Tout Maigret - tome 1

by Georges Simenon, Pierre Assouline (Preface)

Une édition anniversaire : 10 volumes de "Tout Maigret" avec des couvertures originales créées par Loustal. Pierre Assouline signe une préface inédite pour le tome 1.Maigret, ce sont 75 romans et 28 nouvelles publiés entre 1931 et 1972Ce tome 1 regroupe les huit premiers Maigret parus en 1931, il est préfacé par Pierre Assouline, biographe de Simenon, qui lui a notamment consacré unAutodictionnaire Simenon, un documentaire, et vient d'adapter plusieurs romans de Simenon pour le théâtre radiophonique.Pietr-le-Letton - Le Charretier de "La Providence" - Monsieur Gallet, décédé - Le Pendu de Saint-Pholien - La Tête d'un homme - Le Chien jaune - La Nuit du carrefour - Un crime en HollandeIntroduction et notes de Michel CarlyIllustration de couverture inédite de Loustal

1193 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 4, 2019

About the author

Georges 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.

Reviews

[A. Macbeth’s bks · Rating 3 out of 5]

I re-read the very literary prefaces and postface to this first volume of the Tout Maigret Collection. Overly literary analyses offered about this series of essentially genre fiction, although what I noticed about it all is not even alluded to. Georges Simenon may have come from a middle class background but he had learned a very high register, high quality of the French language which he was obviously able to display both in his genre and literary fiction. And it is true that the France and French culture solidly from between the two world wars are depicted in Simenon’s oeuvre.

The Maigret character is vaunted as a great Humanist, for a cop, and vaunted as Everyman in dozens of ways. No mention is made at all of the character’s drinking problem, that can be characterized as alcoholism and daily drinking on the job. Drinking and driving , drinking while intoxicated, not noticeable because he usually hailed a cab to get around or walked. Very rarely does he have a car to drive around.

Much is made of Simenon, if you ask me, not only because of his literary productivity but also because he amassed an astonishing high net worth.

[Christian Le Bienvenu, MD · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tout Maigret Tome 1 (French Édition) comprises 8 stories, each about 140 pages long: Pietr-le-Letton, Le Charretier de « La Providence », Monsieur Gallet, décédé, Le Pendu de Saint-Pholien, La Tête d’un homme, Le Chien jaune, La Nuit du carrefour and Un crime en Hollande. I found all of them entertaining and would recommend keeping a list of characters as the plot always gets complicated. But not to worry: Maigret explains everything at the end of each story.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this. Very atmospheric and I like Simenon’s writing style

[Carmen L'Heureux · Rating 4 out of 5]

Les titres ne sont pas tous équivalents en qualité, mais toujours intéressants.

Le personnage de Maigret, attachant bien que bourru, nous force à lire encore et encore.