Concluding our look at the Inspector Maigret mysteries, the author’s son joined us to field your questions about his father’s career
RoscoBoyle says:
At school (long ago) we read Le Pendu de Saint-Pholien as a French language text. Are any Simenon books still in use in educational settings?
(Le Pendu de Saint-Pholien is translated as The Crime of Inspector Maigret).
Not to my knowledge, and I was told they stopped teaching French literature in the UK, and even any non-English literature altogether, some years ago… Perhaps that was an early sign of a cultural Brexit? ��
Karlos_Nagasaki asks:
According to your understanding of your father’s conception of Maigret, which of the actors, dating back to 1932, came the closest to capturing the essence of the character?
And, which one was the least compelling, and why?
By extension, which of the film or television adaptations do you consider the most faithful to the spirit of the books? Does your opinion differ from your father’s?
1. Closest Maigret: Pierre Renoir, Michel Simon 2. Least compelling: Albert Préjean 3. Films: La nuit du carrefour by Jean Renoir, with Pierre Renoir, and La tête d’un homme by Julien Duvivier with Harry Baur. TV: Bruno Cremer (France) 4. I believe so, except for Cremer as my father died before it was produced.
deadgod asks:
What did M. Simenon think of other (‘rival’) whydunnit people-solvers? Did he have favourites and bêtes noires among Poe, Doyle, Chandler, and so on? and what were his reasons? Do you, and what are yours?
My father certainly had great respect for Poe and Conan Doyle, but he was not really interested in solving crimes, more, as one critic pointed out, in solving people. As for Chandler, he stopped reading novels before Chandler was translated into French
Notmytype asks:
I believe that when Georges Simenon saw Rupert Davies in the role on Maigret on TV he exclaimed “C’est Maigret! You are the flesh and bones of Maigret.” Does his son John therefore consider a duty that the BBC should unlock its vault and rerun the 52 Maigret episodes languishing there? (At least we should be thankful that they didn’t wipe the tapes like they did with so many other TV treasures).
They also mention that the episodes might be available in Germany still:
According to websites, 36 original Rupert Davies episodes have been released on DVD there on the Pidax Serien-Klassiker label. Sadly, they’ve been dubbed into German and do not have English subtitles – you’d think it would be the other way round!
It is more complicated than that: the sheer admin. cost of dealing with residuals to musicians and other rights holders and restoration / digitalization is daunting, but it is on my ToDo list to bring this back to life one day. As for the German DVDs, they fell in a legal crack
proust (not that one - I think) writes:
You must be delighted by the two volume Simenon collection (and album) published by the prestigious Editions de la Pleiade in 2003, an accolade given only to the most important writers, with a full scholarly/critical apparatus. It contains some Maigret and also a selection of ‘romans durs’. Sadly Simenon wasn’t published in the Pleiade until after his death.
What did you think of the selection?
Definitely a good one, but, like any selection, unfair to so many other titles…
nkenny wants to know:
What’s your favourite Maigret novel?
There a quite a few: Le Charretier de La Providence, Maigret au Picratt’s, La Tête d’un homme, Maigret et la jeune morte, Maigret et le corps sans tête…(I will use the French titles in this chat as I don’t know the UK one by heart)
The English titles are (in order):
The Crime at Lock 14
Maigret in Montmartre (originally Inspector Maigret and the Strangled Stripper)
A Battle of Nerves
Maigret and the Young Girl
Maigret and the Headless Corpse
vammyp asks the important question:
I count eleven pipes on the wall plus one in mouth. How many is too many?
For my Dad, that would have been too few…��
(He did seem to really love a pipe.)
SheerContent asks:
I love all the books, and above all the power of the Maigret character, relentless and unpitying. I feel I know little about who he is, but I see into his mind, if that makes sense.
However, women are generally so sketchily drawn. Mrs Maigret’s only function, more or less, is to put food on the table and to say nothing if Mr does not come home. There are women in other books (including some of the most fascinating), but I do feel they are very much the object of Simeon’s scrutiny as a man (the male gaze): he has very little insight into women, so they come across almost as caricatures to me. Can you shed any light on his very different insights into how women ‘work’, and how men ‘work’?
Fundamental incommunicability between men and women is one of my father’s recurring theme. Also, how much insight into women can any male writer really have, and vice versa? In any case, in reading groups and other meetings, I had the opportunity to meet many women who would disagree with you about Marguerite in Le Chat, Tante Jeanne, Bébé Donge, Louise Laboine in Maigret et la jeune morte, Aline Callas in Maigret et le corps sans tête, Arlette in Maigret au Picratt’s, Louise Maigret in Le Fou de Bergerac…��
Hello everyone!
John is standing by and ready to start answering ... Thank you for all the excellent questions that have already come in. He's already got his work cut out.... But do please keep them coming!
I’m very pleased to say that John Simenon, son of famous Belgian novelist Georges Simenon – the subject of the reading group this past month – will be joining us for a webchat on 28 February at 1pm GMT.
As well as working in the film industry since the 1970s, John has managed the literary estate of his father for more than 25 years. He is the moral rights director of the Georges Simenon estate and has been closely involved with the recent Penguin translation series, which has provided so much pleasure and fruitful discussion for us.
The work of managing such a huge and culturally vital estate sounds fascinating. Simenon’s hundreds of books have been translated into more than 50 languages. “Since I manage his estate and negotiate with publishers and film producers all over the world, I get weekly requests for translations and adaptations of Simenon titles I’d never even heard of,” John has said.
There are also dozens of film, TV and radio adaptations of his stories and John has worked on many of them, including the recent Rowan Atkinson Maigret series. John can also provide insights into his father as a person. He has said, for instance, that he would go for long walks with Georges every day when he was a teenager and that “they gave me a very intuitive knowledge of who he was”.
My father was an obsédé of life and literature … He refused to camouflage his own weaknesses, magnifying them instead. If he was weak, his characters were weak. If he felt strong, he wrote strong characters. In short, he attempted to create the image of mankind. My father was himself his most compelling character.
John can also provide insight into his father’s most famous creation, Inspector Maigret. “There are two short ways to characterise the Maigret novels,” he has said. “One is to say Maigret does not solve crimes but solves people. And the other is to say his stories are not whodunnits but whydunnits. That is what I would say defines Maigret in a nutshell: his empathy, his interest for other people.”
We’re fortunate that such a unique authority will be able to speak to us. If you have a question you’d like to ask John Simenon, please post it in the comments below now. He will be with us answering from 1pm GMT on Friday 28 February but feel free to get yours in early.
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