Maigret and the terrible children

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Maigret and the terrible children (French: Maigret à l'école ) is a detective novel by the Belgian writer Georges Simenon . It is the 44th novel in a series of 75 novels and 28 short stories about the detective Maigret . The novel was written from December 1 to 8, 1953 in Lakeville , Connecticut , and was published from February 14 to March 21 of the following year in six issues of the weekly Le Moustique . The book was published on March 13, 1954 by the Paris publisher Presses de la Cité . In 1955 Kiepenheuer & Witsch published the first German translation by Paul Celan . After Diogenes Verlag first took over Celan's translation in 1987, it published a new translation by Hainer Kober in 2009 under the same title .

After the death of an old woman in Saint-André-sur-Mer on the Atlantic coast of western France , suspicions quickly fall on the village's teacher, a stranger from Paris . He desperately turns to Commissioner Maigret, who agrees to travel to the Charente-Maritime department , where he finds himself immersed in a village atmosphere that reminds him of his own youth. It is especially the statements of the school children in the village that weigh heavily on their teachers.

content

It is the first warm spring day in Paris when a man goes to the Quai des Orfèvres and asks Commissioner Maigret for help. Joseph Gastin is a village school teacher in Saint-André-sur-Mer near La Rochelle . Originally from Paris, he was never fully accepted by the village community, which consists primarily of farmers and oyster fishermen . When Léonie Birard, the 66-year-old former postmaster in the village, was shot dead a few days ago, suspicions immediately turned to the unloved stranger. The murder weapon was a small-bore rifle , which almost all boys in the village have, including Gastin's 13-year-old son Jean-Paul. Gastin, who had left the school building at the time of the crime to issue a certificate as a community secretary, raised suspicions against himself through some thoughtless statements. Finally, according to the testimony of Marcel Sellier, one of his students who claims to have seen him in the shed in which Jean-Paul's rifle was later found, he was about to be arrested and fled in despair to Paris, where he hoped for help from the famous Commissioner Maigret .

Port of the nearby L'Aiguillon-sur-Mer

It is above all the spring mood paired with a desire for Atlantic oysters with white wine that prompts Maigret to take a few days off and accompany his visitor to Saint-André, where he is arrested by Lieutenant Daniélou at the station . Maigret quickly learns a dark secret through the village gossip: Gastin's wife Germaine, also a teacher, had an affair with a married councilor in Courbevoie , whereupon she was shot by his wife and had to leave the village because of the scandal with her husband. The old Léonie, always well informed through her job as a postman, knew about the past of the Gastins and repeatedly showered them with foul insults, which in the village is seen as a sufficient motive for the murder.

In fact, there is hardly a villager who did not have an argument with the eccentric deceased , including Julien Sellier, the local field warden and husband of Léonie's niece and sole heir. As a witness for the shot, Théo Coumar, the constantly drunk second mayor, who is secretly pulling the strings in the village, urges himself. Many other villagers, from the fat landlord Paumelle and the one-armed postman Cornu to the schoolchildren such as the shunned teacher child Jean-Paul or the fat acolyte Marcel are characteristic types who remind Maigret of his own youth when he was the son of the castle caretaker of Saint- Fiacre grew up in a very similar village atmosphere.

Jean-Paul finally found out that Marcel lied and couldn't see the teacher from his place at the window. Instead, he observed his friend Joseph Rateau, who has had to look after his parents' house with a leg in plaster since an accident four weeks ago. In truth, Joseph has long since recovered and is tagging the sick man in order to collect the insurance premium with which his father, the local butcher, plans to buy a better van. Léonie knew that the boy's wound had healed when he tried to prank her and threatened to expose the insurance fraud . Joseph admits that he shot her to frighten her, but the conclusion caught her eye so unhappily that she died on the spot.

