Maigret is amused

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Maigret amuses itself ( French Maigret s'amuse ) is a crime novel by the Belgian writer Georges Simenon . It is the 50th novel in a series of 75 novels and 28 short stories about the detective Maigret . The novel was written in Cannes from September 6th to 13th, 1956 and was preprinted in 20 episodes of the French daily Le Figaro from February 4th to March 1st of the following year . The book was published in March 1957 by the Paris publisher Presses de la Cité . The first German translation Maigret as a viewer by Hansjürgen Wille and Barbara Klau was published in 1958 by Kiepenheuer & Witsch . 20 years later the Diogenes Verlag published a new translation by Renate Nickel under the title Maigret amuses himself .

Maigret is on summer vacation. But instead of traveling to the Vendée department as planned , he spends the days off in his native Paris . Although he has decided to stay away from the police station, a high-profile murder case puts his resolution to the test. As one of countless newspaper readers, Maigret follows the efforts of his colleagues on the Quais des Orfèvres , and he begins to enjoy himself in the unfamiliar role of a spectator.

content

On the advice of his doctor, Commissioner Maigret takes three weeks' vacation in August. When the planned trip to Les Sables-d'Olonne fails, he spends the days off on his native Boulevard Richard-Lenoir in Paris, where he feels like a truant without his work. When the newspapers report on a spectacular murder case in the medical community, the inspector's professional curiosity is aroused. But the vacationer has promised his doctor not to intervene in the investigation that his deputy Inspector Janvier is conducting in his office on the Quai des Orfèvres. So he limits himself to following the case through the press, his longtime friend Dr. Pardon to ask about the doctors involved and to take Madame Maigret for walks to the premises.

Boulevard Haussmann in Paris

On Monday morning, the housekeeper Josépha Chauvet discovered a naked, dead woman in a closet in the practice of Philippe Jave, who is spending his summer vacation with his wife, daughter and nanny on the Côte d'Azur . The 45-year-old Jave used to lead a modest life in Issy-les-Moulineaux until a few years ago he married Éveline Le Guérec, 16 years his junior heiress of a fish canning factory in Concarneau . With her fortune, he was able to afford an apartment and practice on Boulevard Haussmann in Paris, where he concentrated on treating particularly wealthy patients.

The dead turns out to be Éveline Jave, of all people, who returned to Paris on Saturday for unknown reasons, although she pretended to only visit a friend in Saint-Tropez . The young woman, who suffered from Adams-Stokes syndrome from her youth , died from an injection of digitalis , which is an absolute contraindication for her illness . Jave's representative Gilbert Négrel, who is said to have an affair with Éveline, who is the same age, is suspected. But also Dr. Jave followed his wife to Paris and did not return to the Côte d'Azur until Saturday evening on the Train Bleu .

When Inspector Janvier travels to Cannes to question the Javes' nanny, it emerges that Éveline Jave had been with Dr. Négrel was on the phone. Jave, on the other hand, does not want to have followed her out of jealousy, but to use his wife's absence for a rendezvous. He met Josépha's daughter Antoinette in Paris, with whom he has had a relationship for years, as mother and daughter Chauvet confirm. From Concarneau, however, where Noël Chapuis, Négrel's lawyer and father of his fiancée Martine, leads the entourage of journalists, details emerge from Éveline's previous life, who, since she knew of her fatal illness, threw herself on the necks of numerous men. She also spent so much money on jewelry that she nearly ruined Jave.

