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The Widower
With his usual mastery and sensitivity, Simenon explores here his favorite subject—the nature of married relations.
A solitary, self-content designer stumbles across a battered prostitute in a gutter. Literally. He takes her to his little apartment on a modest Parisian street, nurses her back to health, and eventually marries her.
One evening, instead of finding her at home, in the kitchen, wearing her shabby little black dress, he finds her at the Hôtel Gardénia, in Room No. 44, wearing a chic white dress, with expensive shoes, a bunch of withered roses in her hands. Dead.
His wife of fourteen years—someone very close yet enormously distant—is gone. The widower is left with a lot of questions: Does nearness breed devotion or deception, admiration or contempt? What about love? Did his unwitting callousness drive his wife to suicide? Timely and timeless questions all. That is Simenon—timeless himself.
A solitary, self-content designer stumbles across a battered prostitute in a gutter. Literally. He takes her to his little apartment on a modest Parisian street, nurses her back to health, and eventually marries her.
One evening, instead of finding her at home, in the kitchen, wearing her shabby little black dress, he finds her at the Hôtel Gardénia, in Room No. 44, wearing a chic white dress, with expensive shoes, a bunch of withered roses in her hands. Dead.
His wife of fourteen years—someone very close yet enormously distant—is gone. The widower is left with a lot of questions: Does nearness breed devotion or deception, admiration or contempt? What about love? Did his unwitting callousness drive his wife to suicide? Timely and timeless questions all. That is Simenon—timeless himself.
149 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1959
1 person is currently reading
91 people want to read
About the author
Georges Simenon
2,738 books2,298 followersGeorges Joseph Christian Simenon (1903 – 1989) was a Belgian writer. A prolific author who published nearly 500 novels and numerous short works, Simenon is best known as the creator of the fictional detective Jules Maigret.
Although he never resided in Belgium after 1922, he remained a Belgian citizen throughout his life.
Simenon was one of the most prolific writers of the twentieth century, capable of writing 60 to 80 pages per day. His oeuvre includes nearly 200 novels, over 150 novellas, several autobiographical works, numerous articles, and scores of pulp novels written under more than two dozen pseudonyms. Altogether, about 550 million copies of his works have been printed.
He is best known, however, for his 75 novels and 28 short stories featuring Commissaire Maigret. The first novel in the series, Pietr-le-Letton, appeared in 1931; the last one, Maigret et M. Charles, was published in 1972. The Maigret novels were translated into all major languages and several of them were turned into films and radio plays. Two television series (1960-63 and 1992-93) have been made in Great Britain.
During his "American" period, Simenon reached the height of his creative powers, and several novels of those years were inspired by the context in which they were written (Trois chambres à Manhattan (1946), Maigret à New York (1947), Maigret se fâche (1947)).
Simenon also wrote a large number of "psychological novels", such as La neige était sale (1948) or Le fils (1957), as well as several autobiographical works, in particular Je me souviens (1945), Pedigree (1948), Mémoires intimes (1981).
In 1966, Simenon was given the MWA's highest honor, the Grand Master Award.
In 2005 he was nominated for the title of De Grootste Belg (The Greatest Belgian). In the Flemish version he ended 77th place. In the Walloon version he ended 10th place.
Although he never resided in Belgium after 1922, he remained a Belgian citizen throughout his life.
Simenon was one of the most prolific writers of the twentieth century, capable of writing 60 to 80 pages per day. His oeuvre includes nearly 200 novels, over 150 novellas, several autobiographical works, numerous articles, and scores of pulp novels written under more than two dozen pseudonyms. Altogether, about 550 million copies of his works have been printed.
He is best known, however, for his 75 novels and 28 short stories featuring Commissaire Maigret. The first novel in the series, Pietr-le-Letton, appeared in 1931; the last one, Maigret et M. Charles, was published in 1972. The Maigret novels were translated into all major languages and several of them were turned into films and radio plays. Two television series (1960-63 and 1992-93) have been made in Great Britain.
During his "American" period, Simenon reached the height of his creative powers, and several novels of those years were inspired by the context in which they were written (Trois chambres à Manhattan (1946), Maigret à New York (1947), Maigret se fâche (1947)).
