Maigret Forum

On my list of best Maigrets, Maigret et le client du samedi [Maigret and Saturday caller] is near the top. In many other cases, Maigret was basically doing his job as he was required; other competent detectives would similarly solve those cases as well. But with the Saturday-night caller, Maigret went far and beyond his routine job description; anyone else - less sensitive and less dedicated - would probably dismiss that case without even starting, and let the crime go unsolved.

Vladimir

Maigret i zabójca Maigret et le tueur [TUE]

Porażka Maigreta Un échec de Maigret [ECH]

Przyjaciel Maigreta z dzieciństwa L'Ami d'enfance de Maigret [ENF]

Przemek

Has anyone else heard this? I like Atkinson as a comedian but I simply don't think he has the physical build nor peasant-like quality to carry this off.

Many thanks, à Steve, for continuing to host this excellent site.

Alan Cheshire

More... in the Guardian, at Deadline Hollywood, Variety, and via Google...

Jérôme

Based on the Wikipedia article, "Conscription in France," France had a system of military conscription in place in the 19th century, but "it was not until 1905 that universal military service for a period of two years, without exception on any but medical grounds, was introduced." Maigret would have been 18 in 1905, and according to Drake's Chronology, he entered medical school at Nantes in 1907, so he could have served his two years between 1905 and 1907.

In 1913, France introduced a "3-Year Law", requiring "virtually all fit males of the appropriate age group to undertake full-time military service for three years from the age of 20." Maigret had begun to work as a Paris policeman in 1913, and was presumably exempt because of this, but in August 1914, slightly prior to the outbreak of WWI, 2.9 million Frenchmen were mobilized, comprising "conscripts undertaking their three years of obligatory service, and reservists of ages 24 to 30 who had completed their period of full-time service." This group too, would have included Maigret, if he had not been exempt as a policeman.

ST

Vladimir

This is in the novel at the end of Chapter 10:

"...C'est le sergent-major qui fait toutes les écritures de la compagnie... Et justement, je me suis souvenu alors de mon service militaire, ce qui date de loin, vous le pensez..."

"...It's the quartermaster-sergeant who does all the writing for the company. So, you see, I thought back on my military service, which was a long time ago, as you can imagine..."

ST

When Maigret questions the airmen’s heavy drinking in the Penguin Bar, Cole explains they can basically drink as much as they want and return to the base whenever they want. So, Maigret asks himself: “Why did that provoke him? Was it because he was remembering his military service…?” [Pourquoi cela le faisait-il enrager ? Est-ce que parce qu’il se souvenait de son service militaire… ?]

And very much later, recalling how often the witnesses testified they didn’t know what time something happened because they didn’t have a watch, Maigret thinks to himself: “That had reminded him of his military service, …” [Cela lui avait rappelé son service militaire, …]

I’m wondering what, if anything else, others may have uncovered on the subject of Maigret in the military.

Thanks,
David Simmons
davidpsimmons.com

They come from the publishing house Companhia das Letras which is 45% owned by Penguin Random House and are using the current Penguin covers.

More information along with scans of the covers and the first pages of each title are available from Companhia Das Letras.

Ward Saylor

Simenon. From the story to the novel. Georges Simenon Cycle.
lecture by Michel Lemoine
Saturday, January 24, 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Simenon. De la nouvelle au roman. Cycle Georges Simenon.
conférence de Michel Lemoine
samedi 24 janvier, de 16h à 17h

more info: Mapado, and Que faire à Paris ?

Jérôme

Thanks Murielle, author, and Stephen, translation, for the fascinating research of names used by Simenon.

Vladimir

"...D'autre part, le bruit court que le commissaire Maigret pourrait intervenir, non dans l'affaire du vol des tableaux, mais à propos d'une autre activité des malfaiteurs..."

["...Besides, rumor has it that Superintendant Maigret may intervene, not in the picture-stealing case, but about some other matter the criminals may be involved in..."]

Arlene Blade
Tobago

First names in the Maigret corpus by Murielle Wenger original French

1. SOME STATISTICS

   In exploring the corpus, novels and stories, and checking against Steve's list in the Maigret Encyclopedia (for which I offer my thanks, since his prodigious work allowed me to verify and correct my own data), I've been able to inventory over 400 first names. By regrouping some of them that I've considered to be variants of a single name (for example, Ernest and Ernesto; Fred, Freddo and Freddy; Marie and Maria; Hélène and Helen), variations I'll return to when they're semantically relevant, I come up with 209 different occurrences of masculine first names, and 207 feminine. I call a "different occurrence" the case of a name applying to a particular character in a particular novel or story.

   We note first off that of the 209 masculine names, 86 (41%), and of the 207 feminine names, 103 (50%), appear but a single time in the corpus (ignoring, of course, the number of times a name is mentioned within the text – only counting the application of the name to a particular character). About a third of both male names (68, 33%) and female names (66, 32%) appear betwen two and four times in the corpus. (In other words, on average, one out of three names appears in three different texts). 14% of both masculine (29) and feminine (30) names appear between five and nine times in the corpus.

