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When his relaxing vacation is interrupted by a small-town murder, Inspector Maigret can't resist lending his investigative powers to the case Inspector Maigret and his wife take a much needed holiday to Vichy, where they quickly become used to the slower pace of life. But when a woman who they regularly pass by on their daily strolls is murdered, Maigret can't help but offer his assistance to the local Inspector, a former colleague of his. Set against a backdrop of gorgeous French show more countryside, Maigret in Vichy shows that even when our trusty detective is outside his jurisdiction, he is still very much in his element. show lessTags
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Maigret and his wife have slipped into a quiet routine in Vichy, taking the waters and walking for hours every day. Maigret isn't really ill, just tired. On the recommendation of his doctor, they will be in Vichy for 3 weeks, taking the cure. They take delight in observing others who are doing the same.
And then a woman they see regularly is murdered. The detective in charge of the investigation is someone Maigret trained and he jumps at the chance to participate although he delights in not being in charge. He wants to know the woman's background and is even more curious when he meets her sister. The tale he eventually uncovers is a sordid one indeed: one of great duplicity.
And then a woman they see regularly is murdered. The detective in charge of the investigation is someone Maigret trained and he jumps at the chance to participate although he delights in not being in charge. He wants to know the woman's background and is even more curious when he meets her sister. The tale he eventually uncovers is a sordid one indeed: one of great duplicity.
One of the best Maigret stories I have read. Taking the waters at Vichy he cannot avoid being brought into a murder case. He is intrigued by a seemingly lonely resident and landlady at Vichy who is murdered. She is more than meets the eye. A terrible crime is committed but the provocation is also terrible. Maigret never judges.
Maigret On Vacation
Review of the Penguin Classics paperback (June 2019) of a new translation* by Ros Schwartz of the French language original "Maigret à Vichy" (1968)
[3.5]
See photograph show more at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/Palais_des_Congr%C3%A8...
The Opera in Vichy. A more shadowy photograph of this building is used as the cover image of the new Penguin Classics edition of "Maigret in Vichy." This image sourced from Wikipedia.
Maigret in Vichy finds the Parisian Chief Inspector sent to take the waters in the resort town of Vichy on the orders of his friend Doctor Pardon. The 53 year-old (n.b. for once, the age of Maigret is mentioned and indicates that Maigret time is passing more slowly than real time i.e. it has already been a 37 year old career since Pietr the Latvian (1931)) is feeling the stresses of the job and is remarkably subservient to his doctor's orders. Madame Maigret joins him for the rest cure which requires walking around the town to drink the various mineral waters at different springs and to avoid alcohol. The always observant Maigret notices a single woman who is regularly taking in the music at the town's bandstand. She becomes the murder victim and a case for Maigret even while on vacation.
Maigret is a known personality and his consultation is an expected fact by the local press and authorities and of course the Chief Inspector cannot resist in providing his usual perceptive observations and recommendations. What at first seems a bungled case of burglary is gradually revealed to be the not unexpected result of a long running blackmail scheme.
Although this is a very relaxed Maigret in comparison to most cases, it was pleasant to see the Chief Inspector in a cozy mood and enjoying the company of Madame Maigret in a vacation setting.
See book cover at http://www.trussel.com/maig/covers/vichy-68.jpg
The cover of the original French language edition of "Maigret in Vichy" as published by Press de la Cité, France 1968. Image sourced from Maigret of the Month.
I read the first dozen Maigret novellas earlier this year and then intended to proceed with several of Simenon's romans durs (French: hard novels) which he considered his more serious work, as opposed to the lighter fare involving the Chief Inspector. The non-Maigrets are a bit more difficult to source however and there seem to be less than a dozen in current editions from Penguin Classics. Anyway, to keep the Simenon pipeline flowing, I thought I'd add several of the late Maigrets to my ongoing reading survey.
In the continuing confusion for completists, this is Maigret #68 in the recent Penguin Classics series of new translations (2013-2019) of the Inspector Maigret novels and short stories, but it is Maigret #67 in the previous standard Maigret Series Listopia as listed on Goodreads.
Trivia and Links
* Some earlier English translations have given the title as Maigret Takes the Waters.
