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If only Georges Simenon had been a bit more like Maigret

spectator.co.uk

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Re: If only Georges Simenon had been a bit more like Maigret

#21

Post by atombender »

eatonphil wrote: post #4

I read mostly non fiction but mystery novels are the one fiction genre I never mind reading. I read it like a (roundabout) lesson on the character of a time and place. I'd previously read London's Sherlock, Belgium's Poirot (written by the English Agatha Christie), LA's Philip Marlowe and France's Lupin (good reads, but the translations are poor quality). I picked up Pietr the Latvian recently in a search for more Co…

Also great, and in my opinion, quite Simenonesque: Missing Person [1] by Patrick Modiano (the French winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in literature).

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Missing-Person-Verba-Mundi-Book/dp/15...

Re: If only Georges Simenon had been a bit more like Maigret

#22

Post by QuesnayJr »

lrc wrote: post #15

I lived in France for a few years and wanted to become fluent in the language. One part of my strategy was just to try to brute-force through some novels with the aid of a dictionary and a conjugation chart. I started with _Les Trois Mousquetaires_ but found the diction too difficult to slog through. I made it through _Le Petit Prince_, but I really clicked with Simenon's detective novels. Since it was a familiar, mo…

Multiple people have recommended Simenon to me for learning French.

Re: If only Georges Simenon had been a bit more like Maigret

#23

Post by bloak »

ernesth wrote: post #17
bloak wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assumed they meant https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Chien_jaune , one of the best Maigret stories. (Why is it a capital C in the Wikipedia article?)

> Why is it a capital C in the Wikipedia article? That is the way book titles are capitilized in french: the first word excluding articles gets a capital letter. It is also according to this word that the book will be sorted. Same for "La Tête d'un homme", previous book in the series.

Interesting. I didn't know that. The Oxford Style Manual confirms what you say. (I'm not sure whether it's telling you to do that when quoting a French title in English; it might just be talking about what to do when a book title appears in a passage in French.)

Apparently the rule doesn't apply to the actual title page: the 1968 copy, which I happen to have and was able, somewhat surprisingly, to find in less than 60 seconds, has "Le chien jaune" on the title page, page 3.

Re: If only Georges Simenon had been a bit more like Maigret

#24

Post by sprafa »

nferracin wrote: post #18
sprafa wrote: post #13

I love these books. I can buy them in Portugal for 50p and piece and they phenomenal covers. French police stories are fantastic because everything revolves around sex; which speaks to me as more realistic than American det novels (often about conspiracy theories, threats from other countries or from powerful men - to be fair some of them are quite frank about sex too) and British novels (which don’t seem to mention…

> I can buy them in Portugal for 50p Can I ask you where? Also, in French of Portuguese? Moving to Portugal in 2020 and would love to know where to find books for cheap!

You can find French books in some places, but you can find cheap Portuguese books virtually anywhere, but particularly so in Porto, close to where I live.

We call local/old/second hand bookshops “alfarrabistas” and they are very common around the country. Some have closed with the savage turistification that’s hit the country, but most are still around for now.

Re: If only Georges Simenon had been a bit more like Maigret

#25

Post by sprafa »

nferracin wrote: post #18
sprafa wrote: post #13

I love these books. I can buy them in Portugal for 50p and piece and they phenomenal covers. French police stories are fantastic because everything revolves around sex; which speaks to me as more realistic than American det novels (often about conspiracy theories, threats from other countries or from powerful men - to be fair some of them are quite frank about sex too) and British novels (which don’t seem to mention…

> I can buy them in Portugal for 50p Can I ask you where? Also, in French of Portuguese? Moving to Portugal in 2020 and would love to know where to find books for cheap!

If you are moving there please make an effort to support the local economy and get involved with local politics and governance. The country is being flooded by techies and rich artists thinking that Lisbon is the new Berlin while ignoring completely that they are considerably damaging the local population’s quality of life.

Re: If only Georges Simenon had been a bit more like Maigret

#26

Post by toyg »

eatonphil wrote: post #4

I read mostly non fiction but mystery novels are the one fiction genre I never mind reading. I read it like a (roundabout) lesson on the character of a time and place. I'd previously read London's Sherlock, Belgium's Poirot (written by the English Agatha Christie), LA's Philip Marlowe and France's Lupin (good reads, but the translations are poor quality). I picked up Pietr the Latvian recently in a search for more Co…

Can I humbly suggest a few more “detectives with literary ambitions” you may or may not know already?

