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The third book in the new Penguin Maigret series- Georges Simenon's haunting tale about the lengths to which people will go to escape from guilt, in a compelling new translation by Linda Coverdale. A first ink drawing showed a hanged man swinging from a gallows on which perched an enormous crow. And there were at least twenty other etchings and pen or pencil sketches that had the same leitmotif of hanging.On the edge of a forest- a man hanging from every branch.A church steeple- beneath the weathercock, a human body dangling from each arm of the cross. . . Below another sketch were written four lines fromFran oisVillon's Ballade of the Hanged Men. On a trip to Brussels, Maigret unwittingly causes a man's suicide, but his own remorse is overshadowed by the discovery of the sordid events that drove the desperate man to shoot himself. Penguin is publishing the entire series of Maigret novels in new translations. This novel has been published in previous translations as Maigret and the Hundred Gibbetsand The Crime of Inspector Maigret. 'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray 'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian 'A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness' Independent… (més)
A strange book this. One written in a way that shows how much has changed, both in society and in the expectations of crime fiction readers, since this book was published in 1931.
The start is strong but odd. Strong perhaps because it's odd.
While spending time in Belgium on police business, Maigret's curiosity is snagged by a man's aberrant and possibly criminal behaviour. On a whim, Maigret follows the man onto a train to Germany and takes an opportunity to steal the man's suitcase, replacing it with an identical one. He follows the man to Germany to see what will happen next. Even Maigret feels some remorse when, on finding that his suitcase has been swapped and its contents lost, the man commits suicide. Partly as a penance and partly to feed Maigret's insatiable curiosity, Maigret decides to find out why the man committed suicide when the stolen case contained only an old and stained suit of clothes.
That was quite a hook. I was taken aback by Maigret's arrogance, by his criminality and by the fact that neither he nor the authorities expected any penalties for his transgression. At this point, I was very much disliking Maigret but I had also been infected by his curiosity. I wanted to know why this man killed himself and that want carried me through the rest of the book.
The middle section of the book shows Maigret doing what he normally does: working alone, keeping his insights to himself and trying to solve the puzzle mostly by turning up where he's neither wanted nor expected and trying to wear people down until they tell him what he wants to know.
I enjoyed the descriptions of the people and the places more than the exposition of the plot. It gave me a window into a world now long gone: Germany and Belgium between the wars through the eyes of middle-aged middle-class men.
The plot was elaborate and improbable but the original incident that all the bad things flowed from was a colourful period piece set in the student days of the now middle-aged men and that brought its own interest.
The final section of the book didn't work for me. Maigret doesn't really work anything out. He just keeps staring at people until they explain it all. This took a long time and wasn't particularly credible. It didn't help that when I finally found out why the man whose suitcase Maigret stole committed suicide, I didn't believe in his response.
This was more of an atmospheric curiosity with some nice contemporary (now historical) details along the way rather than a mystery. ( )
Une enquête de bric et de broc, qui ne part de rien tout en laissant le sentiment de n’arriver nulle part. Avec un commissaire qui ne sait pas trop derrière quoi il court, en Belgique, alors que la personne qu’il suivait se suicide d’une balle de revolver tirée dans la bouche.
Un livre qui parle des remords et de la justice avec un commissaire plus intéressé par une énigme que par sa déontologie professionnelle ( )
Informació del coneixement compartit en anglès.Modifica-la per localitzar-la a la teva llengua.
In the French original, Le pendu de Saint-Pholien (1931).
Variously published in English as: (i) The Crime of Inspector Maigret (1932), and in Introducing Inspector Maigret (1933) (trans. Anthony Abbot); (ii) Maigret and the Hundred Gibbets (1963), and in Maigret Meets a Milord (1983) (trans. Tony White); (iii) The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien (2014) (trans. Linda Coverdale).
The third book in the new Penguin Maigret series- Georges Simenon's haunting tale about the lengths to which people will go to escape from guilt, in a compelling new translation by Linda Coverdale. A first ink drawing showed a hanged man swinging from a gallows on which perched an enormous crow. And there were at least twenty other etchings and pen or pencil sketches that had the same leitmotif of hanging.On the edge of a forest- a man hanging from every branch.A church steeple- beneath the weathercock, a human body dangling from each arm of the cross. . . Below another sketch were written four lines fromFran oisVillon's Ballade of the Hanged Men. On a trip to Brussels, Maigret unwittingly causes a man's suicide, but his own remorse is overshadowed by the discovery of the sordid events that drove the desperate man to shoot himself. Penguin is publishing the entire series of Maigret novels in new translations. This novel has been published in previous translations as Maigret and the Hundred Gibbetsand The Crime of Inspector Maigret. 'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray 'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian 'A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness' Independent
The start is strong but odd. Strong perhaps because it's odd.
While spending time in Belgium on police business, Maigret's curiosity is snagged by a man's aberrant and possibly criminal behaviour. On a whim, Maigret follows the man onto a train to Germany and takes an opportunity to steal the man's suitcase, replacing it with an identical one. He follows the man to Germany to see what will happen next. Even Maigret feels some remorse when, on finding that his suitcase has been swapped and its contents lost, the man commits suicide. Partly as a penance and partly to feed Maigret's insatiable curiosity, Maigret decides to find out why the man committed suicide when the stolen case contained only an old and stained suit of clothes.
That was quite a hook. I was taken aback by Maigret's arrogance, by his criminality and by the fact that neither he nor the authorities expected any penalties for his transgression. At this point, I was very much disliking Maigret but I had also been infected by his curiosity. I wanted to know why this man killed himself and that want carried me through the rest of the book.
The middle section of the book shows Maigret doing what he normally does: working alone, keeping his insights to himself and trying to solve the puzzle mostly by turning up where he's neither wanted nor expected and trying to wear people down until they tell him what he wants to know.
I enjoyed the descriptions of the people and the places more than the exposition of the plot. It gave me a window into a world now long gone: Germany and Belgium between the wars through the eyes of middle-aged middle-class men.
The plot was elaborate and improbable but the original incident that all the bad things flowed from was a colourful period piece set in the student days of the now middle-aged men and that brought its own interest.
The final section of the book didn't work for me. Maigret doesn't really work anything out. He just keeps staring at people until they explain it all. This took a long time and wasn't particularly credible. It didn't help that when I finally found out why the man whose suitcase Maigret stole committed suicide, I didn't believe in his response.
This was more of an atmospheric curiosity with some nice contemporary (now historical) details along the way rather than a mystery. ( )