Maigret Forum

www.surlepavelaplume.com/les-dates/dimanche-20-juillet-a-14h30

Regards
Jérôme

6/15/14 – In response to Cathy's question (below) about audio books...

Regards,
Jérôme

Cathy

I'm wondering what kind of sentence Aline Bauche would have received for her part in the murder of Manuel Palmari.

Undoubtedly Ferdinand Barillard would have gone to the guillotine given that he fired the gun and also, off his own initiative, murdered Jef Claes, but I would be interested to know if it is likely that Aline would have lived long enough to be released. I'm assumed from reading the story that Aline is somewhere between 25-35 years old.

The line that makes me wonder is in the last chapter where Maigret takes her the long route from Rue des Acacias to the Quai and she looks out of the window of the car "knowing that she might never see it again or at least will be a very old woman."

No worries if no-one knows. I can continue research elsewhere.

Cheers!
Keith

Martin Cooke

MONSIEUR SIMENON HAS LOCKED HIMSELF IN

May 22, 2014

Georges Simenon The Grand Banks Café translated by David Coward and The Mahé Circle translated by Siân Reynolds (both forthcoming with Penguin Classics, June 2014)

by Graeme Macrae Burnet

In November 2013, Penguin launched their publication of the complete series of Georges Simenon’s Maigret novels, all in new translations by renowned translators such as David Bellos, Anthea Bell and, in the case of the current volumes, David Coward and Siân Reynolds It’s a colossal venture, seventy-five titles to be issued monthly for six years, with the stated aim of bringing Simenon’s work to a wider British audience. This is welcome, of course, but there persists a feeling, in the UK at least, that Simenon’s novels are fast food rather than fine dining; there to be guzzled in quantity, rather than lingered over. It’s a perception for which the author himself must bear some responsibility, given that he hardly lingered over his works, turning out each novel in a brisk eleven days. Simenon made himself into a one-man literary industry, producing around 185 novels over a period of forty years, yet he craved critical acclaim. When Camus won the Nobel prize in 1957 (on the basis, it should be remembered, of three slim novels and a couple of volumes of essays), Simenon flew into a rage and declared, “Can you believe that asshole got it and not me.”[1]

It is perhaps the Maigret books that are responsible for Simenon’s exclusion from the pantheon of great twentieth-century writers. There is nothing wrong with the detective novels. They are written with Simenon’s customary sparse elegance and are often rich in atmosphere and setting, but they largely remain genre pieces, and, trapped in the point-of-view of the affable Inspector, they lack the psychological insight that characterises the author’s non-Maigret works.

In 1955, Simenon gave an interview to the Paris Review at his then home in Connecticut. The interviewer, Carvel Collins, asked how the Maigret novels differ from his romans durs or “hard novels,” as the author called them. “Exactly the same difference,” Simenon replied, “that exists between the painting of a painter and the sketch he will make for his pleasure or for his friends or to study something.”

He then describes the process of writing of each roman dur...

complete article here

Jérôme

All 54 are available subtitled via MHz networks (or Amazon etc):

shop.mhznetworks.org/DVD-Maigret-Sets-1-9.html

www.amazon.com/Maigret-Set-1-Bruno-Cremer

If, like me, you have invested in the original sets from France, you will have to repurchase most of what you have already subtitled to get the rest - the MHz releases do not follow the French sets in their content order.

Ward Saylor

The length of the recordings I've downloaded suggests they are unabridged readings.

www.audible.co.uk for more details and audio samples.

Cheers!
Keith

Martin Cooke

1. I own all the Cremer Maigret films, and they are wonderful-- but I have to read the subtitles-- would it not be wonderful if they could be dubbed into English, so the magic could be shared? The British actor (he also played Dumbledore in Harry Potter, cant think of his name) would be fantastic for the voice over-- what do you think, is there a place to write to start momentum on such a thing -- especially since Penguin is re-releasing the entire book run?

2. Have there been any comic book versions of the Maigrets?

A few, though not in English... described here.

3. How many Maigrets are there? I think about 75, but other estimates run as high as 300-- you are the expert--what do you think? (I want to own them all....)

Thank you for your wonderful site!
Don C. Reed