Manuel Vázquez Montalbán’s Pepe Carvalho is a survivor of Franco’s purges, solving crimes and describing recipes in late-1980s Barcelona. (Spanish)

Andrea Camilleri’s Salvo Montalbano brings justice to the decadent and complicated Sicilian society of today. (Italian)

Both spawned several books, and have been translated to most languages at some point or another. Both draw a lot from Simenon, but have their distinctive styles (Camilleri in the Italian original uses a pidgin dialect that calls to Gadda and Joyce; and MVM is obsessed with food and politics).

Re: If only Georges Simenon had been a bit more like Maigret

#27

Post by toyg »

convFixb wrote: post #6
pygy_ wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new translations are indeed mentioned in passing, but the piece is a good introduction for people who don't know the author.

Quite. I suspect many, like myself, mainly know Maigret from the television series starring Rowan Atkinson (yes!).

Maigret is probably second only to Poirot and Holmes for number of tv adaptations. In Italy we had one in the mid-60’s that was very good, if a bit theatrical.

Re: If only Georges Simenon had been a bit more like Maigret

#28

Post by eatonphil »

toyg wrote: post #26
eatonphil wrote: post #4

I read mostly non fiction but mystery novels are the one fiction genre I never mind reading. I read it like a (roundabout) lesson on the character of a time and place. I'd previously read London's Sherlock, Belgium's Poirot (written by the English Agatha Christie), LA's Philip Marlowe and France's Lupin (good reads, but the translations are poor quality). I picked up Pietr the Latvian recently in a search for more Co…

Can I humbly suggest a few more “detectives with literary ambitions” you may or may not know already? Manuel Vázquez Montalbán’s Pepe Carvalho is a survivor of Franco’s purges, solving crimes and describing recipes in late-1980s Barcelona. (Spanish) Andrea Camilleri’s Salvo Montalbano brings justice to the decadent and complicated Sicilian society of today. (Italian) Both spawned several books, and have been translat…

Both are on my list. :) But thank you for the confirmation! I've seen a few episodes of a Pepe Carvalho TV show in Spanish (no subs I could find) but haven't yet gotten around to reading it yet.

Re: If only Georges Simenon had been a bit more like Maigret

#29

Post by nferracin »

sprafa wrote: post #24
nferracin wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can buy them in Portugal for 50p Can I ask you where? Also, in French of Portuguese? Moving to Portugal in 2020 and would love to know where to find books for cheap!

You can find French books in some places, but you can find cheap Portuguese books virtually anywhere, but particularly so in Porto, close to where I live. We call local/old/second hand bookshops “alfarrabistas” and they are very common around the country. Some have closed with the savage turistification that’s hit the country, but most are still around for now.

Do you have any favorite you feel like suggesting? I've been there several times but never noticed them and even my Portuguese partner wouldn't know where to find one after many years living abroad.

Re: If only Georges Simenon had been a bit more like Maigret

#30

Post by JBlue42 »

toyg wrote: post #26
eatonphil wrote: post #4

I read mostly non fiction but mystery novels are the one fiction genre I never mind reading. I read it like a (roundabout) lesson on the character of a time and place. I'd previously read London's Sherlock, Belgium's Poirot (written by the English Agatha Christie), LA's Philip Marlowe and France's Lupin (good reads, but the translations are poor quality). I picked up Pietr the Latvian recently in a search for more Co…

Can I humbly suggest a few more “detectives with literary ambitions” you may or may not know already? Manuel Vázquez Montalbán’s Pepe Carvalho is a survivor of Franco’s purges, solving crimes and describing recipes in late-1980s Barcelona. (Spanish) Andrea Camilleri’s Salvo Montalbano brings justice to the decadent and complicated Sicilian society of today. (Italian) Both spawned several books, and have been translat…

Thank for the suggestions.

I also keep my eye on NYRB Classics Suspense/Crime offerings as they have a pretty good international selection (some Simenon included):

https://www.nyrb.com/collections/classics/suspense-crime

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