Simenon also wrote a large number of "psychological novels", such as La neige était sale (1948) or Le fils (1957), as well as several autobiographical works, in particular Je me souviens (1945), Pedigree (1948), Mémoires intimes (1981).
In 1966, Simenon was given the MWA's highest honor, the Grand Master Award.
In 2005 he was nominated for the title of De Grootste Belg (The Greatest Belgian). In the Flemish version he ended 77th place. In the Walloon version he ended 10th place.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
December 11, 2022
(Le Veuf, 1959). ‘The Widower’ proved to be quite a compassionate Simenon roman dur. Usually, when Simenon introduces his readers to a couple, he manages to sketch to us a tale of an uneasy relationship which has some threatening edges to it. Not in this case, although all the conditions were blatantly available. However, the widower in question, Bernard Jeantet, is such an unexciting person in an otherwise potentially very unusual relationship with his wife Jeanne, that he is totally unaware of anything wrong when his wife has disappeared. Being a person who is basically unaware of people’s feelings or being unable to interact in a meaningful way his examination into her unexpected death is actually heartbreaking. I thought it was a very moving roman dur and that is pretty unusual for our Monsieur Simenon. Therefore, I am rating it 5*.
July 10, 2025
Rather than go with Inspector Maigret, or one of his more popular 'romans durs' works, I wanted to try some lesser known novels instead; and there certainly plenty to pick from.This one takes my Simenon tally from four to five; a drop in the ocean when considering he seemed to churn out a new novel almost every week.
Simenon here gives us a supposedly happy and content marriage; a quiet and simple affiliation, before ever so quickly pulling it all apart. The husband, Bernard Jeantet, a humble, somewhat weak minded, dull but honest man, believes his younger wife, Jeanne, to be fulfilled, whereas in truth she is hidding the fact that her hunger for wanting more out of life is stonger than her pity. Through an intriguing back story, we would learn how the two first met and eventually live together; while in the presant, with the help of a police inspector who may or may not be holding back on a letter written by his wife before her apparent suicide, Bernard starts to peel away at the layers of Jeanne's 'other secret life', to a surprising revelation and conclusion that really was quite moving.
It's Parisian setting and mystery elements: in search of answers; recalling the past, reminded me a little of Patrick Modiano; although, this is more of a hard psychological character study, that I found to be much more intense and quite shocking in places when compared to Modiano. Really impressed by this.
Really impressed by this. Surely Simenon can't be this good every time. Could he?
Next up, The Nightclub
March 9, 2023
An English version appears below. If I read a novel in French I like to review it in French, as the language of it is in my head. It would be good to do the same in other languages too, but French is my limit!
"Ce truc-là, ça réussit une fois sur mille"
C'est mon deuxième Simenon (après "Monsieur Gallet, Décédé"), et c’est grâce à Hanneke que je l’ai acheté – sa critique se trouve ici :
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
J’ai dévoré ce récit détaillé d’un mariage, d’une vie close, d’un mari «mou » dont le « grand corps paraissait sans consistance » et d’une femme mystérieuse, docile, obéissante, laquelle devient le centre, la cohérence, du roman. C’est une seule action d’elle qui déclenche l’action, et les secrets de sa vie révèlent une réalité sombre, dont le mari n’avait aucune conscience.
Le narratif, dominé par ce seul évènement inexplicable, se ralentit par moments jusqu’au point d’une immobilité écrasante, de sorte que le moindre action de Jeantot, le mari, assume une signification tout à fait en accord avec la profondeur de l’abîme entre eux qui s’étale, qui croît, qui maîtrise . . . et qui libère, cette libération écrite avec une sensibilité fine qui rend impossible qu’on ne s’identifie pas avec cet homme, ce ‘veuf’, cet ‘insensible’. Et le changement qui s’effectue en lui, minimisé dans les détails du narratif, s’étonne.