Maigret doesn't believe a word of the boy's statement. Just as Marcel lied for his friend, he is now trying to cover his father Marcellin. In truth, it is the butcher himself who, in a fit of temper, shot the provocative old woman with his son's gun. However, since he is completely incapable of aiming at the shortest distance, no murder charges await him, and unlike the teacher Gastin, the whole village will testify for the popular butcher. Maigret leaves the perpetrator, who begins to boast in front of his friends after his confession, to Lieutenant Daniélou and leaves that night, full of anticipation to see Paris and his wife again.

interpretation

Oysters and white wine form a leitmotif of the novel

According to Stanley G. Eskin, Commissioner Maigret in Maigret and the terrible children “has to deal with the threatening injustice of a clan towards a strange, suspiciously viewed teacher.” The Parisian guest becomes a matter of course for the villagers of Saint-André-sur -Me the designated culprit. Tilman Spreckelsen explains : "An obviously innocent man is supposed to go to prison just because one doesn't like him in the village as a newcomer". In addition to the general xenophobia, there is the unfortunate affair of his wife, which is no longer a secret to any villager. For Murielle Wenger, the vindictive spirit of the murder victim hangs over the village, who, as a postwoman, knew all the little secrets of the inhabitants. Even after her death, her presence can still be felt, and the inspector looks for the essence of the old Léonie in the features of her young successor.

It takes a while before the commissioner finds himself in the small, isolated world of the village. This is achieved by combining his characteristic empathy with memories of his own childhood, which bring him closer to the course of village life and the childlike nature of his main witnesses. At the beginning Maigret appears alienated by the world of children, their trains of thought and their idiosyncratic perception of reality. Only his own experiences as the son of an estate manager allow him to understand the loneliness of the teacher's son Jean-Paul, who was expelled from the class community. In the end, for Tilman Spreckelsen it is “these frighteningly calm, clever children” who “out of solidarity with their parents, but in their own right, take things into their hands with astonishing consistency.” And he is convinced that the childless inspector will after graduation of the case has gained a different perspective on the offspring.

Maigret's appetite for oysters and white wine becomes the leitmotif of the novel, which at the beginning - far more than any generosity towards the teacher seeking help - tempts the commissioner to travel to Saint-André in the first place. But soon it turns out that the tide is low , which means Maigret can no longer enjoy fresh oysters. In the end, the inspector, who is otherwise always inclined to drink, even loses his desire to drink when he has to experience so many drunken villagers and the bottled culprit that he begins to dread alcohol. Often, after closing a case and uncovering the hidden secrets, Maigret feels a form of disgust and disgust, this time also due to his unfulfilled desires and the spoiled holiday mood. In any case, his hasty departure seems like an escape, and already at the train station he gets newspapers that conjure up the familiar Paris, the only place where Maigret can be completely himself.

background

Before and during the Second World War , Georges Simenon lived in the La Rochelle area for a few years , from 1932 to 1934 at the La Richardiére estate in Marsilly and from 1938 to 1940 in Nieul-sur-Mer . The area forms the background of numerous novels in his oeuvre, for example in Das Testament Donadieu , Wellenschlag , Arrival of All Saints' Day or The Hatter's Fantome . However, there is only one Maigret novel in the area: Maigret and the Terrible Children . The travel guide Petit futé saw a renamed Marsilly in the fictional village of Saint-André-sur-Mer. Guido De Croock, on the other hand, concluded from the location 15 kilometers north of La Rochelle on Nieul-sur-Mer. The fictional village name Saint-André had a different meaning in Simenon's life: as a primary school pupil, he attended the Saint-André institute in Liège, run by Catholic school brothers . Chapter 6 of the novel depicts the young reporter in a raincoat with long hair, an ironic smile and a large pipe in his mouth, depicting the young Simenon while he was working as a journalist for the daily newspaper Gazette de Liège .

German translation

Paul Celan , here in a passport photo from 1938, translated the novel.

Maigret and the terrible children was, after Here is wrong, Maigret was the second translation that Paul Celan , one of the most important German-speaking post-war lyricists and author of the death fugue , made on behalf of the Kiepenheuer & Witsch publishing house . For the work, which was quite simple compared to Simenon's simple style and the limited vocabulary of his books, the poet, who was dependent on additional income, received a fee of 1200 DM, including 200 DM in advance. Celan's first translation Here is wrong Maigret from 1954 rated Stefan Zweifel as a “far more reliable, sometimes refreshingly awkward” text compared to the successor, even if the poet allowed himself some translational freedom and introduced incorrect dates.

