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Maigret Forum

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Please reissue the Rupert Davies Maigret series... a petition to BBC New Maigrets in Hungarian 5/7/08 – Last month two Maigret titles were published by the Park Publ. Co.: new title: L'inspecteur Cadavre Maigret és a kiugrott felügyelő published in a new translation: Maigret Maigret és a mamlasz unokaöccs Best wishes, Viola Bátonyi Maigret St. overlooking Diamond Head! 5/2/08 – Driving high up on St. Louis Drive in Honolulu the other day, I was surprised to find Maigret Street... with a view of Diamond Head! How did Maigret Street get to Honolulu? I haven't had any luck finding out so far, but it's also interesting that it's at the corner of St. Louis Drive -- Ile Saint-Louis is very close to Maigret's office in Paris... ST (Ahh, a little more research reveals the presence of an important missionary, Bishop Maigret, in Honolulu in the mid-19th Century... debunking the rumor of an infamous "Maigret Goes to Waikiki" case which had been purged from the archives...) Bibliography of Works about Simenon 4/23/08 – Here's an exciting and well-done new resource: Bernd Fischer has compiled a 121-page survey attempting to list all the books on the life and work of Simenon (biographies, critical works, magazines, reportages) in French, English, German, Italian, Dutch and Spanish, along with cover images for many of the items. Below is the introductory note and links to the work as both MS Word and PDF files, which he has made available to us. SIMENON Biographies, bibliographies and critical works 1939 - 2007 Compiled by Bernd Fischer, Köln Note: The following survey covers publications in book form on Simenon´s life and work in French, English, German, Dutch, Italian and Spanish (single articles in magazines or newspapers are not included). There are also sections with Simenon´s reports (reportages) and autobiographical writings and a selection of magazine issues devoted to Simenon. The cover images are not to scale. I´m aware that this work-in-progress is incomplete and not without faults. Any comments (corrections, addenda, missing or better cover imagess etc.) are welcome and should be sent to b.fischer@uni-koeln.de. MS Word file (40 mb) PDF file (14 mb) You can also access these files on this site on the Simenon page and the Simenon: Selected Biographies... page. Great work Bernd! Thank you! ST Simenon No. 2 on Times Top 50 4/20/08 – From Times Online April 18, 2008 The 50 Greatest Crime Writers Our selection of the all-time greats 1. Patricia Highsmith - Rule-breaking master of amorality 2. Georges Simenon - The Trojan horse of foreign crime-writing 3. Agatha Christie - The original Queen of Crime 4. Raymond Chandler - The most profound of pulp writers 5. Elmore Leonard - The Dickens of Detroit 6. Arthur Conan Doyle - Creator of the ultimate hero-and-sidekick team 7. Ed McBain - Thrilling writer of snap-and-crackle dialogue 8. James M. Cain - Godfather of Noir 9. Ian Rankin - Edinburgh’s gritty crime laureate 10. James Lee Burke - American spinner of bleakly lyrical tales Full list here Roddy Boris Tenine Maigret series 4/16/08 – Nice work, Mattias! But I don't think it completely rules out the existence of a longer Soviet series with Tenine. Although we've seen many examples of Haining's errors (often found by Mattias!), Haining's listing is for a 1969 series "Detective Maigret" from Studio Leninfilm, with personnel who don't appear in the later films, so there still seems to be a possibility... ST BorisTenine x3 – and yet another screen Maigret 4/15/08 – I have finally managed to unearth more information about the Boris Tenine series hinted at in Peter Haining’s book. It turns out that although it isn’t quite correct to talk about a series, Tenine did actually return to the part twice. The title we have encountered earlier, "Megre i staraya dama" from 1974, was actually his second outing as Maigret; he had essayed the part the year before in a two-parter based on "Maigret et l’homme du banc" which seems to have been popular enough to warrant his return the year after. Perhaps even more interesting is that he returned a third time in 1981 as Maigret in an adaptation of "Maigret hésite". An even bigger surprise was that when the Russians in 1987 decided to film a new Maigret, Tenine did not return. Perhaps he was too ill? (He died in 1990.) Instead, the part went to Armenian Armen Djigarkhanyan. The irregularity of the "series" is intriguing; the reason cannot have been the difficulty of finding anti-capitalist aspects in the books (they would decidedly not have adapted them at all if this had been the case) what with the rich lady in "Maigret et la vieille dame" and the corrupt politicians in "Maigret chez le minister" that must have been ideal for that kind of thing, so the explanation why they were so far in between must be found elsewhere. Boris Tenine Armen Djigarkhanyan To judge from photos both Tenine and Djigarkhanyan seem quite good choices for Maigret, the former even ideal, though not having seen them "in action" as it were, makes it hard to say much more about them. Actually, all four TV-productions seem to be available on the net from telespektakli.ru, but not being able