Madame Maigret's lover
Madame Maigret's lover (original title L'amoureux de Madame Maigret ) is a short story by Georges Simenon in which Maigret and his wife solve a murder case in his immediate neighborhood. 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 July 28, 1939 in Police-Film / Police-Roman magazine .
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 was first published in 1976 under the title Frau Maigret's Lover by Kiepenheuer and Witsch , in a new translation and title ( Madame Maigret's Lover ) by Ingrid Altrichter in 1980 in the volume Neues von Maigret and in 1990 in the volume Madame Maigret's lovers , both published by Diogenes Verlag .
action
The story takes place at the time when the Maigrets did not live on Boulevard Richard-Lenoir, but on Place des Vosges ; it's summer and Paris is in the holiday mood. The square is home to a lively green area surrounded by a metal grille. During the day, both nannies and their protégés as well as older men settle there. For about two weeks Madame Maigret has been watching a middle-aged, gray-clad man through the windows of her apartment. The description of their observations is somehow not entirely clear: the man looks old, but on the other hand not again. He must have a wig and a monocle , and his mustache is kind of weird. What makes him particularly old is his stiff gait. Madame Maigret observes him very closely, but cannot put into words what irritates her about the matter.
This man circles the square twice and then sits on a bench, where he spends the next three hours without speaking to anyone. He sits completely motionless across from a young girl who is crocheting while two small children are having fun in the park. The two people don't speak to each other, Mme Maigret observes, but they leave the place almost at the same time. To tease his wife, the inspector soon calls him Mme Maigret's "lover"; they both think it's pretty funny. “ Have you seen your lover again? "And then adds another:" Has he made his two little laps around the square again? Still so posh and mysterious? When I imagine that you have a weakness for noble men and that you married me of all people! “One evening Mme Maigret is amazed to find that the visitor from the afternoon is still sitting on the bench. In the meantime, the supervisor sends the walkers to the exits and closes the gates.
Maigret and his wife look at the scene through the window; after the guard has closed the fourth gate, the commissioner notices that he has overlooked the man on the bench. Maigret takes his jacket and goes down to the square; he goes straight to the stranger. He is dead. A short time later, Madame Maigret is completely surprised and her husband sums up the situation as follows: “ Do you realize what happened? Well, your lover was murdered on this bench ... "
An investigation reveals that “Madame Maigret's lover” was hit by an air rifle delivered from an apartment on Place des Vosges. To everyone's surprise, it turns out that the man was in disguise; in reality he was 28 years old. Maigret is now looking for the young girl, but after this event she does not return to the square. It turns out that her name is Rita and she works for Maigret's neighbors, the Czech or Hungarian Krofta family. The questioning of Boris Krofta leaves an unpleasant impression on Maigret; Mme Maigret comes to the same conclusion as her husband: Rita will almost certainly be locked in the apartment of Monsieur Lucien, a middleman from Krofta who lives in the same building on the second floor.
During a search of Lucien's apartment, Rita is found tied up and locked in a transport case. It turns out that the people are part of an espionage affair . Under the guise of an import-export business, Boris Krofta was the top spy of a foreign government. Rita, his maid, and the man at the bank, "Mme Maigret's lover," worked as agents for another organization. He met with Rita every day to get her information about Krofta, as a message hidden in the crochet pattern. When Rita's boss saw through her game, he put the contact person down and locked the girl up to get her to talk. Maigret manages to free the girl, but soon realizes that he has gone too far. His superior at the Paris police informs him that the head of the investigation has resigned; the whole thing is now taking on the dimensions of a state affair with international entanglements.
expenditure
After the first publication in Police-Film / Police-Roman (1939), 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'innamorato della signora Maigret , Italian TV film (director: Mario Landi ), with Gino Cervi , broadcast in 1966.
- L'amoureux de Mme Maigret , French TV film (director: James Thor ) with Jean Richard , broadcast in 1989.
Web links
- Madame Maigret's lover at Maigret.de
- Bibliography of the Maigret stories at Maigret.de
- Tout Simenon
- Repérages
- Maigret of the month: L'amoureux de Madame Maigret