De tout ça j’en ai dit assez ; mais en plus j’ai beaucoup apprécié me retrouver à Paris, dans le quartier même où j’habitais pendant un petit moment. J’étais là encore, je voyais tout, sentais toute la vie de la rue, avec rien de sentimentalité, plutôt le contraire. C’est la vie réelle de Paris, sans illusion, qui fait arrière-plan à l’illusion soigneusement construite par Jeantot, sans effort réel, et sans qu’il se rende compte de la destruction qui l’attend, sans qu’il puisse connaître la force qui somnambule en lui, au centre du mystère, à son centre à lui.
Magnifique.
This was my second Simenon. It’s thanks to Hanneke that I bought it – her review is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
"This sort of thing - Maybe one in a million works out."
I couldn’t put it down. I was completely drawn into this precise and detailed account of a marriage, of a closeted life, of a great "soft” man whose "large body seemed to have no consistency" and of a mysterious, docile, obedient woman who becomes the centre, the coherence, of the novel. A single action by her drives the story, and through this a dark reality is revealed, of which the husband, Jeantot, has suspected nothing.
The narrative slows down at times to the point of an enervating stillness, so that the slightest movement from Jeantot takes on a significance matching the depth of the abyss the story reveals - a chasm that spreads out, grows, subjugates . . . but is unexpectedly liberating for Jeantot. This psychological and emotional release is drawn with a fine sensitivity that makes it impossible for us not to identify with this ‘dullard’. The change in him, in its understated precision, astonishes.
I’ve said enough about that without spoiling the story too much. I also really enjoyed being back in Paris, near the neighbourhood where I stayed for a while. It was as if I was there again; I saw everything in detail, relived the atmosphere of the streets, not in a sentimental way, but rather the opposite. The reality of life for Parisians forms the backdrop to the manicured illusion that Jeantot has built, unaware of the destruction that awaits him, and of the strength that lies dormant in him.
Excellent.
"Ce truc-là, ça réussit une fois sur mille"
C'est mon deuxième Simenon (après "Monsieur Gallet, Décédé"), et c’est grâce à Hanneke que je l’ai acheté – sa critique se trouve ici :
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
J’ai dévoré ce récit détaillé d’un mariage, d’une vie close, d’un mari «mou » dont le « grand corps paraissait sans consistance » et d’une femme mystérieuse, docile, obéissante, laquelle devient le centre, la cohérence, du roman. C’est une seule action d’elle qui déclenche l’action, et les secrets de sa vie révèlent une réalité sombre, dont le mari n’avait aucune conscience.
Le narratif, dominé par ce seul évènement inexplicable, se ralentit par moments jusqu’au point d’une immobilité écrasante, de sorte que le moindre action de Jeantot, le mari, assume une signification tout à fait en accord avec la profondeur de l’abîme entre eux qui s’étale, qui croît, qui maîtrise . . . et qui libère, cette libération écrite avec une sensibilité fine qui rend impossible qu’on ne s’identifie pas avec cet homme, ce ‘veuf’, cet ‘insensible’. Et le changement qui s’effectue en lui, minimisé dans les détails du narratif, s’étonne.
De tout ça j’en ai dit assez ; mais en plus j’ai beaucoup apprécié me retrouver à Paris, dans le quartier même où j’habitais pendant un petit moment. J’étais là encore, je voyais tout, sentais toute la vie de la rue, avec rien de sentimentalité, plutôt le contraire. C’est la vie réelle de Paris, sans illusion, qui fait arrière-plan à l’illusion soigneusement construite par Jeantot, sans effort réel, et sans qu’il se rende compte de la destruction qui l’attend, sans qu’il puisse connaître la force qui somnambule en lui, au centre du mystère, à son centre à lui.
Magnifique.
This was my second Simenon. It’s thanks to Hanneke that I bought it – her review is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
"This sort of thing - Maybe one in a million works out."
I couldn’t put it down. I was completely drawn into this precise and detailed account of a marriage, of a closeted life, of a great "soft” man whose "large body seemed to have no consistency" and of a mysterious, docile, obedient woman who becomes the centre, the coherence, of the novel. A single action by her drives the story, and through this a dark reality is revealed, of which the husband, Jeantot, has suspected nothing.
The narrative slows down at times to the point of an enervating stillness, so that the slightest movement from Jeantot takes on a significance matching the depth of the abyss the story reveals - a chasm that spreads out, grows, subjugates . . . but is unexpectedly liberating for Jeantot. This psychological and emotional release is drawn with a fine sensitivity that makes it impossible for us not to identify with this ‘dullard’. The change in him, in its understated precision, astonishes.
