The Man Who Wasn't Maigret: A Portrait of Georges Simenon

by Patrick Marnham

Winner of the Marsh Prize for biography and an Edgar Award finalist. "I doubt if there will be a better, or a better written, portrait of Simenon for a long time."--Julian Barnes

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, France, Literature, Crime

404 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Tony Fitzpatrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is said that you should never meet your heroes. To that I would add that you should never read critical biographies about them. I have now read sixty one Maigret stories by Simenon (about eleven to go), and I have enjoyed more or less every one of them. However the author of these finely crafted and intelligent detective stories was clearly an appalling man. His attitude towards women, especially his wives and companions, was beyond disgraceful, and his boast that he had slept with over ten thousand women in his life typified his attitude to sex - merely a hunger to be selfishly sated. His family life was beyond dysfunctional, his relationship with his mother and brother unbelievable, and his self centred attitude to the world was breathtakingly evil. His non-Maigret literature appeared to consist mostly of semi biographical inspired stories, which in consequence treated friends, family and others disgracefully - many were hurt by these insights into his real feelings and attitudes. He may have been at one time the most published and read contemporary author in the world, but he seems to have had absolutely no redeeming features. This biography tries hard to show sympathy with the man and his motivations, but frankly that was never really possible with the source material available. Well written though, albeit with an irritating was of jumping backwards and forwards over timelines and dropping into untranslated French in an inconsistent way. Simenon wasn't Maigret - good thing too; the Maigret stories would never have been published if he was.

[Toby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Things I Have Learned From Reading The Man Who Wasn't Maigret:
1) Simenon was incredibly prolific (44 books in one year makes James Patterson look positively lazy)
2) He had sex an awful lot (10000 women in a lifetime sounds exhausting)
3) He lied more often than not, even fictionalising his memoirs.

I was more than a little underwhelmed by this 'portrait' of a great writer. My eyes glazed as whole sections of information about other people were included, André Gide for example was a very interesting man I'm sure but I didn't really care about his life story when reading about Georges Simenon. And this is repeated by the writer throughout the book.

The 'portrait' was occasionally turned in to an analysis of Simenon's body of work, comparing and contrasting themes for pages at a time. Again this could be interesting stuff for somebody who wanted to read a literary dissertation but not not what I was wanting or expecting.

Patrick Marnham could possibly have used some of Simenon's skill at getting under the skin of his characters and really gotten to know how the man worked but I guess when dealing with someone as reclusive and dishonest as this subject it was quite a hard task.

[John Purcell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating.