Maigret only intervenes directly in the investigation a few times: He sends anonymous reports to the press and to Inspector Janvier. And he calls the nanny Claire Jusserand in a disguised voice to find out whether Jave found out about his wife's trip to Paris the evening before. This crucial piece of evidence passes to the inspector from his vacation to the quai, where Janvier has summoned the doctor and his lover to one of those extensive nightly interrogations for which Maigret is otherwise notorious. He can at least reassure Martine Chapuis that the suspicions against her fiancé Négrel are unfounded. He informs her about the false alibi Javes, who instead of visiting his lover was waiting in the apartment on Boulevard Haussmann while his wife wooed Négrel in the practice. After killing her by injection, Jave stripped his wife and hid her in the office to cast suspicion on his representative. Janvier arrested the doctor that night. Maigret, on the other hand, can finally go on vacation after the case is over and travels to Morsang-sur-Seine with his wife . Days later he received a letter of thanks from his inspector on the bank of the Loing .

interpretation

Both the title Maigret is amused and the prevailing holiday mood allows Stanley G. Eskin to attribute the novel to the "sunny" part of the Maigret series, in which the pleasure of the commissioner is the focus and crime takes a back seat. Detlef Richter particularly emphasizes the "extraordinary perspective on the case" in the 50th anniversary volume. Simenon lets his protagonist take the point of view of a simple citizen who gets his information from the press and remains dependent on guesswork because he is unable to intervene in the investigation. For Richard Vinen, the plot in the later novels of the series shifts more and more into Maigret's head, which is already upset in the formulaic titles like Maigret , Maigret is afraid , Maigret becomes angry and Maigret is amused . Josef Quack, on the other hand, reminds Maigret's spectator role of an early novel in the series, Maigret and the Saint-Fiacre Affair , where the detective also remains a passive observer in the final scene.

For Tom Rusch, the criminal investigation department is not the focus of Maigret's investigations . Rather, the novel is a portrait of the social structure of Simenon's Paris and exemplifies some of the inhabitants of the French metropolis to allow an insight into the customs and traditions of the city as well as their passions. Tilman Spreckelsen does not lose sight of the victim either: The doctor's wife's reaction to her fatal illness is not resignation, but an unchecked outbreak of lust for life, which ultimately only accelerates her downfall. Lovers like jewelry served her primarily as proof that she was still alive, but the people who clung to her in desperation remained unaffected by her. In any case, Welt und Wort sees the Commissioner driven by his conscience to intervene incognito in the case in order to accelerate the long-anticipated resolution.

For the journalist Tilman Spreckelsen the novel is “the great apotheosis of journalism, it is the celebration of the printed declaration of the world”. It was only when the inspector did not provide the press with information as usual, but instead was “helpless and addicted” on their reporting, that his fascination unfolded, which culminated in the observation of a host: “For him, as for many others the printed word of the newspaper is true as the gospel. "Josef Quack refers to another passage where Maigret ponders the motives of the readers of sensational reports and concludes:" Isn't it about people who want to know how? as far as man can go in good and bad? ”Later he proclaims what Frank Böhmert calls “ Maigret's Credo ”:“ In short, people are never as stupid as one thinks. ”

reception

The Illustrated London News recognized Maigret's starting position with amusement as "a nice background to an effective, typical little drama". Elsbeth Pulver saw the way in which Maigret conducts the investigation from a distance and thereby directs his representative without ever bringing his name into play "as brilliantly described as other investigative processes in Simenon's other novels". For Oliver Hahn, Maigret's holiday pleasure is “not only very amusing for the inspector, the reader should also feel well entertained with this novel.” Frank Böhmert described: “A bit sentimental and self-deprecating this time; a nice change. "Detlef Richter judged:" A true masterpiece of crime fiction and one of the best from the Maigret series. " Time & Tide also read" perhaps the best of all books about the Maigrets in the family ". The Spectator, on the other hand, drew the comparison: "Ordinary instead of exquisite Simenon wine, but still drinkable."