There is extensive background and a detailed plot description (spoilers obviously) about Maigret in Vichy at Maigret of the Month.
Maigret in Vichy has been adapted for film once in a French language television version as Episode 64 of the long running series Les enquêtes du commissaire Maigret (The Investigations of Inspector Maigret) (1967-1990) starring Jean Richard as Inspector Maigret.
There is an article about the Penguin Classics re-translations of the Inspector Maigret novels at Maigret, the Enduring Appeal of the Parisian Sleuth by Paddy Kehoe, RTE, August 17, 2019. show less
Review of the Penguin Classics paperback (June 2019) of a new translation* by Ros Schwartz of the French language original "Maigret à Vichy" (1968)
[3.5]
What else did they have to do with their days? They ambled around casually. From time to time, they paused, not because they were out of breath but to admire a tree, a house, the play of light and shadow, or a face.
They could have sworn they'd been in Vichy for an eternity, whereas this was only their fifth day. They had already created a schedule for themselves which they followed meticulously as if it were of the utmost importance, and their days were measured out by various rituals which they adhered to religiously. - excerpt from Maigret in Vichy
See photograph show more at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/Palais_des_Congr%C3%A8...
The Opera in Vichy. A more shadowy photograph of this building is used as the cover image of the new Penguin Classics edition of "Maigret in Vichy." This image sourced from Wikipedia.
Maigret in Vichy finds the Parisian Chief Inspector sent to take the waters in the resort town of Vichy on the orders of his friend Doctor Pardon. The 53 year-old (n.b. for once, the age of Maigret is mentioned and indicates that Maigret time is passing more slowly than real time i.e. it has already been a 37 year old career since Pietr the Latvian (1931)) is feeling the stresses of the job and is remarkably subservient to his doctor's orders. Madame Maigret joins him for the rest cure which requires walking around the town to drink the various mineral waters at different springs and to avoid alcohol. The always observant Maigret notices a single woman who is regularly taking in the music at the town's bandstand. She becomes the murder victim and a case for Maigret even while on vacation.
Maigret is a known personality and his consultation is an expected fact by the local press and authorities and of course the Chief Inspector cannot resist in providing his usual perceptive observations and recommendations. What at first seems a bungled case of burglary is gradually revealed to be the not unexpected result of a long running blackmail scheme.
Although this is a very relaxed Maigret in comparison to most cases, it was pleasant to see the Chief Inspector in a cozy mood and enjoying the company of Madame Maigret in a vacation setting.
See book cover at http://www.trussel.com/maig/covers/vichy-68.jpg
The cover of the original French language edition of "Maigret in Vichy" as published by Press de la Cité, France 1968. Image sourced from Maigret of the Month.
I read the first dozen Maigret novellas earlier this year and then intended to proceed with several of Simenon's romans durs (French: hard novels) which he considered his more serious work, as opposed to the lighter fare involving the Chief Inspector. The non-Maigrets are a bit more difficult to source however and there seem to be less than a dozen in current editions from Penguin Classics. Anyway, to keep the Simenon pipeline flowing, I thought I'd add several of the late Maigrets to my ongoing reading survey.
In the continuing confusion for completists, this is Maigret #68 in the recent Penguin Classics series of new translations (2013-2019) of the Inspector Maigret novels and short stories, but it is Maigret #67 in the previous standard Maigret Series Listopia as listed on Goodreads.
Trivia and Links
* Some earlier English translations have given the title as Maigret Takes the Waters.
There is extensive background and a detailed plot description (spoilers obviously) about Maigret in Vichy at Maigret of the Month.
Maigret in Vichy has been adapted for film once in a French language television version as Episode 64 of the long running series Les enquêtes du commissaire Maigret (The Investigations of Inspector Maigret) (1967-1990) starring Jean Richard as Inspector Maigret.
There is an article about the Penguin Classics re-translations of the Inspector Maigret novels at Maigret, the Enduring Appeal of the Parisian Sleuth by Paddy Kehoe, RTE, August 17, 2019. show less
My first Maigret took significantly longer to read than I would have liked, but it was a good time. The Inspector and his wife take in the waters of the spa town of Vichy. It turns out that a woman in a lilac dress has been murdered. Time to solve a mystery! Simenon apparently meant each installment in his series to be consumed in one sitting by day laborers. While I found Maigret in Vichy to take a bit more effort than one might expect from that description, it still was a chill and pleasant experience. Definitely will be reading more.