to read, not to mention speak, Russian I don’t even know if they deliver abroad. If there is anyone out there who could help me, I would be very grateful if he or she would contact me as I am very anxious to get hold of them, especially since "Maigret hésite" is my favourite. Мегрэ И Человек На Скамейке 1973 (Megre i Chelovek Na Skameyke) (Maigret et l’homme du banc) Director: Vyacheslav Brovkin Length: 2:28:53 Cast: Boris Tenin (Maigret), Tatiana Karpova, Natalya Varley, L. Sukharevskaya, Vera Vasileva, L. Bogdanov, Rolan Bykov, Arkady Peselev, Opisanie Мегрэ и старая дама 1974 (Megre i staraya dama) (Maigret et la vieille dame) Director: Vyacheslav Brovkin Length: 2:33:40 Cast: Boris Tenin (Maigret), Elena Fadeeva (Valentine), Yuri Katin-Yartsev (Doctor), Vanguard Leontiev, Elena Kozelkova (Arlette), Anatoly Romashin (Theo), Igor Yankovsky (Henri), Leonid Satanovsky Мегрэ Колеблется 1981 (Megre Kolebletsya) (Maigret hésite) Director: Vyacheslav Brovkin Length: 2:53:02 Cast: Boris Tenin (Maigret), Tatyana Lavrova, Arcady Peselev, Jury Grigoryan, Natalia Moleva, Nina Arhipov, Ruslanov Vadim, Sergey Skripkin, Irina Yurevich Мегрэ у министра 1987 (Megre u ministra) (Maigret chez le minister) Director and script: Vyacheslav Brovkin, Length: 2:16:22 Cast: Armen Djigarkhanyan (Мaigret), Peter Velyaminov (Minister Point), Boris Khimichev (Mascolin), Igor Vernik (Lapointe), Galiks Kolchitsky (Prime Minister), Lyudmila Arinina (Madame Calame), Vitaly Varganov (Benoît), Igor Kashintsev (Janvier), Gennady Korotkov (Fleury), Yuri Volkov (Chief of Police), Elena Molchenko (Mlle Point), Vladimir Izotov, Radij Afanasyev, Inna Kara-Mosko, Arkady Peselev, Sergei Taraneev, Svetlana Misery, Elena Molchenko, Victor Vishnyak Mattias Siwemyr Maigret of the Month: Maigret voyage (Maigret and the Millionaires) 4/15/08 – 1. Two keys to a novel This is a fairly unusual novel, with Simenon taking his character into several locales outside of Paris. Why does the author force his Chief Inspector to travel, instead of letting him peacefully lead his investigation in his city? Why does Maigret feel like he's "botching his case", as he says in Ch. 3? I think that one of the keys to the novel can be found in this sentence in Ch. 5: "What bothered him most was the impression he had that in some way his movement and actions were predetermined. He hadn't come to Lausanne because it was his idea to come, but because he was being led along a path that he followed, like it or not." And we shouldn't forget that this novel is the first of the Maigrets – and the first short novel – that Simenon wrote in Switzerland. He had just moved there in July 1957, to the château at Echandens, which he called "Noland" in the dating of the novels. After having lived on almost every continent, Simenon was in the country where he'd spend the rest of his life. A man who'd always had "wanderlust", he finally settled down more or less definitively, although he did move a few times within Switzerland. And as he brought with him his family, his memories and his ideas for novels, naturally he also brought his character, his Chief Inspector. We recall that when Simenon had "emigrated" to the United States, he'd also brought his Chief Inspector there in a few novels (cf. NEW, CHE). So there's a certain logic in having Maigret also make a stopover in Switzerland, even if it's rather short. It is however, sufficient for the Chief Inspector to discover some essential elements there, such as Simenon himself had discovered, or at least which the author considered essential... the "peaceful inns of Vaud", the "local wines", the "great Swiss hospitality", however vigilant with VIPs, and a certain "Swiss gravity" mixed with "real intimacy". As I'm Swiss myself, I hasten to add, however, that Lake Geneva, the Alps, Geneva and Lausanne only make up a small part of my country, and that Switzerland contains many other regions besides those cited in the book! Lastly, we note that if Simenon wanted to have his Chief Inspector discover his adopted country, he sends him back "home" again, for the end of the novel takes place in Paris... and in fact it's hard to imagine a "classic" Maigret case that could end anywhere except in the Chief Inspector's office, with the demis and sandwiches brought up from the Brasserie Dauphine, and a suspect confessing his crime at the end of a final interrogation.... Another key to the novel is no doubt the theme of "the naked man", a recurring theme throughout Simenon's work. This search for the naked man, which we find by scraping off surface respectability and appearance... who better to lead it than Maigret, who as a policeman, could gain entry into all levels of society? This theme is also taken up in the novel, with the symbolic images of Ward lying naked in his bath, and Van Meulen, naked also, getting a massage in his hotel room. Simenon wants to show us that social appearances only hide the same basic reality: the same fears inhabit all men, the same need for reassurance, the invention of rites and rituals.... 2. "Well, old partner?" In Chapter 2 an important character in the Maigret saga appears, Dr. Paul. As I haven't yet presented his portrait, this is a fine occasion for it... complete article original French Murielle Wenger