Celan's version of Maigret and the terrible children , however, led to differences with the Cologne publishing house, which accused the poet of having the text translated by a third party, a "dilettante", who "added" and "left out" numerous passages. Celan admitted: “Unfortunately, this 'dilettante' is myself ... And even if I have to admit that the - in my opinion very mediocre - original text did not exactly inspire me and that I did not see it as an awe-inspiring work of art when I translated it, I have to Nevertheless, I guard a little against the accusation of having added numerous passages. "

Celan's text was completely revised by an editor at the publishing house prior to publication in 1955. When the rights to Simenon's work were transferred to Diogenes Verlag , the latter had Hier err Maigret translated again in 1979 by Elfriede Riegler. For Maigret and the terrible children , however, Celan's translation was adopted eight years later, which was again revised so that, according to Stefan Zweifel, the original version of the poet was so distorted and watered down that he spoke of a "corpse of text". It was not until 2009 that Diogenes brought out a new translation by Hainer Kober , who had previously transferred six other novels in the series, as part of a new edition of the Maigret novels .

In the new translation, too, the introduced title Maigret and the terrible children was left , although it has little in common with the original title Maigret à l'école , which Tilman Spreckelsen identified as apt and pleasantly ambiguous. For Oliver Hahn the choice of the title was “a mystery”. In addition to the direct translation Maigret at school , he also brought Maigret and the teacher or Maigret and the terrible villagers into play, all of whom would have been more obvious than Maigret and the terrible children , but: “No offense, we have to live with the title . "

reception

Ernst Wilhelm Borchert , here in a theater performance from 1946, spoke to Commissioner Maigret.

For Erdmann Steinmetz, Maigret and the terrible children said "more than a sociological treatise on life in a French provincial town with its mixture of cunning, avarice, secret vices and hostility towards everything foreign". The drawing of the atmosphere alone makes the novel “worth reading”. Hans Reimann said: “As is usually the case with Simenon: not at all like other thrillers. […] Maigret does not pour beer this time, but a lot of white wine behind the bandage. In contrast, Oliver Hahn from maigret.de read “one of the stories that one cannot put aside.” Murielle Wenger concluded: “This is a very nice little novel”. And Pierre Maury affirmed: “an excellent Maigret”.

Even Anthony Boucher called it a "gem". The novel simultaneously illustrates “the patient and intuitive method of the detective and Simenon's incredible ability to conjure up an entire place and society through the most economical and insightful strokes.” The Spectator wrote similarly : “No novelist of any kind conveys views, smells and sounds of the provincial France so economically in the written word. ”According to the weekly magazine John O'London’s , the season and weather play an obsessive role in Simenon's novels as they do in Chekhov's plays. The reviewer's conclusion was: "No Simenon is bad, but I think this one is one of his best, and that means something." For the American magazine Best Sellers, Simenon told "first-class stories" with "deceptive ease". According to The Publisher , the novel was "a tight and suspenseful thriller". The Illustrated London News, on the other hand, said: "Very sleek and lovable in a boring way."

The novel was filmed four times in television series: in the British television series with Rupert Davies (1960) and Michael Gambon (1992), and in French television episodes with Jean Richard (1971) and Bruno Cremer (2002). In 1958, the RIAS produced a radio play adaptation by Fred von Hoerschelmann . The speakers, directed by Cläre Schimmel , included Wilhelm Borchert , Walter Bluhm , Gisela Mattishent , Werner Kessel and Horst Niendorf . The narrator was Hermann Schindler .