[HansBlog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Patrick Marnham malt gern atmosphärisch aus, doch die Zeit vor Simenons Geburt beschreibt er zu ausführlich – Simenons Vorfahren und ihre Lebensumstände in Lüttich und andernorts. Auch Simenons Kindheit und Jugend erscheinen sehr ausführlich: Der Zeit, bis Simenon 1923 von Lüttich nach Paris zieht um seine Karriere zu beginnen, widmet die dt. Biografie-Ausgabe überproportional großzügige ca. 126 von ca. 400 S. Haupttext (i.d.engl. Ausgabe ca. 102 von 320 Seiten Haupttext). Da war Simenon (1903 – 1989) etwa 20 und hatte noch längst nichts unter eigenem Namen geschrieben. Einige Nebenfiguren beschreibt Marnham zu ausführlich, zu anderen gibt es wieder fast nichts.
Ich las das Buch im engl. Original mit Stichproben in der dt. Übersetzung des Knaus-Verlags. Marnham schreibt etwas umständlich und wiederholt sich gelegentlich, der Ton ist manchmal etwas demonstrativ kennerhaft, vor allem in den ersten Kapiteln. Es ist noch passabel lesbar, aber kein Vergnügen wie beim unmittelbaren Konkurrenten Assouline.
Nicht flüssiger macht es Marnhams Text, wenn er Quellenangaben mit hineinstricken muss wie in "as Jean-Christoph Camus has pointed out…" (S. 64), "as Jean-Christophe Camus has revealed" (S. 66) oder erneut "as Jean-Christoph Camus has pointed out" (S. 68): Weil Marnham komplett auf hochgestellte Ziffern und bibliografische Fuß- oder Endnoten verzichtet, geht's indes nicht anders. (Oft bleiben so Zitaturheber und andere Hintergründe einfach unklar, und der Verzicht auf Nachweise wiegt umso schwerer, weil Simenon so viele, aber unzuverlässige Memoirenbände schrieb – man möchte wissen, ob Marnham eine Information aus den Simemoiren holte.)
Cousin und Kusine:
Über Simenons legendären Frauenverbrauch schreibt Marnham wenig; desto mehr verwundert in der dt. Übersetzung dieser Teilsatz (S. 131):
(…) einen großen Teil der Zeit hatte er mit einem entfernten Vetter in einem Stundenhotel verbracht.
Monsieur "10.000 Frauen" im Bett mit einem Vetter? Tatsächlich hat der deutsche Übersetzer Helmut Kossodo hier das englische Wort "cousin" mit "Vetter" übertragen – aber das englische "cousin" kann auch Cousine/Kusine heißen, und das war sicherlich gemeint – und nicht "Vetter". Der entsprechende englische Teilsatz lautet im Original (S. 89):
(…) for much of the time he had been in a hôtel de passe with a distant cousin.
Dies scheint ein eindeutiger, grober Fehler zu sein. Ich habe die dt. Übersetzung ja nur stichprobenartig geprüft (hier, weil ich sehen wollte, wie Kossodo hôtel de passe eindeutscht). Es ist nicht das erste Mal, dass ich entstellende Übersetzungsfehler in einem "anspruchsvollen" Buch eines "anspruchsvollen" Verlags sehe und frage mich, wie viele Fehler die dt. Fassung noch enthält.
Unübersetztes Französisch:
Unbefriedigend: Öfter bringt die deutsche Ausgabe französische Ausdrücke *un*übersetzt, wo auch das englische Original unübersetztes Französisch liefert, u.a. bei "antisemitisme de peau" (dt. S. 105, i.d.engl. Ausgabe "anti-Sémitisme de peau", S. 68), bei "vicieux" (dt. S. 120, engl. S. 80), bei "Paris consacre" (dt. S. 125, engl. S. 84), "manger et faire l'amour" (dt. S. 151, engl. S. 107), "supprimez toute la littérature, et ça ira" (dt. S. 157, engl. S. 112), "petits poi" (dt. S. 210, engl. S. 153), " bêtises… obsédé sexuel" (dt. S. 219, engl. S. 160), "professionelles de passage" (dt. S. 221, engl. S. 161), "en tant de publique ordinaire" (dt. S. 165, eng. S. 118), "tant pis pour le classement… tant pi pour moi" (dt. S. 312, engl. S. 235). Meine Meinung: Wenn sich Ausdrücke nicht glatt in Klammern übersetzen lassen, sollte der Übersetzer erst recht eine Erklärung mitliefern.
Manchmal bringt der deutsche Übersetzer französische Ausdrücke mit deutscher Erklärung, wo das englische Original Französisch ohne englisches Synonym geliefert hatte, etwa bei '"déicides" ("Gottesmörder")' (i.d. engl. Ausgabe S. 69) oder bei '"comprendre et ne pas juger" ("verstehen und nicht verurteilen")' (d. S. 105, engl. S. 68), "Puffmutter, patronne de maison close" (dt. 221, engl. S. 161), "farouchement munichois" (dt. S. 228, engl. S. 167).