Hôtel le Provençal - "Liberty Bar" 4/15/08 – I can't find the TV movie from the book "Liberty Bar", "Maigret sur la Riviera". If by any chance you saw this movie, could you tell me if there are some scenes shot in the "Hôtel le Provençal" in Juan-Les-Pins? Thanks a lot. Kind regards, Jean-Paul Woodall I'm not aware of a telefilm version of Liberty Bar called "Maigret sur la Riviera". There is a Harcourt translation edition entitled "Maigret on the Riviera", but the four telefilm versions of Liberty Bar in the filmography are: Liberty Bar, Louis Arbessier (1960) Maigret et le Liberty Bar, Bruno Cremer (1997) Liberty Bar, Rupert Davies (1960) Liberty-Bar, Jean Richard (1979) ST

Maigret Musique 4/11/08 – I thought I might be able to "return a favor" by letting those interested know that the captivating score for the Bruno Cremer Maigret series can be found here. I purchased my copy from the vender: IMPORTCDS - they ship very fast. Also, there were other versions of MAIGRET scores and soundtracks listed that I am not yet familiar with, take a look... Cheers! Secretdomino

Inspecting Inspector Maigret: A Tribute to Georges Simenon 4/9/08 – My name is Allison Kirkland and I work for a non profit performing arts center in New York City called Symphony Space. We have a book club called The Thalia Book Club that has been running for a very long time, and we feature a variety of authors and commentators. We have an event on April 16th that we think might interest fans of Georges Simenon! It’s called Inspecting Inspector Maigret: A Tribute to Georges Simenon. A link to our event can be found on our website at: www.symphonyspace.org/event/2148 “Fellow writers and admirers Colin Harrison (The Finder, just out), Robert MacNeil and Anna Moschovakis (translator of Simenon’s The Engagement) discuss the work of the Belgian mystery master, including some of his psychologically realistic and wonderfully atmospheric Inspector Maigret novels set in the cafés and alleys of Paris, the French countryside and Manhattan, among other places. Fritz Weaver will perform an excerpt from one of the mysteries.” Tickets can be purchased online at www.symphonyspace.org, or by calling 212.864.5400. Allison Kirkland Literary Intern Symphony Space 2537 Broadway at 95th Street New York, NY 10025 T 212.864.1414 x 296 F 212.865.8619 shorts@symphonyspace.org www.symphonyspace.org

Maigret of the Month: Maigret voyage (Maigret and the Millionaires) 4/7/08 – Despite bad weather this afternoon, I went around Avenue George V to take some pictures related to "Maigret voyage"... The pharmacy Anglo-Américaine is at the corner of Avenue Marceau and Rue de Chaillot very near (300 m) the George V Hotel. I was not able to find the back entrance of the George V hotel. I saw the one for Prince de Galles on Rue Q. Bauchard. The walk from Hotel George V to the Hotel Scribe is about 3 km (around 40 min.) Regards Jérôme

The Old Open-Platform Bus of Paris... 4/4/08 – When I left my office today, I saw this old bus in the street, one with an open space at the end like Maigret liked them. I am not sure if this type of bus was in use before or after WWII. Jerome And see... A Maigret Bus Ride (6/10/06) Paris Buses (3/20/05) Platform Bus, 1969 (1/4/03) Maigret's Favorite Buses (8/24/99)

On the German actor Heinz Rühmann 4/2/08 – More information (in English) on the German actor Heinz Rühmann (who played Maigret in "Maigret und sein grosster Fall", 1966) can be found at Wikipedia and here. Rühmann was without doubt Germany's most famous (and popular) film actor of the 20th century (his film career started as early as 1926 and ended 1993 (one year before his death). Bernd Fischer

Bruno Cremer Series DVD Set - Yes! 3/28/08 – A special thank you to Flannerygrace. I had also found the Amazon Fr. page with this BIG! Boxed set, but was not able get my order through, and I gave up. After reading Flannerygrace's post, I tried again, discovering that the vender offering the lesser priced coffret (150 euros) did not dispatch to the U S. So, then I tried by selecting the set priced a fraction higher, and this time, it worked. Or so I thought. A few days later, I received an email from Amazon Fr., and an email from the seller, both in French, basically, telling me there was a foul up. I remembered having similar difficulties, while attempting purchases over the Internet. I decided to try again, only because Flannerygrace made it sound easy. This time I called my bank first to tell them, no, beg them to please allow this transaction. Third time's the charm. After all of that I deserved a break, and I'm thrilled to tell you; that not only have I received my PRIZED coffret, but also arriving nearly simultaneously, were my recent winnings from ebay; a collection of penguin 1960s Maigret reprints. Thanks again Flannerygrace, and Steve too. ps I'm learning! SecretDomino

Maigret of the Month: Maigret s'amuse (Maigret's Little Joke, None of Maigret's Business) 3/25/08 – 1. Time and length of an investigation The action of the novel begins on a Tuesday morning, based on a number of clues that we find in the text. Other clues scattered through the text permit us to learn the duration of the action – it lasts six days. If we consider the whole of the novels in the corpus, we realize that the author often supplies sufficient points in his text to establish the length of a case. The above graph gives the duration of the investigation for each of the 74 novels considered. We can note the following points: the average duration of a case (i.e. average for the 74 novels) is 5 days it is 5 days whichever cycle is considered (i.e. 5 for Fayard, 5 for Gallimard, 5 for Presses de la Cité) if we consider the percentage of cases with lengths varying from 1 to 5 days, we get the following results: For the Fayard cycle, 13 cases out of 19, 68% taking between 1 and 5 days; for Gallimard, the ratio is 3 out of 6, 50%; and for Presses de la Cité, it grows to 73%, 36 cases out of 49. So the Chief Inspector has rather a tendency to favor short investigations, probably both because results should be obtained in the shortest time, the principle of efficiency (cf. COL: "he hated to interrupt an investigation, believing that one of the best chances for success was speed. As days pass it becomes more and more difficult to obtain accurate witnesses... He himself needed to keep forging ahead, to stick with the little world in which he found himself plunged."), and because Simenon's method of writing required this "condensation" of the narrative. Another interesting aspect from the "chronological" point of view of the investigations, is that of the temporal markers given by the author. We already know that the season – and most of the time the month - plays an important role in the novels (I permit myself to remind you of my own study on this subject). But it can also be interesting to learn whether Simenon gives us the precise day or time that a case begins. My first analysis is of the date of the beginning of an investigation. While the author always gives us the season in which a case occurs, and almost always the month, he is less often precise with regard to the day of the month. There are only 28 novels out of 74 (38%) where this is given, either directly, in the introduction of the novel, or where it can be deduced from clues present in the text. In these 28 cases, there seems to be a slight indication that giving the date may be more important for the author depending on the month, in particular for March. Consider the graph below: We recall the importance of the month of March as a symbol of the beginning of spring for Maigret. And it's probably for this reason that the date is often mentioned for this month, for the date indicates the debut of the spring season... that's the case in COR: "It was March 23. Spring had officially begun the day before yesterday, and ... you felt it in the air"; in CLO: "Although it was already March 25, it was the first true day of spring"; in HES: "although it was only March 4, you got to thinking of spring". Let's concern ourselves for the present with the day of the week on which an investigation begins. This day is sometimes mentioned, and sometimes it must be deduced from clues in the text, which is not always easy. Working through the corpus, I've succeeded in identifying the day in 58 novels out of 74, 78% of the cases. Here are the results of my analysis: Investigations often start at the beginning of the week, either Monday, or more frequently, Tuesday, since Monday is considered a kind of "slack day", a day when, in principle, there shouldn't be a murder (cf. BAN: "it's generally accepted at the Quai des Orfèvres that people are rarely killed on Monday"). Thus Maigret often starts his work week with the opening of a new case. Similarly, it's fairly logical that few investigations begin on the weekend. Of these, we have two novels which begin on Saturday... one is TEN (it isn't, however, expressly mentioned as Saturday, but I've deduced it from clues in the text), and the other is CLI, in which case it's explicit ("Maigret and the Saturday Caller"). We have three novels which open on Sunday... actually for two of them (PRO and ECL), the story begins on Sunday, but Maigret doesn't start his investigation until the next day, Monday. The third is FIA, which opens on the mass of All Soul's Day (November 2)... complete article original French Murielle Wenger

