The inn to the drowned
The inn to the drowned (original title L'Auberge aux Noyés ) is a story by Georges Simenon , in which Commissioner Maigret investigates in the vicinity of Nemours . The work belonging to the series of Maigret novels and stories was created in the winter of 1937/38 in Neuilly-sur-Seine or in March 1938 in Porquerolles . The story first appeared on November 11, 1938 in the magazine Police-Film / Police-Roman .
The story was published in book form in 1944 in the volume of stories Les Nouvelles Enquêtes de Maigret by Gallimard . In a German translation by Hansjürgen Wille and Barbara Klau, the story appeared for the first time in 1976 under the title Das Gasthaus zu den Drownen bei Kiepenheuer und Witsch , in a new translation by Elfriede Riegler in 1987 in the volume Six New Cases for Maigret published by Diogenes Verlag .
action
Commissioner Maigret is investigating in the provincial town of Nemours. A traffic accident occurs between Nemours and Montargis , near the Loing River , not far from a restaurant called L'Auberge aux Noyés ; a truck driver said that he had rammed an unlit car on a bridge with his ten-ton truck and that it fell into the river. When the car rolled into the river, he heard calls for help. When the next morning, with the help of divers, the car is recovered, a macabre discovery is made: a woman lies in a truck with her throat cut. Justin Rozier, the owner of L'Auberge aux Noyés , knows the vehicle: it belongs to a young Parisian tailor named Jacques Vertbois, who stayed in his restaurant accompanied by 17-year-old Viviane La Pommeraye; both have disappeared. Maigret settles in the restaurant, as do a number of newspaper reporters who quickly christen it Das Wirtshaus “To the drowned” . The inspector then contacts Viviane's father, Germain de La Pommeraye, a notary from Versailles , who admits that his daughter fell in love with the adventurer Jacques Vertbois and ran away with him. The testimony of the truck driver Jean Lecoin cannot convince Maigret at first. He finally confesses that Vertbois paid him to let the car crash into the river. He allegedly wanted to simulate suicide because Viviane's father was against the connection. Lecoin had then placed the two lovers with a gas station attendant friend in Montargis. Maigret finds the young couple in their hiding place; it turns out that Vertbois had another, but much older, lover, the former opera singer Marthe Dorval, who stopped paying Vetbois when she found out about his new affair with young Viviane. Vertbois is arrested for murder, the notary's daughter returned to her parents' house in Bourges.
expenditure
After the first publication in Police-Film / Police-Roman (1938), the story appeared in the anthology Les nouvelles enquêtes de Maigret (Paris, Gallimard, NRF., 1944). It was included in the Simenon works Œuvres complètes (Lausanne, Editions Rencontre, 1967–1973) in Volume IX, in Tout Simenon (Paris, Presses de la Cité, 1988–1993) in Volume 25 and in Tout Simenon (Paris, Omnibus, 2002–2004) included in volume 25. It is also available in German translation in the anthology Complete Maigret Stories ( ISBN 978-3-257-06682-1 ) published by Diogenes in 2009 .
Adaptations
- L'auberge aux noyés , French television film (director: Jean-Paul Sassy), with Jean Richard (Maigret), broadcast in 1989
- The tavern "To the drowned" , a Maigret story, audio cassette - 1997