Besonders traurig stimmt der Verzicht auf eine Übertragung des ursprünglich Französischen in die "Amtssprache" des Buchs, Deutsch oder Englisch, wenn die Worte eine besondere Bedeutung haben. So liest man etwa jeweils unübersetzt über eine Künstlergruppe (dt. S. 112, engl. S. 74):
"La Caque", ursprünglich "Le Cénacle", später "L'Aspic" genannt – die wechselnden Namen sind bezeichnend (…)
(Der Ausdruck "La Caque" wird später im Lauftext umschrieben.)
Auch offenbar nicht auf Deutsch oder Englisch vorliegende Simenon-Buchtitel übersetzen weder Marnham noch der dt. Übersetzer, z.B. beim Frühwerk "Au Pont des Arches" (eng. S. 70, dt. S. 108) oder bei "Bouton de col" (engl. S. 72, dt. S. 110) – hier hätte man sich wieder von Autor, Übersetzer und Lektorat mehr Einsatz gewünscht.
Bei allen Stichproben in der dt. Ausgabe schien mir die Übersetzung lieblos zu wörtlich, da klang das englische Original besser. Die Primär-Bibliografie im Anhang nennt nicht etwa alle Bücher, die Simenon in seiner Sprache Französisch herausbrachte – sondern nur die bei Diogenes auf Deutsch erschienenen, in typischer Diogenes-Typografie, ohne Jahreszahlen.
Zur verwendeten dt. Ausgabe:
Meine Hardcover-Ausgabe des Knaus-Verlags Schutzumschlag, kein Lesebändchen, eher eng bedruckte Seiten und:
Haupttext inkl. "Vorspiel": ca. 400 Seiten
Anhang (Bibliografie, Register, Danksagung, Zeittafel vorn): ca. 35 weitere Seiten
Gesamtseiten lt. Paginierung: ca. 445
Nicht paginierte SW-Fotoseiten auf gestr. Fotodruckpapier: 32 (mäßge Repro-Qualität, hier keine Landkarten)
Zur verwendeten engl. Ausgabe:
Meine TB-Ausgabe des Verlags Harcourt Brace hat relativ große, normal dicht bedruckte Seiten und:
Haupttext inkl. Vorwort: ca. 320 Seiten
Anhang (Bibliografie, Register, Danksagung, Zeittafel vorn): ca. 33 weitere Seiten
Gesamtseiten lt. Paginierung: xviii + 346
Nicht paginierte SW-Fotoseiten auf ungestr. normalem Textdruckpapier: 32 (mäßige Repro-Qualität; dazu 2 schlichte je ganzseitige SW-Landkarten)
Gewicht: ca. 744g
Dicke: ca. 30mm
Vergleich der Simenon-Biografien von Assouline (1992) und Marnham (1993):
(Assouline habe ich in der scheinbar gekürzten englischen Übersetzung gelesen, Marnham im engl. Original mit Stichproben in der dt. Ausgabe.) Die zwei Autoren im Testfeld sind erfahrene Biografen, Journalisten und teils Belletristen. Beide sprachen mit Simenons Kindern und den letzten Mitarbeiterinnen; Assouline hatte evtl. mehr Zugang (und Marnham zitiert mehrfach Assoulines Erkenntnisse).
Gewiss unterhält Assouline besser und vielleicht lernt man bei Marnham mehr (im Vergleich zur *gekürzten* Assouline-Ausgabe), zumindest über Simonons junge Jahre und einige Nebenfiguren, ebenso über Komissar Maigret (Entwicklung, Wesenszüge). Die deutsche Marnham-Ausgabe ist lieblos mechanisch übersetzt.
Assouline hat deutlich mehr über Simenons Verlagsbeziehungen und Haltung zum Judentum; seine Darstellung Simenons im 2. Weltkrieg erschien mir übersichtlicher. Marnham bringt m.E. mehr Details aus Simenons Jugend und mehr Einzelheiten zu den Romanen, auch über die biografischen Bezüge hinaus. Assouline hat mehr über Simenons häusliche Situation in Lüttich.
Assouline erzählt mit kürzeren Sätzen und vielen knappen Dialogen. Marnham erzählt etwas epischer ohne Dialoge und evtl. mit mehr zeithistorischen Hintergründen; er liefert deutlich mehr unübersetztes Französisch in der dt. Ausgabe und mehr noch in der engl. Ausgabe, meist zwei bis acht Worte.
Assouline belegt fast alles mit Endnoten, Marnham verzichtet ganz auf Endnoten (er bringt freilich auch weniger Zitate, aber die vorhandenen Zitate lassen sich nicht immer zuordnen, erst recht nicht die Quellen für Tatsachenbehauptungen). Die engl. Marnham-Ausgabe zeigt zwei schlichte SW-Landkarten, die Eindeutschung und Assouline haben keine; die engl. Marnham-Ausgabe hat die Bilder in sehr mäßiger Qualität auf ungestr. Textdruckpapier, die dt. Marnham-Ausgabe kann's nicht viel besser auf gestr. Fotodruckpapier; die engl. Assouline-Ausgabe liefert besseren Fotodruck auf gestr. Fotodruckpapier.