L'Institut Médico-Légal - The Morgue 3/24/08 – I've taken some pictures of "La morgue", as it is often mentioned in the Maigrets, and medical information does help Maigret to solve some of his cases, as in "Maigret s'amuse". It is not often seen in the web... "La morgue" is located on the bank of the Seine. It was earlier located on the Ile de la Cité but was moved to Quai de la Râpée in 1914. It is now called "L'Institut Médico-Légal". The building is still as it must have been in the '50s when Maigret was in action. It is not far from Place de la Bastille and Gare de Lyon, not far from the Quai des Orfèvres. the rear of the building, where the bodies arrive by ambulance Jerome

BBC - Rupert Davies Maigret 3/21/08 – Whilst working overseas in the Philippines and having finished for the day, I recently found a link to a few minutes of Rupert Davies as Maigret on You Tube... until the BBC issue the series, these few minutes may help in lifting our spirits. Here is the link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YD98EMPHAM&feature=related Best wishes Steve Beamon Great stuff! Scenes from "Death in Mind" (La tête d'un homme - 11/26/62) and as a bonus - this month's Maigret of the Month - "Maigret's Little Joke" (Maigret s'amuse - 12/24/63)! ST

"Georges Simenon, the existential hack" 3/13/08 – Paul Theroux on Maigret's creator, the Balzac of blighted lives, who was confident of winning the Nobel Prize Two startlingly similar short novels appeared in France in 1942, at the centre of each a conscienceless and slightly creepy young man, unattached and adrift, the perpetrator of a meaningless murder. One was Albert Camus’s L’Étranger, the other Georges Simenon’s La Veuve Couderc. Camus’s novel rose to become part of the literary firmament, and is still glittering, intensely studied and praised – to my mind, overpraised. Simenon’s novel did not drop, but settled, so to speak, went the way of the rest of his work – rattled along with decent sales, the occasional reprint, and was even resurrected as a 1950s pulp fiction paperback with a come-on tag line (“A surging novel of torment and desire”) and a lurid cover: busty peasant girl pouting in a barn, her skirt hiked over her knees, while a hunky guy lurks at the door – price twenty-five cents. Camus had laboured for years on his novel of alienation; his Carnets record his frustration and false starts. “The fewer novels or plays you write – because of other parasitic interests – the fewer you will have the ability to write”, V. S. Pritchett once wrote, lamenting his own small output of fiction. “The law ruling the arts is that they must be pursued to excess.” Simenon had published three other novels in 1942, and six others the previous year. La Veuve Couderc (in English variously The Widow and Ticket of Leave) became another title on the extremely long list of Simenon works, none of them regarded as a subject for scholarship. If reading Camus represents duty, Simenon represents a frivolous indulgence, a greedy satisfaction that shows as self-consciousness in even the most well-intentioned critic: awkwardness over a pleasurable text, together with a shiver of snooty superfluity, and the palpable cringe, common to many introductions to Simenon’s novels, What am I doing here?... Complete Times Literary Supplement article at Times Online. Roddy