If you start in on the recently published Penguins of all the Maigret books, you'll probably find, as I have that (1) you've read some before although possibly with a different title (but that's no problem!), and (2) that some are better than others and perhaps there was a reason why some had not been translated into English before.
This one didn't suffer from #2; it was a good one. I think that the Maigret plots don't always (often don't) hang together well, but that's not really the main thing. That main thing, as least for me, is being transported to another time and place and spending some time with Maigret as he eats, drinks, and figures out the people. Granted here he was in Vichy so the food wasn't so appealing and there was no show more drinking! Not even a beer. Then again, Maigret wore a different wardrobe, there was a lot of Madame Maigret (who usually makes no more than a cameo appearance), and a good ending. show less
This one didn't suffer from #2; it was a good one. I think that the Maigret plots don't always (often don't) hang together well, but that's not really the main thing. That main thing, as least for me, is being transported to another time and place and spending some time with Maigret as he eats, drinks, and figures out the people. Granted here he was in Vichy so the food wasn't so appealing and there was no show more drinking! Not even a beer. Then again, Maigret wore a different wardrobe, there was a lot of Madame Maigret (who usually makes no more than a cameo appearance), and a good ending. show less
One of my favorite ones in the series. The first 10 or 20 pages setting the scene of Maigret taking the waters in Vichy is some of his best writing.
The Maigret novels introduced me to a new kind of mystery novel - one that has a focus more on the set and setting (and less on the mystery itself). The solving of the crime becomes secondary to the characters.
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The prolific Belgian-born writer Georges Simenon produced hundreds of fictional works under his own name and 17 pseudonyms, in addition to more than 70 books about Inspector Maigret, long "the favorite sleuth of highbrow detective-story readers" (SR). More than 50 "Simenons" have been made into films. In addition to his mystery stories, he wrote show more what he called "hard" books, the serious psychological novels numbering well over 100. The autobiographical Pedigree, set in his native town of Liege, is perhaps his finest work. The publication of Simenon's intimate memoirs also attracted considerable attention. Simenon himself once said that he would never write a "great novel." Yet Gide called him "a great novelist, perhaps the greatest and truest novelist we have in French literature today," and Thornton Wilder (see Vol. 1) found that Simenon's narrative gift extends "to the tips of his fingers." The following are some of Simenon's novels, exclusive of the Maigret detective stories, that are in print. (Bowker Author Biography) Georges Simenon was born on February 13, 1903 in Liege, Belgium. He wrote more than 200 fiction works under 16 different pseudonyms. His first book, The Case of Peter the Lent led to 80 more of the like including the main character, Inspector Maigret. He published over 400 books that were translated into 50 different languages and sold by the millions. He also wrote psychological novels, including The Man Who Watched the Train Go By. He died on September 4, 1989 in Lausanne. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Canonical title
- Maigret in Vichy
- Original title
- Maigret à Vichy
- Alternate titles
- Maigret Takes the Waters
- Original publication date
- 1968
- People/Characters
- Jules Maigret (Chief Superintendent); Désiré Lecoeur (Divisional Superintendent); Louise Maigret; Dr. Pardon; Alice Pardon; Dr. Rian (show all 7); Hélène Lange
- Important places
- Vichy, Allier, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France; Paris, France
- Related movies
- Maigret à Vichy (1984 | IMDb)
- First words
- "Do you know them?"
[Schwartz translation]
"Do you know them?" Madame Maigret asked in an undertone as her husband turned around to look at a couple they had just passed. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"He'll be acquitted, I hope."
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)[Schwartz translation]
"I hope he'll be acquitted . . ." - Blurbers
- Gopnik, Adam
- Original language
- French
- Disambiguation notice
- Originally published in French as Maigret à Vichy (1968). Variously translated in English as:
(i) Maigret in Vichy (tr. Eileen Ellenbogen) (1969);
(ii) Maigret Takes the Wate... (show all)rs (tr. Eileen Ellenbogen)(1969); and
(iii) Maigret in Vichy (tr. Ros Schwartz) (2019).
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