I’ve said enough about that without spoiling the story too much. I also really enjoyed being back in Paris, near the neighbourhood where I stayed for a while. It was as if I was there again; I saw everything in detail, relived the atmosphere of the streets, not in a sentimental way, but rather the opposite. The reality of life for Parisians forms the backdrop to the manicured illusion that Jeantot has built, unaware of the destruction that awaits him, and of the strength that lies dormant in him.
Excellent.
November 8, 2020
This is the story of a freelancing designer named Bernard Jeantet, a colourless man with a mundane existence, who returns to his Paris home from work one day to discover that his wife, Jeanne, is missing. Years ago, they met under extraordinary circumstances; Jeanne was a prostitute and Bernard took her in after she was viciously attacked by her pimp on the street.
In Bernard’s mind, their life together was a happy one, but on her death (it's not a spoiler...as it's the title..), he is driven to examine whether that was actually the case.
Like many of Simenon's romans durs this is a study of character, Bernard Jeantet under the microscope, although the process is onerous and unsentimental it is never malicious.
It is a skilful piece of noir writing, a heartbreaking pageturner as Jeantet's quiet life is revealed..
In Bernard’s mind, their life together was a happy one, but on her death (it's not a spoiler...as it's the title..), he is driven to examine whether that was actually the case.
Like many of Simenon's romans durs this is a study of character, Bernard Jeantet under the microscope, although the process is onerous and unsentimental it is never malicious.
It is a skilful piece of noir writing, a heartbreaking pageturner as Jeantet's quiet life is revealed..
He had taken care to set limits to his domain and to surround it with protective barriers, and now, all of the sudden, from one hour to the next, almost from one minute to the next, everything had begun to collapse.
December 12, 2014
I was expecting The Widower by Simenon to be a murder mystery with all the usual trappings of the genre, but that is not at all what it is. Yes, there is a mystery of sorts. In this case, Bernard Jeantet, a man who has spent most of his life sequestered from the world at large, a man who finds himself unequipped to deal with people, the city beyond his usual rounds, nature, sex...steps out of his safe world to help a prostitute who has been assaulted. He nurses her back to health, marries her and absorbs her into his hermetic world. Now eight years later she has been found at an hotel, dead. Clearly she has killed herself, but why? This is the mystery.
Simenon's portrayal of Jeantet's life and world is tidily wrought. The characterization of Jeantet is minutely rendered. However, there are points at which the story becomes claustrophobic. And other elements, for instance, the total lack of sympathy accorded the newly widowed man, were hard to believe in. Curiously, I had just read Camus's The Stranger and this book kept reminding me of it. Both are a close analysis of a man who fails to respond to the world in a way that is recognized as acceptable, and thus is a stranger both to others and himself.
Intense, quick read.
Simenon's portrayal of Jeantet's life and world is tidily wrought. The characterization of Jeantet is minutely rendered. However, there are points at which the story becomes claustrophobic. And other elements, for instance, the total lack of sympathy accorded the newly widowed man, were hard to believe in. Curiously, I had just read Camus's The Stranger and this book kept reminding me of it. Both are a close analysis of a man who fails to respond to the world in a way that is recognized as acceptable, and thus is a stranger both to others and himself.
Intense, quick read.
December 8, 2025
Ce veuf est absolument brillant par sa construction. Quelle injustice pour cet homme bon et généreux… Un vrai époux modèle qui apprend suite au suicide de son épouse qu’elle le trompait.