[ Sorry this is late... delayed by the translator! ST ] Maigret of the Month: Un échec de Maigret (Maigret's Failure) 2/29/08 – 1. Introduction We could analyze this novel from a "psycho-sociological" point of view, in particular the biographical aspects revealed about Maigret. In effect, it returns us to Maigret's youth, and above all to his childhood home, Saint-Fiacre. After the first great disillusionment which had been his return to the château of his childhood (FIA), this novel is another "demolition" of the Chief Inspector's childhood memories... After the death of the Countess, the ideal icon as imagined by the young Maigret, it is in a way the "death of the château" that Maigret sees in this novel... not only had it been sold, not only had it left the sphere of the aristocracy, but furthermore it had been bought by an obnoxious character, Fumal. However, rather than make a detailed analysis on the profound meaning of the novel, please allow me, Maigretphile friends, to linger over certain elements of details evoked in the text, which are no less important for increasing our understanding of our cherished character. 2. In the office of the Director of the P.J. "It was not the time for Report. So when the Director of the P.J. called Maigret into his office during the course of the day, it generally meant something important was up." (Ch. 1) It's effectively with this summons from the Director of the P.J. that the "Fumal affair" begins... Fumal had spoken with the Minister of the Interior to have him arrange for a personal interview with Maigret... Before diving directly into this matter, let's remain for a moment, if you don't mind, in the office of the Director of the P.J. This character holds, we must say, a relatively unassuming, secondary role in the corpus. We realize that his relative anonymity is due to the fact that the Directors of the P.J. do not hold a stable position, because they are named as high-level functionaries, through a hierarchical path, in a way, and not as any function of their years of service as Chief Inspectors, as "first among equals". Or at least that's the case after a certain period in the corpus: Consider in this regard DEF, "Maigret remembered the time when the Director of the P.J. was chosen from among the Chief Inspectors. His colleagues, at a certain period, had teased him by repeating that he'd finish up in the armchair of the top boss." In reality, the only "top boss" who truly merited the title in the eyes of Maigret, who had seen "nine Directors of the P.J. "(DEF), and the only one described in any detail in the novels, is his first boss, Xavier Guichard, who had arranged for his entry into Quai at the beginning. If we follow a route through the corpus, we'll notice the following points: In the Fayard period, before Simenon's first visit to the Quai in 1932-1933, at the invitation of Xavier Guichard, the references to a "Director of the P.J." are rather vague... In LET, we meet a "Director of the Investigative Service" – Maigret calls him "Chief", and only encounters him at the Majestic after Torrence's death. We find a "Director of the P.J." in GAL, mentioned once as being away from the Quai, at a conference in Prague. In GUI, he intervenes on only one occasion to complain that Maigret is using too many men in his investigation of Basso. In FOU, the Director is present in the first pages of the book, only used to send Maigret to make verifications at Bordeaux, a good pretext for the author to have Maigret on the train where he will meet "the madman of Bergerac"... In ECL, the conversation between Maigret and his "Chief" is a little longer, marked by a certain melancholy: Maigret is on the point of retirement. Finally, in MAI, their relationship is rather strained, for Maigret, already retired, comes in spite of everything to mix in an affair which only concerns him because his nephew is involved... In the Gallimard period, after several furtive appearances in three stories (amo, sta, hom), in which we learn all the same that their relationship is cordial enough (amo: "the Director of the P.J., who knew as well as anyone the moods of Maigret"; sta: "So you're waiting for a little fact? murmured the Chief with a smile, for he knew his man."). He takes more importance in the novels of this cycle, and we sense from this time the influence of the memories of the author's visit to the Quai. Thus in CEC, for the first time, there is mention of the daily "Report", for which all the section chiefs meet in the Director of the P.J.'s office: "It was the little ceremony of each morning.". It's also in this novel that the Director of the P.J. is described for the first time: "the Chief had long white hair, and a musketeer's goatee." A portrait evidently inspired by that of Xavier Guichard... It's also in this same novel that Maigret is called into the Chief's office to be presented with an admirer of his "methods", a situation which will recur a number of times (AMI, SCR), without counting the episode where Maigret will discover, in the Director's office, a young novelist "without a trace of self-doubt" and who would make of him an immortal novelistic character (MEM) ... In this Gallimard period, we find the Chief of the P.J. again in SIG (among others, in the scene where he reads M. Blaise's telegram), in CAD where he's only mentioned, and in FEL, for a brief scene where Maigret tells him of Pétillon's accident. We note that in the unpublished story Death Threats, written in the same period as these novels, two scenes in the office of the Chief frame the action, and it's mentioned that the Chief has a white goatee. Always Xavier Guichard... complete article original French Murielle Wenger

Peter Foord's Simenon Collection Auction 2/26/08 – I have just returned from the sale of Peter Foord’s amazing Simenon collection, held in auction rooms near his former home town of Harlow, 30 miles north-east of London. The 84 lots realised some £23,600 against an upper estimate of £15,900. One telephone bidder accounted for more than £14,500 of the total. It was the high quality stuff that attracted the fiercest bidding. Things got away to a lively start with Lot 1 (four copies of The Patience of Maigret, London, Routledge, 1939) racing from an opening bid of £250, through the upper estimate of £400, and on to £1600. Three copies of Maigret Abroad (London, Routledge, 1940) quickly followed at £1450 (upper estimate £250). Few lots failed to beat at least their lower estimate. Fifteen hardback Maigrets published by Hamish Hamilton between 1959 and 1978, estimated at £150 to £250, fetched just £50, and the same fate awaited a similar lot of 17 non-Maigrets. My own attention was focussed on Lot 40, the first 19 Maigrets published by Fayard between 1931 and 1934. Just looking at the cover of La Nuit du Carrefour – the face at the window on the front, the single roadside petrol pump on the back – sent shivers down my spine before the sale. They went for £300, the upper estimate, and I believe very good value for the lucky buyer. Leaving the sale room I chatted to a fellow Simenon enthusiast, a reader rather than a collector, who had been ready to pounce on a collection of over 350 Penguin paperbacks, estimated at £50 to £100. They had gone for £1500. So it’s back to scouring the market stalls and charity shops for those elusive Penguins he has yet to read. Richard Thomas Auction Results

Bruno Cremer Series DVD Set 2/23/08 – Hello, in reading at your forum I see that someone is asking about the Collection of French Maigrets starring Bruno Cremer. I'd like everyone to know that after finding that such things existed I ordered the complete set through amazon.fr It consists of four 10 dvd sets plus two additional dvds and can be found here at amazon.fr They do have English subtitles, though the special features including an interview with Cremer and a feature on Simenon are not subtitled. The price on the site says the price is 164 euro, but when I put it in a basket and went through checkout they were somehow reduced to 138 euros, so the whole set shipped to me in the US cost about $217 and they are well worth it! Do be aware that while most would be rated PG there are a few that would receive a more restricted rating for some brief scenes. I don't speak much French and had to rather 'feel' my way through setting up my account and ordering through the amazon.fr, but their forms are identical to amazon.com and amazon.uk and I was able to intuitively register and order these without a problem. Flannerygrace