[David]

Marnham has a gift of biography, and this moved with pithy images, short sentences, attractive events (learned as a newspaper reporter in his late teens, and an extremely fast writer who could turn out a column or story within an hour. Marnham gives insight into what and how Simenon (1903-1989) wrote his Maigret detective stories, using frequently bits of his rough youth in Liege, Belgium, the German occupation of liege, a petty thief, and action to fashion his famous stories. I watched a short TV series in 2018 presenting one of Paris Police Commissaire Maigret stories.
Georges Simenon left his pulp fiction period and ca. 1930 wanted to produce "literature", serious and longer stories, which reduced his annual stories from over forty to under a dozen. 'Maigret' stories were set Western Europe, many in the Paris right bank allies and cafes with Maigret always somber with a pipe in his mouth. Maigret was the patient, thoughtful, kindly, generous cerebral hero of seventy-six novels, bringing Simenon fame and a huge fortune. Maigret refuses to judge the criminals he is tracking preferring in most cases to "understand" them, and this characteristic Simenon learned from his father early in life.
Chapter Seven is a focus on the fictional Maigret, created in 1930 as a fictional character, and extremely well done. This chapter is the one to read if interested in the SERIOUS literary fiction of Simenon's middle years of fame, during which the Maigret stories sold 500 million copies. He seems to have been a master of pulp fiction, of "cool" detective thinking out the solution, of fascinating tales but of close to zero quality as literature.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lively account of a very remarkable life. It kept me turning the pages and increased my interest in Simenon. It recounts his life, and describes/summarises his works, in quite a bit of detail. Oddly (or not), I didn't finish it with a feeling of knowing GS, or understanding what made him tick in the highly unusual way he did. Much less how he got away with it! He wouldn't do so well in the 21st century, for better and worse.
A strong point of the book is that there is a fair-sized cast of major secondary characters, mostly family at least in a broad sense, who are clearly drawn in their own rights, and interesting folks they are too.
A surprising thing about Simenon for me is his enormous success. I've read maybe half a dozen of his books over the years, and ... I thought they were okay, a bit gloomy in vibe, very un-expansive in style and in the scope of the stories. I just haven't got what the big deal is. But I will try a few more. At least they're short (apart from 'Memoires intimes', at over 1,000 pages, which is a shame, as that one sounds interesting!) and the French is more or less within my limited and dated range.

As so often, I'll carp about the biographer's writing a bit. As I said, he spins the yarn well enough, and sustains interest, but he can be sloppy. For once, I marked a couple of examples to prove my point:
(1) PM quotes GS as saying "It is not necessarily by looking for a human contact that one finds it." - This will be a translation from the French, or rather, a mistranslation. What Simenon said would be better rendered: "Looking for human contact doesn't necessarily mean you're going to find it". See? The PM version suggests that looking may succeed, but finding may also be achieved by other means; my version/the original French emphasises the high chance that if you look you will fail.
(2) "... Marc, whose two children... were then aged 4 and one month respectively." But PM hasn't given us, for instance, the names, or sexes, or any other individuating info about the children, so the "respectively" is just spinning its wheels. Which one was 4? Er, one of them.
But probably the excuse for this is that, like Simenon, Marnham was writing (fairly) fast - the book came out in April 1992, just 2 and a half years after Simenon's death. And unlike Simenon, who pretty much wrote off the top of his head, by all accounts, Marnham had to speed-read a couple of hundred Simenons, summarise 20 or 40 of them, persuade the man's friends and family to talk to him, then talk to them, dig up correspondences, and all that stuff.
I guess a more serious, if also understandable, weakness of the book is that there is so much to be told, and so many books to be discussed, that things get skated over a lot. There's a lot of 1-paragraph or 1-page summaries/assessments of particular books, the assessments being especially cursory ("one of his finest", that kind of thing), and I at least was sometimes unsure whether Marnham really rated Simenon particularly at all. Or at least, I would have appreciated at least one or two deeper literary dives. Which reminds me that there is also quite a bit of repetition (of quotes, of anecdotes), that more careful editing might have improved.

All that said, I found it a pretty good read, warts and all. Is that fair?

[Neil Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a superlative biography of a literary figure, in this case, of course, Georges Simenon, primarily known as the author of 76 Maigret novels. He was a powerhouse of a writer producing 117 other novels as well as autobiographical works.
The book is excellent on the inspiration behind the fiction and the "extent to which Simenon relied on lived experience for many of his fictions".
It is also fascinating on the intense process of writing that meant that Simenon, fuelled often by two litres of Bordeaux per day, could write a Maigret book in 11 days or less.
The biography is honest too about Simenon's treatment of the women (many) in his life and you have to conclude that enviable as a writer, his character and life are totally unenviable.
A fascinating book for anyone who has read anything by Georges Simenon.

[(Mark) EchoWolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written, and a somewhat disturbing biography of a man who bragged that he'd had sex with over 5,000 women, and that he should win the Nobel prize, and who obviously had some very serious dislikes for his mother, and a range of other psychological issues. He was a complex character, obviously sex obsessed, who withdrew into himself later in life, in solitude, except for the maids he'd employ for cleaning and cooking and sex. He's probably not an author that would appeal to many women. His Inspector Maigret short novels are interesting, and one or two are very good, but his other novels, known as the 'Roman Durs' (hard psychologically disturbing characterizations with very flawed characters) are his peak achievements, novels like "Dirty Snow", "The Strangers in the House", "Monsieur Monde Vanishes", and "Red Lights".

