the murders. All that visit him - the local prosecutor, the examining magistrate, the local police inspector, and others - are convinced that these murders are the work of a madman. Maigret himself is unsure, and in expressing doubt alienates the local authorities.

Paying attention to dialogue is always important in a Maigret mystery, but with Maigret trapped in his bed, barely able to move, dialogue is even more critical. Lacking his Parisian detective staff the incapacitated Maigret proceeds by way of his intellect and deductive skills, giving us greater insight into Maigret himself. As with many Maigret mysteries, the solution is in part dependent on information provided by police agencies elsewhere. This is as it should be as these stories are an early form of the procedural mystery.

The Madman of Bergerac was first published in France in 1932. This 2003 paperback edition by Penguin Books is most welcome. The stylish cover and unique size (4.75 x 6.5 inches) lend a contemporary feeling to this reprint. The price is a little high, but nonetheless I am looking forward to more Maigret mysteries from Penguin Books.

I am not mad. Salvador Dali.

That premise, so aptly stated by Salvador Dali, forms the philosophy that guides Inspector Maigret in his search for the person the inhabitants of the quaint French town of Dordogne consider to be a maniacal killer. The fact that this premise deeply offends the bourgeoisie sensibilities of the townsfolk of Dordogne seems not to matter overly much to Maigret although it certainly added to the enjoyment of reading Georges Simenon's "The Madman of Bergerac".

Georges Simenon was the author of over 100 Inspector Maigret mystery stories. They were immensely popular in the 1930s through the 1960s. Inspector Maigret stories also appeared in film and TV versions. Simenon also authored dozens of books that he described as "romans durs", roughly translated as`hard stories' that had a darker tone than his Maigret novels. Simenon seems to have fallen under the radar in recent decades but in recent years he seems to have been rediscovered by a new generation of mystery/detective story fans. Penguin Books has begun to reissue some of those Maigret mysteries and the New York Review of Books Press has reissued some of his `hard stories'. Penguin's latest Inspector Maigret Mystery reissue, "The Madman of Bergerac" is a fine example of the Simenon's craft and a fine example of Simenon's craftsmanship.

In the absence of a book description I think it appropriate to set out the basic plot of the book. Set in 1932, it is a warm, sunny March in Paris and since Inspector Maigret is not particularly busy and his wife is out of town he decides to take up the open invitation to visit is his retired former colleague Inspector Leduc. Leduc has a cottage near Dordogne in south-west France. Unable to sleep on the overnight train ride because of the disturbing noises made by the fellow in the upper berth, Maigret follows his berth-mate into the corridor to get some air. He is so astonished to see the man jump off the train as it slows down around a curve in the tracks on its approach to a station that he jumps off the train in pursuit. The man immediately shoots Maigret. Maigret is found and taken to hospital where he is accused by the police of being "the madman of Bergerac", a killer who has already killed two local girls. Once he is identified as a police inspector from Paris, Maigret sets out to solve the crimes. However, due to his wounds Simenon is confined to his bed. He sends for his wife to assist him and quickly begins and completes the investigation while confined to bed-rest.

As implied at the beginning of the review, Maigret insists that the killer is very likely a local who appears to one and all to be perfectly sane - apart from the fact that he every now and again commits a brutal murder. This theory is considered insulting by the townsfolk but Maigret is not deterred and the investigation continues.

Simenon's Inspector Maigret mysteries are often compared to Christie's Hercule Poirot mysteries. There are many resemblances to be sure. There are some major differences however worth noting. The chief differences seem to me to be Simenon's darker touch and his rather cynical feelings toward the more `respectable' members of French society. This is very evident in the "Madman of Bergerac" but it is not so intrusive that it gets in the way of the story and telling the story always seems to be Simenon's main focus. Simenon treats words with respect and doesn't use more than seems necessary to advance the story.

Finally, for me, the centerpiece of any detective story of this type is the character of the detective. In the case of Maigret, the more I read of him the more I enjoy his character. This was a fast-paced well written story that can be read in one or two sittings. Recommended. L. Fleisig

Reading Simenon is like eating pistachios--it soon becomes compulsive because the item consumed is so tasty. In "The Madman," Inspector Maigret is laid up in a provincial French town after being wounded by a man he was tracking (for his own, not police, reasons). Intrigued by rumors of a "madman" on the loose in this town, Simenon begins his own bedside investigation into the crime. Without benefit of even a wheelchair to survey much of the town's layout (a lá Jimmy Stewart in "Rear Window," which this novel predates by several decades), Maigret's insight into human nature is such that, within the confines of 150 or so pages, he pieces together what is happening, unraveling a host of small-town hypocricies along the way. My only complaint about the Maigret novels (and what keeps me holding back the fifth of five stars from my review) is that, unlike Simenon's "dark" novels, they have "happy endings"; i.e., the bad guy is caught. Reality often veers away from our desires for "closure," yet even with the Maigret novels, Simenon lays bare the thin skrim that separates civility from ruthlessness.