2/23/08 Maigret's Faithful Four by Murielle Wenger [original French] "It's Maigret... Please put someone on from my office... It doesn't matter... Janvier, Lucas or Lapointe if possible..." (HES) Introduction "The guys who know his methods" The importance of using "tu" Portrait of Four Musketeers 4.1. Lucas 4.2 Janvier 4.3 Torrence 4.4 Lapointe Conclusion graph summarizing appearances of each in the corpus Introduction Maigretphile friends, you may remember that in 2006, I presented a study of Maigret's collaborators, and at that time I promised you an article on the "Faithful Four", Maigret's closest collaborators, those with whom he has the closest bonds, who make up, in a way, his front line... Lucas, Janvier, Lapointe and Torrence. This is the time for me to keep my promise, and – finally! – I can present you my study on these important characters of the Maigret series. What's remarkable in the Maigrets, is that this "hero" is rendered so human, so alive, by his creator, endowing him with characteristics very close to "everyday life"; he's given him habits, desires, culinary preferences, an appearance which gives him an extraordinary presence for the reader. It's Simenon's talent to have created a being of flesh, literally and figuratively, and it's rather rare in literature to deal with a character we know so intimately. Further, Simenon had the genius to have endowed him with an entourage serving him as outlet, confidant, and counterbalance. On one side, Mme Maigret, the indispensable component of the Chief Inspector's balance, and on the other, his "front line" of faithful collaborators, thanks to whom he can escape the curse of nostalgia for his lost paternity... Moreover, Simenon has created these four characters as different and recognizable entities, endowing them with their own characteristics which make up their individuality (cf. MEM: "Where some 50 or so anonymous inspectors milled around in disorder, I've only kept three or four having their own personality."), which not only permits giving an authenticity to the part of Maigret's life which takes place in his office, but still offers the Chief Inspector a diversity in the manifestation of his feelings. Thus, Maigret will behave with Lucas as with his second, the one who stands in for him, while with Janvier, and then with Lapointe, it's the notion of paternity which will be more in play, Maigret "chaperoning" the two men in their apprenticeships of their métier. The case of Torrence is a little different... in the beginning, second to Maigret at the start of the corpus, after a "chance mishap", as we will see further along, he is replaced in this function by Lucas, and "Fat Torrence" will later take on another role, while not as close to the Chief Inspector, still important however for the touch of humor which he brings to the novels.   "the guys who know his methods" (JUG) If I speak of the "Faithful Four", it's not by chance, since it's Simenon himself who uses the qualifier for them: "Lucas understood that it was serious... Maigret was phoning for him, was going to take Torrence off the stake-out and pick him up on the way, so automatically Lucas thought of Janvier, the other faithful, as if it would have been abnormal for the operation to take place without him." (LOG) It's also Simenon who makes the distinction between these four inspectors and Maigret's other collaborators, qualifying the four men as Maigret's "personal team" (PAR), calling them his favorite inspectors" (TUE), his "closest" collaborators (DEF, NAH, TUE, CHA), "his most intimate" collaborators (HES). If Maigret calls all his collaborators by a familiar "mes enfants" [my children], it's to Lucas, Janvier, Torrence and Lapointe that his preferences go without a contest. He has a very close relationship with these four men, at once friendly ("Outside of his closest collaborators, like Lucas, Janvier, Torrence and, more recently, young Lapointe, for whom Maigret had a real affection, the Chief Inspector had no friends except Dr. Pardon" NAH) and paternal, particularly with Lapointe, as we'll see further along. Maigret has not only transferred onto them the affection he couldn't give to a son, but he also appreciates them because with them there's no need to use long sentences... a glance is often enough for understanding; no need for the Chief Inspector to give long explanations, and even when sometimes he lets them in on his "cogitations", they appear grateful. From their side, the Faithful Four devote to their boss a veritable "worship". The word is Simenon's own, and it appears at least twice from his pen. Thus in VOY: "There were three at the Quai ... who granted the Chief Inspector an admiration bordering on worship: Lucas, the eldest, Janvier, who had been, some time back, as young, inexperienced and ardent as Lapointe, the third member, "little Lapointe" as they called him." And in NEW: "Torrence, who had no less a veritable worship of the Chief Inspector". They understood their chief so well that merely by the way he entered their room, they knew what kind of mood he was in. We also note that Maigret often went into their office, not necessarily to give them a job or some orders, but because it was for him a way to "revitalize" himself, to refresh the bonds dear to him. If Mme Maigret represents the affective pole, at once conjugal and "culinary", of Maigret's home, the inspectors are his other affective pole, equally culinary – for Maigret likes to bring them for a glass or to eat at the Brasserie Dauphine – but also that of shared work. And it's striking to note, alongside the paternal references which accompany Maigret's relationship with his inspectors, that Simenon also uses symbolic allusions of a teacher and his students, a "substitute" form of paternity. Thus, we have on one side this passage, taken from MIN, and already cited in my study of Maigret's collaborators, but which I repeat here, for it is a perfect summary of the paternal relationship between Maigret and his men: "This was not the first time he'd made such an entrance, less as a boss than as a comrade. He opened the door of the Inspectors' Office, and pushing back his hat on his head, went to sit on the corner of a table, emptying his pipe on the floor by hitting it against his heel before filling another. He looked at them one by one, occupied in various tasks, with the expression of a family father returned home in the evening, happy to recover his own, and taking account of them." On the other hand we can cite this extract from FAN, which shows the "teacher-student" side of this relationship: As was often the case, he didn't go directly into his office, but passed through the inspectors' room. Under luminous globes, each worked at his table like night-school students. He didn't look at anyone in particular, but it made him feel good to remake contact with the house and its professional atmosphere. No more than college students at the passage of their professor, they didn't look up, yet each one knew that he was serious, anxious, that his face was not just marked with fatigue, but a kind of exhaustion." complete article original French Murielle Wenger

More Maigret BBC Radio Broadcast Dates (2004) 2/15/08 – Here are the broadcast dates for the following 4 shows on BBC Radio... 2004-04-19 Maigret and the Burglar's Wife 2004-04-26 Maigret and The Yellow Dog 2004-05-03 Inspector Cadaver 2004-05-10 Maigret's Little Joke Hope this helps the site Best Regards Gerry Young Thanks, Gerry!

