THE POCKET ESSENTIAL
GEORGES SIMENON
By David Carter
Pocket Essentials–UK, 2003
(distributed in the USA
by Trafalgar Square Publishing, North Pomfret, Vermont)
This very short essay
(96 pages) is a basic introduction to Simenon and his prolific works,
synthetic introduction being the usual goal of The Pocket Essential series
published in the UK.
For those who do not
know much about Simenon, it can be the first step towards a better understanding
of his works, which are not confined to crime novels or to the Maigret
series, as too many tend to believe.
After a short but serviceable
biography, David Carter explores the huge corpus of Simenon’s novels: the
Maigret series (79 books translated into English, including short stories)
and the more literary production that Simenon himself named romans durs
(“tough novels”—103 books translated into English from about 120 novels
written in French). In each of the two sections, there is a checklist that
gives details for each book, such as the original title, year of publication,
and some information about its U.K. and U.S. publication, as well as a
short note about the plot and a comment. There is also a relative
evaluation of the general quality of each of the works, assigned a score
(maximum of 5).
An interesting chapter
is about the numerous film adaptations based on his novels, giving a rather
complete list of these films, with details, as Simenon is the modern
writer who probably inspired the greatest number of films.
In my opinion, the short
chapter about adaptation for radio and television could have benefited
from the inclusion of a brief list of foreign adaptations, as some of these
adaptations are truly memorable, such as the long-running French
series (still programmed today) with Bruno Cremer as Commissaire Maigret.
(If this series has not yet been adapted for English television, then something
is wrong with the UK producers ).
Obviously useful for the
novice, The Pocket Essential Georges Simenon is also of interest
to the reader who is already well acquainted with Simenon’s diversity,
mainly for its two checklists of novels and films, and their comments,
that very conveniently re-situate each novel within Simenon’s vast repertoire.
E.B.(March 03)
Copyright © 2003 E.Borgers
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