[Adriano Barone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mentre scrivo il nuovo romanzo, mi dico ingenuamente che mi piacerebbe leggere della vita dell'uomo che produsse una quantità sconfinata di romanzi. Come se leggere di qualcuno che fosse in grado di farlo, con un transfer una briciola di quella capacità potesse passare a te. Peggio che idiota.
Detto questo...
...scopro la tragedia di un uomo quasi perennemente infelice.
Il successo di vendite non bastò mai a riempire quel vuoto, che - facendo analisi da bar, proprio spicciola - derivò da tanti traumi, quello della guerra, ma soprattutto di una madre che non lo validò mai.
Un caso da manuale di infelicità, di una persona che non sapeva nemmeno perché scriveva e come riuscisse a farlo.
La lettura è consigliata, ma vi lascerà addosso una tristezza profonda.

[Stephen Bywater · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear and comprehensive

[Rod · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned a great deal about Simenon from this biography. I've probably read about 20 or more of his Maigret novels, but I had no idea how many books he had written altogether, or how very complicated his life was. Really a fascinating character, and a very well-told story of his life.

[Bruce Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought provoking read.

[Laurence Westwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

superb biography

[Richard Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and a long time enthusiast of Simenon and Maigret. Enough said.

[Pirate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh to have the productivity of Simenon and his sales....whether one lusts after his voracious sexual appetite is another matter, sometimes he would feel the urge to have sex with four women in a day. However, while this is pertinent to this masterful biography there is obviously much more to the great Belgian writer which Marnham brings brilliantly to life. His lifelong battle to be recognised not only as a bestselling author but as a literary powerhouse - his ambition to win the Nobel Literary Prize in 1947 was not fulfilled ironically his mentor Andre Gide won it instead -- and with his formidable mother Henriette, some of their exchanges are heartbreaking, are also dominant themes. Marnham's superb rendition also brings a wry touch -- making the most of Jean Cocteau's dubious record in WWII -- including the farcical incident of the battle of the corset between Henriette and his second wife Denyse when the former came to stay with Simenon in the US. He doesn't spare Simenon over some of his rewriting of his family history as when he took pen to paper on the biography 'Je me souviens' during WWII..Marnham says so much is not true that it should be retitled 'Je ne souviens pas'. Simenon comes across as a remarkable man, his ability to write book afer book whether Maigret or his 'romans durs' as he termed them astonishing...till his mother died. Absolutely adored this, have always admired Marnham as a journalist so it is a pleasure to read something far longer by him and on such a subject. Summing up this wonderful biography is a passage where various literary giants pass comment on Simenon's supreme ability as a writer and one of his admirers, French publishing legend Bernard de Fallois cites Stendahl 'What use is a novel if it doesn't pass the night' well I would say the same of this biography. Fascinating subject brilliantly evoked.

[Lynne Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am great fan of Simenon's writing and enjoyed nearly everything about this book. It is thorough, entertaining and gently puts the books into a context which is most revealing about the man and his writing. I also loved the way the whole story was enmeshed in the history and atmosphere of the times.

But - you knew a but was coming, didn't you? - at times I almost put it down in frustration. Barely a page went by where there wasn't a phrase in French. Those which were translated or the meaning clear from the context were fine. But far too often this wasn't the case and critical understanding was lost. I know the frequent French would be fine for British readers and others who have a great deal of familiarity with French. I have some schoolgirl French, but it is a language which is rarely heard in Australia. It read as pretentious to Australian eyes, although I suspect that was not the intent of the author. This is just a warning to those who do not drop into French in their daily conversation!

I was glad I persisted, however. It really is a very good biography.

[Samb Hicks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating. Even for someone who might not have read any of his work, this bio reveals strange and engaging aspects of the character of a man, who was constantly delving into the darker side of people's characters (including his own). I particularly liked this one since, out of all the other Simenon bios; this one makes the effort to iron out the facts from the fictions (of which there are many that the man perpetrated about himself). Don't expect idol worship here, this is a 'warts & all' bio, and it will help if you brush up on your basic French, though not essential. I just kept a translation engine open to understand the two-dozen or so sentences in French. More than anything this amazed me with the details of the machinations of a man who wrote a chapter a day for 40 years, without proofreading or correction. 400 books came out of him exactly as they were later printed! I recommend.

[Rick Mallery · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book about a great storyteller. I've read about 20 books by Simenon and find his style compelling. It was good to learn more about the man himself.

[Mikee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well-written biography about an extremely special man - from his impoverished and nearly-criminal youth to his successful and lengthy maturity, into tragedy and old age.