   Names occurring ten times or more (the names most frequently used by the author) in the corpus number 26 (12%) for the masculine, and only eight (4%) for the feminine.

   Lastly, we note that new names appear regularly with each new novel – we could say the novelist "renews his stock" each time he advances the corpus, and numerous characters are given a name not previously used in the corpus: With every new novel, Simenon employed some names he'd never used before.
    

2. FIRST NAMES OF MALE CHARACTERS
   1. The least frequently used masculine names
      1. names with a single occurrence

         As mentioned above, a large number of the names in the corpus appear in it only once. Among the 86 masculine names used, 47 (55%) apply to a main character in the text (25), or a secondary character (22). The other 39 are used, either to name a character who is merely tangential to the story (as, for example, Horace Van Usschen in La maison du juge, Stuart Wilton in Maigret et le voleur paresseux), or to mention a character who does not actually appear in the action of the story (as, for example, Aldo de Rocca, Dorothy Payne's second husband, in Maigret voyage, Claude Besson, Charles's son in Maigret et la vieille dame), or the mention of a name without actually referring to a specific person, (as in Maigret à New York, this sentence describing a bar, "Everyone's called Bob, Dick, Tom, or Tony"), or the second or third name of a compound name of a character, (as, Aldebert Ramuel's third name in Les caves du Majestic).

         So there are 25 names which the author has reserved for a single principal character in the corpus, as if the name in question could only apply to such a character, and weren't transferable to another. (Although perhaps chance also plays its role here, as when a name the novelist "had at hand" at a certain moment did not come to mind again during the writing of later works.)

         These 25 are Adrien (Josset in Une confidence de Maigret), Alban (Groult-Cotelle in L'inspecteur Cadavre), Aristide (Fumel in Maigret et le voleur paresseux), Conrad (Popinga in Un crime en Hollande), Cornélius (Barens in Un crime en Hollande), Dan (Mullins in Maigret chez le coroner), Daniel (Maigret's nephew in Maigret et l'inspecteur Malgracieux), Dieudonné (Pape in Maigret et le corps sans tête), Fédor (Yourovitch, alias Hans Johannson in Pietr le Letton), Fouad (Ouéni in Maigret et l'affaire Nahour), Georges-Henry (Malik in Maigret se fâche), Guillaume (Serre in Maigret et la vieille dame), Jean-Charles (Gaillard in La colère de Maigret), Joachim (Maura in Maigret à New York), Maxime (Le Bret in La première enquête de Maigret), Michael (O'Brien in Maigret à New York), Mike (O'Rourke in Maigret chez le coroner), Norris (Jonker in Maigret et le fantôme), Olaf (Swaan, alias Pietr Johannson in Pietr le Letton), Omer (Calas in Maigret et le corps sans tête), Prosper (Donge in Les caves du Majestic), Ronald (Dexter in Maigret à New York), Tiburce (de Saint-Hilaire in Monsieur Gallet, décédé), Vicente (Alvaredo in Maigret et l'affaire Nahour), and Vladimir (the sailor in Le charretier de la Providence). We note that a fair number of these names are not French, and are probably used by the author to give "local color" to a character, a device we will encounter again with other names in the corpus...

         Complete article
         Original French

re: Hotel de la Reine Morte?
To help answer Arlene Blade's question, I checked my Michelin Red Guide for 1954, and there is no Hôtel de la Reine-Morte listed in it. A good way to find about it would be to check on a Michelin Red Guide for the year Maigret arrived in Paris or in an old Yellow Pages book.

Regards,
Jérôme

Vladimir,
Canada.

Arlene Blade
Tobago

Jon

ST

David Simmons

Jon

Vladmir,
Canada.

Jérôme

Thanks
Jon Wilkins

Best regards
Murielle

I have a Maigret question. Over the years, I've managed to collect virtually all the stories. Some of them are very old / falling apart, but I have them. I do not read French, unfortunately, so I'm stuck finding English translations.

Anyway - I came across a reference somewhere about a Maigret novel set in a hospital. The person who mentioned it said it was one of the best Maigrets. I wrote down the title, - and promptly lost it. I was wondering if you know it.

Basically - Maigret is in a hospital and there is a sick girl? I think that's it. If those few words bring a title to mind, please let me know. Thank you!

And thank you for the website, and taking the time to read this. Take care.

-Marilee Hanson

The only Maigret that comes to mind that's "set in a hospital" is Le fou de Bergerac, The Madman of Bergerac, and it's Maigret himself who's the patient... ST

Do you think there is any possibility of the Rupert Davies TV episodes becoming available?

Of course I've written to the BEEB, signed the petition and kept up a scan of the internet.

The Rupert Davies version was a particular favourite of mine, and I have fond memories of them from when I was young. I've only been able to find a couple of poor quality copies of episodes that are not really watchable.