Et en même temps, insidieusement, on se rend compte que Simenon, l’homme à femme, y fait son plaidoyer et se dédouane ici de toute responsabilité envers la multitude de cocus qu’il a laissé sur son chemin. Et ici, il semble dire : « ce n’est pas de ma faute si vos femmes sont infidèles, c’est parce que vous n’avez pas réussi à les rendre heureuses. Il leur fallait un homme comme moi, qui les fasse rêver ! »
Génial et détestable
https://www.noid.ch/le-veuf/
Et en même temps, insidieusement, on se rend compte que Simenon, l’homme à femme, y fait son plaidoyer et se dédouane ici de toute responsabilité envers la multitude de cocus qu’il a laissé sur son chemin. Et ici, il semble dire : « ce n’est pas de ma faute si vos femmes sont infidèles, c’est parce que vous n’avez pas réussi à les rendre heureuses. Il leur fallait un homme comme moi, qui les fasse rêver ! »
Génial et détestable
https://www.noid.ch/le-veuf/
April 16, 2015
This isn't really a crime novel, unlike Simenon's other romans durs I've read. But it is the same fleet, finely tuned writing that says so much more about isolation and alienation than what appears on the page.
Jeantet's carefully constructed life begins to crack when he arrives home to find his wife missing. The book's title answers whether or not she will be coming back.
Throughout the story he often tells himself that now he is a widower. For him that word becomes a process, as little by little it's revealed to him what exactly has been lost.
Given that in real life GS could be a jerk toward women, his portrait of Madame Jeantet is sensitive, respectful.
Not Simenon's best perhaps, but his near misses are still damn good.
Jeantet's carefully constructed life begins to crack when he arrives home to find his wife missing. The book's title answers whether or not she will be coming back.
Throughout the story he often tells himself that now he is a widower. For him that word becomes a process, as little by little it's revealed to him what exactly has been lost.
Given that in real life GS could be a jerk toward women, his portrait of Madame Jeantet is sensitive, respectful.
Not Simenon's best perhaps, but his near misses are still damn good.
November 30, 2010
This is included as an edition of a different Simenon book, "The Widow," and has the wrong description when you read it. The book I read is also about a man named Jean, but he lives in Paris and needs to find out what happened to his wife when she disappears one day...
August 16, 2021
This is a very disturbing book. Bernard Jeantet, a free-lance commercial artist, rescued a woman on the street, a prostitute, who has been abused by a man. He brings her home and cares for her, asks her nothing about her past and ﹣ some months later ﹣ he marries her. Their life unfolds on an even keel ﹣ just the two of them ﹣ until one day he comes home and she is gone. After a week or so of panicked searching for her, she is discovered ﹣ dead, in a hotel room. Not to spoil the story too much, but everyone blames him for stifling her. She is afraid to do anything to upset him because he is so kind to her, but he never asks anything of her and just wants them to have a peaceful life together. I can't tell what's wrong with that. That makes me nervous.
April 15, 2021
I found this an unnerving yet compelling read, and agree with one or two other reviewers that the book has a distinctly existential quality to it similar to Camus. It’s an intricate portait of a man whose life is regulated and featureless until one day it is plunged into chaos when his wife is found dead. The motive behind the death becomes the key to understanding the real nature of their relationship. Simenon resists judgment. It’s difficult to know if the principal character achieves salvation or not. So much is left unsaid. What is said is told in such a beautiful style that even I whose French is second rate could admire it. Recommended.
May 30, 2021
Small book with a relatively slim premise, but it worked for me. A man finds a woman in dire straits, offers her a way out in the way of marriage, and she ultimately disappears from his life in the most final of ways. In some ways, a fairly typical foray into Simenon's consideration of motive and virtue and the gulf between what someone thinks they mean in a gesture and how they actually take it. I particularly liked the ending on this one. Hopefully whoever has the rights to all of these old titles will eventually get around to re-releasing this so it can get a wider readership.
November 16, 2019
THE WIDOWER Simenon (10/16)
Published in 1959,and set inParis it has a dual quality: a very measured and internal plot with characters all of a resemblant nature.
This is not a mystery/intrigue of in your face violence, or even wild emotion though it does revolve around a simple man whose wife is a Wednesday inly prostitute who commits suicide at the very hotel where her practice is carried
Published in 1959,and set inParis it has a dual quality: a very measured and internal plot with characters all of a resemblant nature.
This is not a mystery/intrigue of in your face violence, or even wild emotion though it does revolve around a simple man whose wife is a Wednesday inly prostitute who commits suicide at the very hotel where her practice is carried
October 7, 2018
il y a quelque chose de fascinant dans la platitude, l'inertie, l'implacable rationalité du style et du personnage principal
February 2, 2019
As I was reading this novel I felt like it was a masterpiece of existentialist literature, but thinking about it just a few hours after finishing it the plot seemed really preposterous. No matter, if you're a fan of Simenon's romans durs then you don't want to miss this one.