expenditure

  • Georges Simenon: Maigret à l'école . Presses de la Cité, Paris 1954 (first edition).
  • Georges Simenon: Maigret and the terrible children . Translation: Paul Celan . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1955.
  • Georges Simenon: Maigret and the terrible children . Translation: Paul Celan. Heyne, Munich 1966.
  • Georges Simenon: Maigret and the terrible children . Translation: Paul Celan. Diogenes, Zurich 1987, ISBN 3-257-21574-6 .
  • Georges Simenon: Maigret and the terrible children . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 44. Translation: Hainer Kober . Diogenes, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-257-23844-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biographie de Georges Simenon 1946 à 1967 on Toutesimenon.com, the website of Omnibus Verlag.
  2. ↑ Maigret à l'école in the Maigret 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. 72.
  4. ^ Stanley G. Eskin: Simenon. A biography . Diogenes, Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-257-01830-4 , p. 403.
  5. ↑ a b Pierre Maury: Une envie d'huîtres et de vin blanc . In: Le Soir of December 9, 2003.
  6. ↑ a b c Tilman Spreckelsen: Maigret Marathon 44: The terrible children . On FAZ.net from February 23, 2009.
  7. ↑ Postmistresses, nurses, parish priests, lawyers, postmen, valets and butlers… in Simenon's gallery of characters on Steve Trussel's Maigret page.
  8. ↑ a b c d Maigret of the Month: Maigret à l'école (Maigret Goes to School) on Steve Trussel's Maigret page.
  9. ^ Jean-Paul Labourdette, Dominique Auzias: Petit futé: La Rochelle, Ile de Ré 2009 . Nouvelles éd. de l'Université, Paris 2008, ISBN 978-2-7469-2303-4 , p. 151.
  10. ↑ Maigret Forum Archives 2002 on Steve Trussel's Maigret page.
  11. ↑ Patrick Marnham: The Man Who Wasn't Maigret. The life of Georges Simenon . Knaus, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-8135-2208-3 , p. 59.
  12. ↑ Maigret of the Month: Maigret à l'école (Maigret Goes to School) on Steve Trussel's Maigret page.
  13. ↑ To the entire section including quotations: Stefan Zweifel : This time murdered: The text . In: du. Die Zeitschrift der Kultur No. 734, March 2003, p. 72.
  14. ^ Tilman Spreckelsen: Maigret Marathon 44: The terrible children . On FAZ.net from February 23, 2009.
  15. ↑ a b Maigret and the terrible children on maigret.de.
  16. ↑ Erdmann Steinmetz: New thrillers at Heyne . In: Book and Library Volume 30, 1978, p. 178.
  17. ↑ Hans Reimann : The Lite raid Volume 4. Pohl, Munich 1955, p 135th
  18. ^ "This is a very fine little novel". Quoted from: Maigret of the Month: Maigret à l'école (Maigret Goes to School) on Steve Trussel's Maigret page.
  19. ↑ “un excellent Maigret” Quoted from: Pierre Maury: Une envie d'huîtres et de vin blanc . In: Le Soir of December 9, 2003.
  20. ^ "A gem [...] serves perfectly to illuminate both the patient and intuitive method of the detective and Simenon's incredible skill at evoking a whole place and society with the most economic and telling strokes." Quoted from: Anthony Boucher: Criminals at Large . In: The New York Times , September 1964.
  21. ^ "No novelist of any kind gets sights, smells and sounds of provincial France so economically into written word." Quoted from: Maigret Goes to School. By Simenon. . In: The Spectator, July 11, 1957, p. 32.
  22. ↑ "The seasons and the weather play as obsessive a part in Simenon's books as in Chekhov's plays [...] No Simenon is bad, but I think this is one of his best, and that is saying something." Quoted from: John O ' London's Volume 2, 1960, p. 138.
  23. ↑ "These are top-flight stories told with a deceptive ease". Quoted from: Best Sellers. From the United States Government Printing Office . Volume 24, 1964, p. 203.
  24. ↑ "a taut and suspenseful thriller". Quoted from: The Publisher Volume 174, 1960, p. 32.
  25. ^ "Very smooth, and likable in a dreary way." Quoted from: The Illustrated London News Volume 231, Issue 1, 1957, p. 246.
  26. ↑ Maigret Films & TV on Steve Trussel's Maigret page.
  27. ↑ Maigret and the terrible children in the HörDat audio play database .