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The first novel which appeared in Georges Simenon's famous Maigret series, in a gripping new translation by David Bellos.
Inevitably Maigret was a hostile presence in the Majestic. He constituted a kind of foreign body that the hotel's atmosphere could not assimilate.
Not that he looked like a cartoon policeman. He didn't have a moustache and he didn't wear heavy boots. His clothes were well cut and made of fairly light worsted. He shaved every day and looked after his hands.
But his frame was proletarian. He was a big, bony man. His firm muscles filled out his jacket and quickly pulled all his trousers out of shape.
He had a way of imposing himself just by standing there. His assertive presence had often irked many of his own colleagues.
In Simenon's first novel featuring Maigret, the laconic detective is taken from grimy bars to luxury hotels as he traces the true identity of Pietr the Latvian.
'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' Guardian
'A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness' Independent
Georges Simenon was born in Liège, Belgium, in 1903. Best known in Britain as the author of the Maigret books, his prolific output of over 400 novels and short stories have made him a household name in continental Europe. He died in 1989 in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he had lived for the latter part of his life.
David Bellos is Director of the Program in Translation and Intercultural Communication at Princeton University and has won many awards for his translations including the Man Booker International Translator's Award (2005). He is the author of Is that a Fish in your Ear: The Amazing Adventure of Translation.
The first book in the new Inspector Maigret series. Penguin is publishing all seventy-five novels in new translations, releasing one new title each month.
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Georges Simenon’s creation, Chief Inspector Maigret, differs considerably from your average Golden Age detective from across the Channel or across the Pond.
This introduction to Maigret reveals a closed-mouth, almost taciturn man, large and infinitely patient and persistent. Police are tracking a cocky criminal mastermind with the eponymous nickname, Pietr the Latvian, but, when following this dashingly well-dressed man onto a train, Maigret sees him leave the train, but a perfect double, dressed as a common factory worker, is found dead in the train’s washroom. Who is the dead man? And who was the man who left the train? And who is to blame?
Maigret’s debut tale isn’t for those who crave non-stop action and grow frustrated with French existentialist musings; however, for those who find that a soup?on of Sartre provides a piquant flavor to one’s roman noir, Pietr the Latvian may be just your French bill of fare.
By Miss Ivonne
For years I wondered why the Maigret stories weren't freshly translated and published in the full series, and now Penguin has decided to do so. I've read nearly all of them before, some a few times, and recently bought this first one since I couldn't remember what it was about. It's interesting to see Maigret make his debut, Simenon had a lot of Maigret's features and habits nailed down right from the start. The story in Pietr the Latvian is okay, not one of the best Maigrets, but since it's Simenon's first Maigret, let's not be too fussy.
There are a couple of odd things about the new translation. For one thing, the police are referred to as the Flying Squad, which is a uniquely British term. I don't see any reason for the translator to introduce British police terms into French stories. Besides that distraction, the new translation lacks the feel of the 1930's. Simenon's Maigret stories are interesting to me because many of the older ones are very good at transporting the reader back to the time the novel was written, like 1930 or post-war years, with small details that describe daily life in Paris at the time, such as frequent reminders of how cold that northern city can be, how central heating was new in 1930, how telephones were uncommon in a big city like Paris, how men regularly nipped into bars for a quick tot, and finally, the stunning lack of basic legal rights. So, some good aspects to reading the story, but the editing and proofreading should have been given more attention. There is a shameful number of typos, missing words, and a few sentences that are nonsense. Reading this one, I thought maybe a better translation would have been achieved by a round-table of hardcore Maigret fans. In any case, a pox on Penguin for not taking more care.
Each of the new ones in the Penguin series has a different translator, so while I wasn't nuts about this one, the others may have a different approach and be more like the original novels.
By northkona