Do You Know this Book? 2/15/08 – I am searching for a book, published I believe in the US in 1960s-70s, that illustrates various locations in France frequented by Maigret. If you have any details of publisher, title, availability I would appreciate your kindness in letting me know. Sharon Lawrence Los Angeles

Inquest on Bouvet 2/10/08 – I came across your website when trying to find all the translated versions of Maigret into English. My father is a big fan, and now that he has been making some space in the house, I've taken them over and become hooked! I've got a copy of a book that does not seem to be on your cover images, as it's not strictly a 'Maigret', more of a 'Lucas'. The title is 'Inquest on Bouvet'- Penguin Books 1679, originally published in Penguin in 1962. I have the 1963 re-print. The original French title is 'L'Enterrement de Monsieur Bouvet', and the cover states 'No Doubt Maigret was on holiday when...... . At length Lucas, one of Maigret's inspectors.......' Regards, Stuart Murdoch Thanks, Stuart... This is one of what we've taken to calling on this Forum, the "semi-Maigrets". Comments have appeared on the Forum over the years... 2000, 2002, 2005... ST

Maigret in Radio Times and TV Times 2/8/08 – I recently acquired a number of back issues of the Radio Times and TV Times from Lynda Kelly on www.radiotimesbacknumbers.com and she had taken the trouble to research all the copies she had with a reference to Maigret. I found when I received the June 28 1962 issue not only a picture of Rupert Davies on the front but the start of a serialisation of Maigret et les vieillards which they intended to serialise over the summer. I will need to research further to see how many episodes this serialisation went over, quite a few I would think given that it was just two facing pages per episode. I thought as there is no mention of Radio Times under magazines and books that I would include the references here. Radio Times Oct 29-Nov 4 1960 Oct 27 MAIGRET Murder in Montmartre - Rupert Davies. First broadcast 31st October 1960. This issue was unavailable but Lynda was aware of it. Radio Times Jun 30-Jul 6 1962 Cover thumbnail of Rupert Davies lighting his pipe on the cover. Page 4-5 - Read Maigret in Radio Times - An enthralling Simenon story of the Chief Inspector begins in this issue [2 pages]. Sunday afternoon 2.30pm July 1st (50 mins) cast list for "Maigret aux assises" translated as "Raise Your Right Hand" Radio Times - Jul 21-27 1962 Cover thumbnail of Rupert Davies lighting his pipe on the cover. Page 4-5 - Read Maigret in Radio Times - Voices From the Past [2 pages]. Sunday afternoon 2.30pm July 22nd (50 mins) cast list for "Le témoins récalcitrants" translated as "The Reluctant Witnesses" Radio Times Feb 8-14 1969 Cover picture: Play of the Month MAIGRET at Bay (BBC1) Rupert Davies. Page 3 - Maigret - Rupert Davies says: ‘Maigret still has a considerable grip on me...’ Page 12 - Maigret at Bay - Rupert Davies returns to his most famous role... [half page] Sunday night Feb 9 8.15pm (90mins) cast list for the play, which from the cast list is clearly Maigret se défend (Maigret on the Defensive). TV Times 8-14 Feb 1992 MAIGRET (ITV new series) The Patience of Maigret - with thumbnail of Michael Gambon on cover. Page 12 - Michael Gambon article - The Reluctant Hero. Page 37 - In View - MAIGRET new series (cast list on February 9). Radio Times 13-19 Mar 1993 Page 28-29 - The Clement Freud Interview - To Hungary with sausages - Michael Gambon [2 pages] MAIGRET (ITV) Maigret and the Night Club Dancer (cast list on Sunday March 14). TV Times 13-19 Mar 1993 Page 6 - Moody Maigret cheers up - Michael Gambon’s back... Cast list for "" on Sunday March 14. n.b. These are only the ones supplied to me, plus one other edition that Lynda Kelly knows about, so there may be other editions of the two papers with features and, of course, there will certainly be cast lists for all the shows. I can supply the cast lists from the ones above if that's any use to the site. Cheers! Keith

Maigret of the Month: Un échec de Maigret (Maigret's Failure) 2/3/08 – Here are some modern images of the setting of this month's Maigret of the Month, "Un echec de Maigret". There is no building with number 58 bis in Bd de Courcelles... it goes from 40 to 50 and then 60. The picture shows the Blvd and the Rue de Prony (Blvd Courcelles on the left, Rue Prony in the back). And here's a view from inside the Parc Monceaux, still a quiet and nice park, with around it, some nice private buildings. Rue de l'Etoile is indeed not far away when you walk toward Place de l'Etoile, about 1.5 km from the supposed 58bis. It was convenient for Fumal to go and visit his mistress. There are two hotels just in the pictures... I didn't inquire about the type of rooms nor how they rent. Regards Jerome