August 31, 2020
Beaut little story about a solitary man who loses his wife to suicide only to find that she has been leading a very separate life to the one in which he himself is involved.
March 30, 2022
It's a sad little story, slim in size but the characters and plot have depth, I thi k the translation is a bit ropey in places but overall enjoyable.
October 7, 2023
3.5 - better than the other two I read.
November 13, 2024
Un personaje un tanto sombrío, pusilánime. Me ha gustado mucho
July 24, 2025
Een uitstekende 'roman dur' van Simenon over een thema dat hij vaker aansnijdt: hoe goed kun je iemand kennen, zelfs als je er dag in, dag uit mee samenleeft?
Mou - een Simenonwoord
Simenon gebruikt het woord 'mou' om een kenmerk van hoofdpersoon Bernard Jeantet aan te geven: "On le prenait souvent pour un mou, il le savait, et c'etait vrai que son grand corps paraissait sans consistance ... il semblait manquer de l'armature rigide d'un squelette." De uitleg heeft hier vooral betrekking op het uiterlijk van Jeantet: een week uiterlijk, een postuur dat, ondanks een flinke lengte, vorm en stevigheid ontbeert. Simenon gebruikt 'mou' hier overigens, zoals hij meestal doet, als zelfstandig naamwoord; iemand kan in zijn woorden 'un mou' zijn.
Simenon gebruikt 'mou' geregeld in zijn boeken om een personage te kenmerken, niet alleen qua uiterlijk, maar ook qua gedrag. Een 'mou' is een onopvallende, zachtaardige, schuchtere figuur (altijd een man), die in woord en daad geen enkele indruk maakt op wie dan ook en dat ook niet lijkt te willen. In woordenboeken kom je dit woord niet of nauwelijks tegen, noch als bijvoeglijk naamwoord, noch als zelfstandig naamwoord. Als er al een vertaling wordt gegeven, bijvoorbeeld 'verwijfd' of 'zacht', geeft die toch niet precies de betekenis weer waarin Simenon dit woord gebruikt. Ik heb al heel wat Simenons gelezen inmiddels en heb zelf ook nog nooit een goed Nederlands equivalent kunnen bedenken voor 'mou'.
Mou - een Simenonwoord
Simenon gebruikt het woord 'mou' om een kenmerk van hoofdpersoon Bernard Jeantet aan te geven: "On le prenait souvent pour un mou, il le savait, et c'etait vrai que son grand corps paraissait sans consistance ... il semblait manquer de l'armature rigide d'un squelette." De uitleg heeft hier vooral betrekking op het uiterlijk van Jeantet: een week uiterlijk, een postuur dat, ondanks een flinke lengte, vorm en stevigheid ontbeert. Simenon gebruikt 'mou' hier overigens, zoals hij meestal doet, als zelfstandig naamwoord; iemand kan in zijn woorden 'un mou' zijn.
Simenon gebruikt 'mou' geregeld in zijn boeken om een personage te kenmerken, niet alleen qua uiterlijk, maar ook qua gedrag. Een 'mou' is een onopvallende, zachtaardige, schuchtere figuur (altijd een man), die in woord en daad geen enkele indruk maakt op wie dan ook en dat ook niet lijkt te willen. In woordenboeken kom je dit woord niet of nauwelijks tegen, noch als bijvoeglijk naamwoord, noch als zelfstandig naamwoord. Als er al een vertaling wordt gegeven, bijvoorbeeld 'verwijfd' of 'zacht', geeft die toch niet precies de betekenis weer waarin Simenon dit woord gebruikt. Ik heb al heel wat Simenons gelezen inmiddels en heb zelf ook nog nooit een goed Nederlands equivalent kunnen bedenken voor 'mou'.
September 8, 2023
An intense read but brilliant. A very well-written character study of a man who does not relate to the world or others as others do and is therefore alienated from it. The verdict from his wife's lover is damning and thought-provoking.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews