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In The Madman of Bergerac, Maigret gets caught up in an investigation in a provincial French town terrorized by a maniacal murderer--only after being shot following a man who has mysteriously jumped off a moving train.Tags
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shaunie The detective solves the crime whilst bedridden in both. Both also somewhat overrated?
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It would be too easy to reveal too much about The Madman of Bergerac, No. 16 in Georges Simenon’s series featuring the mercurial French Chief Inspector Maigret. Let’s just say that, at one point, poor Maigret is literally taken for a madman.
But Maigret, of course, is crazy like a fox, and, while he’s so injured that he’s confined to his bed, he arranges with his wife and a friend to do the leg work for him. I loved this novel for the chance to get to know the practical, long-suffering if bourgeois Madame Maigret better. The often-taciturn Maigret unfairly keeps the thread of the investigation from her, but she doggedly fulfills his requests, becoming his eyes and ears in Bergerac. So despite a murderer who’s a bit farfetched, show more I still give this novel a heart-felt five stars. show less
But Maigret, of course, is crazy like a fox, and, while he’s so injured that he’s confined to his bed, he arranges with his wife and a friend to do the leg work for him. I loved this novel for the chance to get to know the practical, long-suffering if bourgeois Madame Maigret better. The often-taciturn Maigret unfairly keeps the thread of the investigation from her, but she doggedly fulfills his requests, becoming his eyes and ears in Bergerac. So despite a murderer who’s a bit farfetched, show more I still give this novel a heart-felt five stars. show less
Maigret turns Nero Wolfe in this one and spends the majority of the novel bedridden after taking a bullet to the shoulder in the opening chapter. It's an interesting experiment, but the story's a little too convoluted and implausible to make for really compelling reading. The addition of his wife as sidekick also felt rather limp.
I have many Maigret novels that I've read over the years sitting on my shelf. This doesn't prevent me from buying more, from time to time. This one was on the shelf and since I had just seen the French television Bruno Cremer episode on the same story, I thought it would be fun to compare that to the novel.
First of all, even though it was a book sitting on my regular shelf, meaning that at some point in time I had read it, I didn't remember a thing. Not a thing. Hopefully it got misplaced from the to-be-read shelf to the read shelf by mistake.
Second of all, it was interesting to see the changes they had made to what is really an anti-semitic plot to one that changed the bad guys from Jews to Vichy French Nazi collaborators. I won't hold show more his anti-semitism against him, since this is the first time I recall running up on it. But given that, it didn't make for an altogether wonderful read. show less
First of all, even though it was a book sitting on my regular shelf, meaning that at some point in time I had read it, I didn't remember a thing. Not a thing. Hopefully it got misplaced from the to-be-read shelf to the read shelf by mistake.
Second of all, it was interesting to see the changes they had made to what is really an anti-semitic plot to one that changed the bad guys from Jews to Vichy French Nazi collaborators. I won't hold show more his anti-semitism against him, since this is the first time I recall running up on it. But given that, it didn't make for an altogether wonderful read. show less
In Georges Simenon's 16th Maigret novel, our man manages to combine a routine police assignment with pleasure trip to visit a retired colleague in Bergerac. While on the long train trip south, however, a fellow passenger arouses Maigret's suspicions and when the fellow leaps from the train in the middle of the night Maigret follows suit.
Maigret catches a bullet for his trouble and awakes in Bergerac to find himself under suspicion of murder. Two local women have been killed in separate unexplained attacks with a ghoulish twist: The assailant pierced their hearts with a needle. The arrival of Maigret's friend, the former detective Leduc, soon dispels any notion of guilt and much to the chagrin of the local authorities Maigret's injuries show more prevent him from traveling.
With the assistance of Madame Maigret, the intrepid Paris detective works to solve the crime from his bed! He manages to unravel quite a tangled web of deceit - just when the local prosecutor has decided that the case has been resolved by the killer's suicide. Simenon also uses the story's location to express his disdain for the rustics who inhabit Bergerac (At one point, Maigret asks his wife if the town has a movie theater. She answers affirmatively, but adds that she had seen the theater's current attraction at least three years ago in Paris!).
The Madman of Bergerac has a few loose ends and the explanation of the murders is a bit far-fetched, but Simenon weaves an excellent subplot that takes center stage and ends with a bang - or two. Simenon gives us another entertaining Maigret story and as always it will not detain the reader for more than a few hours. show less
Maigret catches a bullet for his trouble and awakes in Bergerac to find himself under suspicion of murder. Two local women have been killed in separate unexplained attacks with a ghoulish twist: The assailant pierced their hearts with a needle. The arrival of Maigret's friend, the former detective Leduc, soon dispels any notion of guilt and much to the chagrin of the local authorities Maigret's injuries show more prevent him from traveling.
With the assistance of Madame Maigret, the intrepid Paris detective works to solve the crime from his bed! He manages to unravel quite a tangled web of deceit - just when the local prosecutor has decided that the case has been resolved by the killer's suicide. Simenon also uses the story's location to express his disdain for the rustics who inhabit Bergerac (At one point, Maigret asks his wife if the town has a movie theater. She answers affirmatively, but adds that she had seen the theater's current attraction at least three years ago in Paris!).
The Madman of Bergerac has a few loose ends and the explanation of the murders is a bit far-fetched, but Simenon weaves an excellent subplot that takes center stage and ends with a bang - or two. Simenon gives us another entertaining Maigret story and as always it will not detain the reader for more than a few hours. show less
Questo mi è piaciuto più di altri. Abbiamo un Maigret fuori dal suo elemento naturale, una signora Maigret che per una volta non è solo quella che gli prepara la cena, Maigret immobilizzato che ricostruisce la realtà umana affidandosi alle descrizioni e impressioni della moglie e dell'amico Leduc. Questa storia apparentemente più lenta di altre perché Maigret deve stare a riposo si rivela invece più frizzante. Bello, mi è davvero piaciuto.
Maigret turns Nero Wolfe in this one and spends the majority of the novel bedridden after taking a bullet to the shoulder in the opening chapter. It's an interesting experiment, but the story's a little too convoluted and implausible to make for really compelling reading. The addition of his wife as sidekick also felt rather limp.
Maigret has been shot by a mysterious stranger, who may or may not be the perpetrator of two murders. Maigret cannot leave his bed so has to work everything out from what others tell him and what he can visualise in his mind. This reminded me of the Josephine Tey book where the detective works out the Richard III mystery while lying in bed.
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Author Information
1,313+ Works 62,658 Members
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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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Maigret und der Verrückte von Bergerac
- Original title
- Le Fou de Bergerac
- Original publication date
- 1932-04 (original French) (original French); 1940 (English: Sainsbury) (English: Sainsbury); 2015 (English: Schwartz) (English: Schwartz)
- People/Characters
- Jules Maigret; Louise Maigret
- Important places
- Bergerac, Dordogne, France; France
- Related movies
- The Madman of Vervac (1962 | IMDb); Il pazzo di Bergerac (1972 | IMDb); Maigret et le fou de Bergerac (1979 | IMDb); Maigret e il pazzo di Sainte Clotilde. (2002 | IMDb)
- First words
- It all came about by the merest chance.
It all came about by pure chance!
[Ros Schwartz translation] - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Wir hauen ab!
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)We're getting out of here! - Blurbers
- Cleeves, Ann
- Original language
- French
- Disambiguation notice
- In the French original, Le fou de Bergerac (April 1932).
Published variously in English as The Madman of Bergerac, in Maigret Travels South (tr. Geoffrey Sainsbury) (1940), and ... (show all)The Madman of Bergerac (tr. Ros Schwartz) (2015).
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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