Goodall's Maigret editions 2/3/08 – I have just discovered your Maigret site, and have spent the last 48 hours going blind as I devoured as much information as I could take in - j'en suis devenu gourmand! I have a lot of Simenon paperbacks, mostly bought secondhand on eBay.fr, but some few in bookshops whenever I could find a French version; some I have matched with Penguin translations, in order the better to improve my grasp of French. To that end, one very useful edition I possess is an edition of Maigret et le pendu de Saint-Pholien, published by Macmillan Education Ltd in paperback in 1965 and reprinted 1966, 1969, 1970 (twice) 1971 and 1973. The "editorial arrangement" of the edition, with preface, and a very useful terminal vocabulary, is copyrighted Geoffrey Goodall, Headmaster of Lord Williams's Grammar School, Thame. Do you know of this edition? And do you know if Mr Goodall undertook any further forays in this initiative? Yours faithfully, Niall O'Neill There are at least a few more, for some short stories: On ne tue pas les pauvres types, Macmillan/St. Martins Press, London (1966) Maigret et l'inspecteur malgracieux, Macmillan (1967) Le Pipe de Maigret, pbk, Saint Martin's Press, Inc., ISBN:0312462352, 70 pp. (1969) ST

Bruno Cremer Series DVD Set 2/1/08 – I am brand new to Maigret, and judging by the many notations on the Google pages, and in particular, Steve's website, I have a lot to learn about le Commissaire. I was intrigued by the two episodes, recently aired on PBS, during the past couple of months, and deduced that I would like to watch them again, as the subtitles sped by, and my comprehension of spoken French is poor. So, I began to search the web for possibilties of acquiring the series, and I was overjoyed to find that indeed, the complete series is available, in one form or another, in several places. Unfortunately for me, the language barrier cropped up. I've done some business recently in France via the Internet, however the businesses have had a bilingual, or perhaps multilingualist to help me. Having said ALL that, my question to the devotees, is, do you know where, or who, sells the Bruno Cremer series? And do you know if it is available with English subtitles? (My dvd player is able play any dvd/VHS media from abroad) Thanks for any help, and I hope to learn much from all of you. All the best Secretdomino

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Maigret of the Month - 2008 month title January Maigret tend un piège - Maigret sets a trap (1955) February Un échec de Maigret - Maigret's Failure (1956) March Maigret s'amuse - Maigret's Little Joke (1957) April Maigret voyage - Maigret and the Millionaires (1958) May Les Scrupules de Maigret - Maigret Has Scruples (1958) June Maigret et les témoins récalcitrants - Maigret and the Reluctant Witnesses (1959) July Une confidence de Maigret - Maigret Has Doubts (1959) August Maigret aux assises - Maigret in Court (1960) September Maigret et les vieillards - Maigret in Society (1960) October Maigret et le voleur paresseux - Maigret and the Lazy Burglar (1961) November Maigret et les braves gens - Maigret and the Black Sheep (1962) December Maigret et le client du samedi - Maigret and the Saturday Caller (1962)

Maigret of the Month - 2007 month title January Maigret au "Picratt's" - Maigret in Montmartre (1951) February Maigret en meublé - Maigret Takes a Room (1951) March Maigret et la grande perche - Maigret and the Burglar's Wife (1951) April Maigret, Lognon et les gangsters - Maigret and the Gangsters (1952) May Le Revolver de Maigret - Maigret's Revolver (1952) June Maigret et l'homme du banc - The Man on the Boulevard (1953) July Maigret a peur - Maigret Afraid (1953) August Maigret se trompe - Maigret's Mistake (1953) September Maigret à l'école - Maigret Goes to School (1954) October Maigret et la jeune morte - Maigret and the Young Girl (1954) November Maigret chez le ministre - Maigret and the Calame Report (1954) December Maigret et le corps sans tête - Maigret and the Headless Corpse (1955)

Maigret of the Month - 2006 month title January L'Inspecteur Cadavre - Maigret's Rival (1944) February Maigret se fâche - Maigret in Retirement (1947) March Maigret à New York - Maigret in New York (1947) April Les Vacances de Maigret - No Vacation for Maigret (1948) May Maigret et son mort - Maigret's Special Murder (1948) June La première enquête de Maigret, 1913 - Maigret's First Case (1949) July Mon ami Maigret - My Friend Maigret (1949) August Maigret chez le coroner - Maigret at the Coroner's (1949) September Maigret et la vieille dame - Maigret and the Old Lady (1950) October L'Amie de Mme Maigret - Madame Maigret's Own Case (1950) November Les Mémoires de Maigret - Maigret's Memoirs (1951) December Un Noël de Maigret - Maigret's Christmas (1951)

Maigret of the Month - 2005 month title January L'affaire Saint-Fiacre - Maigret Goes Home (1932) February Chez les Flamands - The Flemish Shop (1932) March Le port des brumes - Death of a Harbormaster (1932) April Le fou de Bergerac - The Madman of Bergerac (1932) May Liberty Bar - Liberty Bar, Maigret on the Riviera (1932) June L'écluse n° 1 - The Lock at Charenton (1933) July Maigret - Maigret Returns (1934) August Les Caves du Majestic - Maigret and the Hotel Majestic (1942) September La Maison du juge - Maigret in Exile (1942) October Cécile est morte - Maigret and the Spinster (1942) November Signé Picpus - Maigret and the Fortuneteller (1944) December Félicie est là - Maigret and the Toy Village (1944)

Maigret of the Month - 2004 month title January Le chien jaune - The Yellow Dog February M. Gallet décédé - Maigret Stonewalled March La nuit du carrefour - Maigret at the Crossroads April Le charretier de la Providence - Maigret Meets a Milord May La tête d'un homme - A Battle of Nerves June Un crime en Hollande - Maigret in Holland July Pietr-le-Letton - Maigret and the Enigmatic Lett August Le pendu de Saint-Pholien - Maigret and the Hundred Gibbets September Au rendez-vous des Terre-Neuvas - The Sailor's Rendezvous October La danseuse du Gai-Moulin - Maigret at the Gai-Moulin November La guinguette à deux sous - Maigret and the Tavern by the Seine December L'ombre chinoise - Maigret Mystified