The novel was filmed twice as part of television series about Commissioner Maigret. In 1963, the 52nd episode Maigret's Little Joke formed the conclusion of the British BBC series about Rupert Davies , who slipped into the role of the commissioner six years later in the film adaptation of Maigret Defends himself . In 1983 Jean Richard played the title role in an episode of the French TV series Les Enquêtes du Commissaire Maigret . In 2019 Walter Kreye read an audio book for Audio Verlag .

expenditure

  • Georges Simenon: Maigret s'amuse . Presses de la Cité, Paris 1957 (first edition).
  • Georges Simenon: Maigret as a spectator . Translation: Hansjürgen Wille and Barbara Klau. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1958.
  • Georges Simenon: Maigret as a spectator . Translation: Hansjürgen Wille and Barbara Klau. Heyne, Munich 1966.
  • Georges Simenon: Maigret is having fun . Translation: Renate Nickel. Diogenes, Zurich 1978, ISBN 3-257-20509-0 .
  • Georges Simenon: Maigret is having fun . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 50. Translation: Renate Nickel. Diogenes, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-257-23850-1 .
  • Georges Simenon: Maigret is having fun . Translation: Hansjürgen Wille, Barbara Klau, Oliver Ilan Schulz. Kampa, Zurich 2019, ISBN 978-3-311-13050-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biographie de Georges Simenon 1946 à 1967 on Toutesimenon.com, the website of Omnibus Verlag.
  2. ↑ Maigret s'amuse in the Simenon bibliography by Yves Martina.
  3. ↑ Oliver Hahn: Bibliography of German-language editions . In: Georges-Simenon-Gesellschaft (Ed.): Simenon-Jahrbuch 2003 . Wehrhahn, Laatzen 2004, ISBN 3-86525-101-3 , p. 51.
  4. ^ Stanley G. Eskin: Simenon. A biography . Diogenes, Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-257-01830-4 , p. 405.
  5. ↑ a b Detlef Richter: Maigret is amused (Georges Simenon); Volume 50 on leser-welt.de.
  6. ^ Richard Vinen: Introduction to The Yellow Dog . Penguin Books, London 2003.
  7. ↑ Josef Quack: The limits of the human. About Georges Simenon, Rex Stout, Friedrich Glauser, Graham Greene . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2000, ISBN 3-8260-2014-6 , p. 34.
  8. ^ Tom Rusch: Worldwide Detectives . On Steve Trussel's Maigret page.
  9. ^ A b Tilman Spreckelsen: Maigret Marathon 50: Maigret is having fun . On FAZ.net from April 10, 2009.
  10. ↑ Maigret as a spectator . In: Welt und Wort Volume 14, 1959, p. 120.
  11. ↑ Georges Simenon: Maigret has fun . Diogenes, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-257-23850-1 , p. 162.
  12. ↑ Georges Simenon: Maigret has fun . Diogenes, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-257-23850-1 , p. 61.
  13. ↑ Josef Quack: The limits of the human. About Georges Simenon, Rex Stout, Friedrich Glauser, Graham Greene . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2000, ISBN 3-8260-2014-6 , p. 26.
  14. ↑ Georges Simenon: Maigret has fun . Diogenes, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-257-23850-1 , p. 66.
  15. ↑ a b Read: Georges Simenon, Maigret amuses himself (F 1957)  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Toter Link / frankboehmert.blogspot.de   in Frank Böhmert's blog .
  16. ^ "A nice background, to an effective, typical little drama." Quoted from The Illustrated London News Volume 232, Issues 6187-6199, 1958, p. 360.
  17. ↑ Elsbeth Pulver: "Truth has nothing to do with words." A leitmotif in the life and work of Friedrich Glauser . In: Schweizer Monatshefte 69, 1989, p. 822.
  18. ↑ Maigret has fun on maigret.de.
  19. ^ "Perhaps the best of all the books about the Maigrets en famille". Quoted from: Time & Tide Volume 39, 1958, p. 199.
  20. ↑ "Vin ordinaire, rather than vintage Simenon, but drinkable." Quoted from: Maigret's Little Joke. By Simenon. (Hamish Hamilton, I Is. 6d.) . In: The Spectator, December 13, 1957, p. 29.
  21. ↑ Maigret Films & TV on Steve Trussel's Maigret page.