Best wishes,
Mark Davis
Australia

Vladimir.

Loustal...

... dedicating my book...

...the finished product: Maigret going into a bar

Jérôme

As for the question about my search for citations, well, in fact, yes, each time I start a new study, I reread the whole Maigret corpus... But I have to say that, since the time I began to "frequent" Simenon, and above all, the Maigret corpus, I'm beginning to be familiar enough with it to have a pretty good idea of where I'm likely to find this or that quote in the text, so that I don't have to search so extensively...

Quant à sa question à propos de ma recherche des citations, eh bien, si, à chaque fois que je commence une nouvelle étude, je relis tout le corpus maigretien… Mais il faut dire que, depuis le temps que je « pratique » Simenon et surtout le corpus des Maigret, je commence à le connaître assez et à savoir à peu près où j’ai des chances de trouver telle ou telle citation dans le texte, ce qui fait que je n’ai pas besoin de le parcourir in extenso…

Best regards,
Murielle

David Simmons

The Sounds of Maigret by Murielle Wenger "...to get back into the atmosphere of the street, to hunt about in corners, to go into local bistros and listen to people..." (Maigret et l'inspecteur Malgracieux [mal]) original French

After the world of colors and that of odors, the time has come to study Maigret's relationship to sounds. While we recognize that he works primarily with his vision, and that he permeates himself with the atmosphere of odors, the world of sounds has its share of importance as well.

Sounds play a dual role in the text. On the one hand, they're used by the author to elaborate a setting, to show the subtleties. Particular sounds of the street, familiar echoes of home...

But Maigret also utilizes sounds as part of his detective work – it's often someone's tone of voice that reveals to him their state of mind, that refines his perception of their feelings. And it's also the sounds that may have been heard at the scene of a crime, by witnesses interviewed during the course of an investigation... the sound of a departing car, shots fired, a door opening or closing, a falling body, or the sound of footsteps... Sounds are also a sign, the acoustic symbol of an object, whose nature is thus clarified. And further, hearing is the sense Maigret uses to supplement the others when they can't be called on, as the sound of an object that must be guessed at because of the darkness of night, or something outside, heard through a window, or sounds heard from behind closed doors. Sounds are used by Maigret as tools in his understanding of the world around him, in search of truths which might otherwise elude him...

Let's enter into the world of Maigret's sounds, and try to find the ways his author uses to describe them, how he animates this world and makes it come alive.

1. An effective sound-track

   When Maigret goes to a place, the visual scene set by the author is complemented auditorily. Simenon knows well how to bring a setting alive with an auditory description, often as clearly as by a visual one. And when we speak of the famous "Simenon atmosphere", no doubt we are not simply thinking of the scenery, but also adding a full symphony, a sort of "sound-track", something scenario writers attempting cinema or television adaptations must find very useful.

   Thus, at the time of the "first appearance" of Maigret at the beginning of the corpus (Pietr le Letton [LET]), when he goes to the Gare du Nord to await the arrival of Pietr, Simenon describes the station platforms in the storm, and then the arrival of the train... "The yellow speck of the train's headlamp appeared in the distance. Then came the usual hubbub, with porters shouting and passengers tramping and jostling their way towards the station exit."

   Here, a morning in Sancerre (Monsieur Gallet, décédé [GAL])... "In all the greenery outside the window there was a confused murmuring made up of birdsong, rustling leaves, the buzzing of flies and the distant clucking of chickens on the lane, all of it punctuated by the rhythmic blows of the hammer on the anvil in the forge."

   Here, in Le pendu de Saint-Pholien [PHO], a "morning concert of Liège": "For that morning the air was like a tonic that grew more bracing as the sun rose higher into the sky. A delightful cacophony reigned, of people shouting in a Walloon dialect, the shrill clanging of the red and yellow streetcars, and the splashing of the four jets in the monumental Perron Fountain doing its best to be heard over the hubbub of the surrounding Place du Marché." And, still in the same novel, the sound scene of a German brasserie, with "businessmen talking loudly over the tireless efforts of a Viennese orchestra and the clinking of beer mugs." And, in La tête d'un homme [TET], at the Coupole... "Four waiters were all shouting at once, accompanied by the clatter of plates and tinkling of glasses. Snatches of different languages broke in on all sides."

   In Le chien jaune [JAU], here is the soundscape of the evening after the attack on Mostaguen, while silence reigns in the hotel, and Maigret smokes placidly, watching Emma and Dr. Michoux... "The clock in the Old Town sounded the hours and the half-hours. On the pavement, the shuffling footsteps and talking died away. Then there was nothing but the monotonous moan of the wind and the sound of the rain beating on the windows."

   In La nuit du carrefour [NUI], early morning after an long interrogation at the PJ... "Footsteps sounded in the corridors. Telephones ringing. Voices calling. Doors banging. The charwomen's brooms."...

   complete text here