The cat (novel)
The cat ( Le chat ) is the title of a novel by Georges Simenon .
The book is not one of Simenon's well-known crime novels with Inspector Maigret , but rather one of his psychodramas - about a relationship in which indifference has long since replaced love.
action
A married couple who have grown old live in an area where houses are just as dilapidated as the feelings of those who eke out their existence in them. Among them are the two old people whose marriage has long since turned into a hell. He is apathetic and only feels something for his cat. His wife is indifferent to him. She, on the other hand, tries to wake him out of lethargy with her torments and uses increasingly drastic means. First she abandons the cat in a supermarket.
But the cat finds its way back to the house. Eventually the woman poisoned the cat, which triggers the reaction of the man to kill her parrot and finally to leave her, but she cannot live without him, he comes back and says to her: “I will stay here, but I will not speak to you Word more ”. From then on, the two only communicate using small notes. The man finally hands her a note: Le chat - The cat. The woman then shoots herself. While she is dying, the man's language barrier breaks and he mourns for her.
Book editions
- Le chat . Novel. Presses de la cité, Paris 1967
- In the confessional. The move. The hangover . German by Hansjürgen Wille and Barbara Klau. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1969 (three novels in one volume)
- The hangover . Novel. Heyne, Munich 1971
- The cat . Novel. German by Angela von Hagen. Diogenes (detebe 21378), Zurich 1985 ISBN 3-257-21378-6
Film adaptations
In 1971, Pierre Granier-Deferre filmed the novel under the same title with Simone Signoret and Jean Gabin in the leading roles.
The novel with Götz George and Hannelore Hoger was filmed again for German television Das Erste in 2007, directed by Kaspar Heidelbach .