Seventeen stories feature Simenon's dauntless detective as he works on some baffling cases both from his base--Paris police headquarters on the Quai des Ortevres--and throughout the provinces.
Georges Simenon's 75 novels and 28 short stories that feature Chief Inspector Jules Maigret provide us with a great deal of information about the French police detective--but only in small, episodic doses. As readers become acquainted with Maigret one detail at a time, he slowly takes on a flesh-and-bone realism--not merely a character in a story, but someone we would like to meet in real life. This book presents all the canonical facts and details about the detective and his world in one place, presented with tabulations and analyses that enable a better understanding of the works and of Maigret himself.
Georges Simenon (1903-1989) was a phenomenally successful author of crime fiction. His 75 Maigret novels and 28 Maigret short stories were published between 1931 and 1972 to great international acclaim (he is the only non-anglophone crime writer to have achieved such renown). His Maigret stories are regarded by many as having established a new direction in crime fiction, emphasizing social and psychological portraiture rather than focussing on a puzzle to be solved or on "action." This book examines the importance of social class and social change in the Maigret stories, giving a particular emphasis to the early formative novels and the development of plot, characterization and setting. The author seeks to establish the extent to which Simenon's portrait of French society is historically accurate and the nature of the influence of the author's own class position and ideology on his fiction.
“A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré With a serial killer on the loose in Paris, Maigret must outsmart the culprit before he can strike again. The inspiration for ITV’s feature-length adaptation starring Rowan Atkinson. Detective Chief Inspector Maigret is known for his infallible instinct, for getting at the truth no matter how complex the case. But when someone starts killing women on the streets of Montmartre, leaving nary a clue and the city’s police force at a loss, he finds himself confounded. In the sweltering Paris summer heat, with the terrified city in a state of siege, Maigret hatches a plan to lure the murderer out.
The first annual omnibus edition in the new Penguin Inspector Maigret series, comprising four titles from the series so far: Pietr the Latvian, The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien, The Carter of La Providence and The Grand Banks Cafe. Additional material includes the original French first edition covers, art directed by Georges Simenon himself. Penguin is publishing the entire series of Maigret novels. “A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré "Compelling, remorseless, brilliant." —John Gray "One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories." —The Guardian "A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness." —The Independent
"One of Simenon's masterpieces." —Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker “A writer as comfortable with reality as with fiction, with passion as with reason.” —John Le Carré A man’s dismembered body is found in a canal, and only Maigret can uncover the killer When a man’s headless body is discovered in Paris’s Saint-Martin Canal, Maigret is quick to answer the call. It is in this very neighborhood that he meets a strangely taciturn woman who runs a cafe. Her husband is away on a trip—or so she says. As is often the case, Maigret soon learns that there is more to the story than meets the eye. As shocking as it is incisive, Maigret and the Headless Corpse is a compelling mystery from Georges Simenon.
A further volume in this series, this year discussing not so much food or its preparation as its portrayal in any number of art forms such as popular music, crime novels, film, theatre, literature, and fine art. There are also some papers which concentrate on the art of food, or art relating to food: an instance is the art of tissue-paper orange wrappers (a recondite but riveting item). My impression, when this subject was first mooted, was that all contributions would revolve around paintings and high arts. I was mistaken, there is a remarkable spread: the arrangement of 18th-century desserts; cookery and the Cuban Santeria religion; drink in 19th-century English fiction; food in film noir; the cook as artist in 18th-century England; architectural food design in France and Italy; popcorn poetry; food and eating in Bronte novels; and much more. These volumes are sometimes indigestible fricassees if swallowed at once, but think of them as platters of oysters - each may contain a pearl. By the finish a bracelet at least, perhaps a necklace, is the consequence.
For 150 years the French public and literati have enjoyed a love affair with crime fiction. This book investigates the nature of this relationship and how through periods of dramatic social and political change in France it has flourished. It challenges the conventional view of a popular genre feeding a niche market, depicting crime fiction instead as a field of creative endeavour, which has gradually matured into one of considerable literary fertility. By inviting us to share secrets and crack codes, creating suspense and (at times) not shirking from presenting horrific events in graphic language, the crime story brings into play the intellect and emotions of its readership. This book explores both this intrinsic literary value of the crime novel and its extrinsic witness to historical events and cultural trends, arguing that these apparently distinct aspects are in fact dynamic, interrelated parts of the same whole. This blend of cultural history with literary analysis allows for the discussion of themes such as politics, memory, the urban environment and youth cultures, mixed with case studies of major French crime writers, including Gaston Leroux, Georges Simenon, Jean-Patrick Manchette, Daniel Pennac and Fred Vargas.