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When a school teacher from a small coastal town near La Rochelle asks Maigret to help prove he is innocent of murder, the Inspector returns with him to his insular community and finds the residents closing ranks to conceal the truth.'What was he doing there? A hundred times, in the middle of an investigation, he'd had the same feeling of helplessness or, rather, futility. He would find himself abruptly plunged into the lives of people he had never met before, and his job was to discover show more their most intimate secrets. This time, as it happened, it wasn't even his job. He was the one who had chosen to come, because a teacher had waited for him for hours in the Purgatory at the Police Judiciaire. show lessTags
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Beleaguered schoolmaster Joseph Gastin, a Parisian relocated to the insular coastal town of Saint-André-sur-Mer, near La Rochelle, is considered an outsider — the perfect person for the inhabitants to blame for the murder of an irascible old lady. Detective Chief Inspector Maigret comes to Gastin’s aid knowing that he will have an uphill battle finding out what really happened, but the great man manages all the same. Like Maigret, readers early on realize that Gastin is no murderer; however, they’ll enjoy following Maigret as he conducts his painstaking investigation.
Maigret and the Secretive Village
Review of the Penguin Classics paperback (October 2018) of a new translation* by Linda Coverdale of the French language original "Maigret à l'école" (1954)
A school teacher from a coastal village appears in Chief Inspector Maigret's office at Quai des Orfèvres and begs for his assistance. A retired ex-post mistress in the village has been murdered and, although she was hated by the entire village, the teacher is also show more disliked as he and his family are outsiders. Maigret remembers with fondness meals of oysters and white wine during an earlier seaside trip and agrees to return to the town with the teacher and to try to clear his name.
Arriving at the village Maigret learns that he is unlikely to enjoy a meal of oysters, but he persists in the case regardless. He soon discovers that the ex-postmistress was a snoop who knew the secrets of the villagers, having read their mail. The entire village appears to have closed ranks to blame the schoolteacher due to him not being one of their own. The solution seems to centre on children in the school class, one of whom is the prime witness against the teacher. But are they telling the truth or are they lying for some mysterious reason of their own?
See cover image at https://www.trussel.com/maig/covers/ecole3.jpg
The cover of the original French language edition of "Maigret à l'école" as published by Presses de la Cité, France 1954. Image sourced from Maigret of the Month.
During a 2022 mini-binge I read a couple of dozen of the (mostly early) Maigret novellas and then about a half-dozen of Simenon's non-Maigret romans durs (French: hard novels). I'm reading a few more of the Maigrets in 2023 as I found a bunch of them in cutout sales at my local Book City stores.
In a rarity for completists, this is Maigret #44 in both the recent Penguin Classics Series of new translations (2013-2019) of the Inspector Maigret novels and in the previous standard Maigret Series Listopia as listed on Goodreads.
See photo at https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2017/12/maigret-rowan...
Rowan Atkinson as Inspector Maigret in the most recent television adaptation of Maigret which only aired for 4 episodes in 2016-17. Playing against his standard comic stereotypes, Atkinson was actually quite excellent in the role. Image sourced from an article at Radio Times, which says that a possible future Maigret reboot series is in the works.
Footnote, Trivia and Links
* The earlier English translation (Hamish Hamilton 1957) by Daphne Woodward & its later reprints also gave the title as Maigret Goes to School.
There is extensive background and a detailed plot description (spoilers obviously) about Maigret Goes to School at Maigret of the Month.
Maigret Goes to School has been adapted three times for television:
The first adaptation was as Series 1 Episode 13 (1971) of the long-running French language series Les enquêtes du commissaire Maigret (1967-1990) starring Jean Richard as Inspector Maigret.
The second adaptation was as Series 1 Episode 3 (1992) of the English language television series of Maigret (1992-1993) starring Michel Gambon as Inspector Maigret.
The third adaptation was as Series 12 Episode 1 (2002) of the French language reboot series of Maigret (1991-2005) starring Bruno Cremer 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 (October 2018) of a new translation* by Linda Coverdale of the French language original "Maigret à l'école" (1954)
"What would you like to eat, Chief Inspector?"
"Do you have oysters?"
"Not during the neap-tide."
"How long will that last?"
"Another five or six days."
Since Paris, he'd been thinking of eating oysters and drinking white wine, and now he probably wasn't going to get any during his stay.
A school teacher from a coastal village appears in Chief Inspector Maigret's office at Quai des Orfèvres and begs for his assistance. A retired ex-post mistress in the village has been murdered and, although she was hated by the entire village, the teacher is also show more disliked as he and his family are outsiders. Maigret remembers with fondness meals of oysters and white wine during an earlier seaside trip and agrees to return to the town with the teacher and to try to clear his name.
Arriving at the village Maigret learns that he is unlikely to enjoy a meal of oysters, but he persists in the case regardless. He soon discovers that the ex-postmistress was a snoop who knew the secrets of the villagers, having read their mail. The entire village appears to have closed ranks to blame the schoolteacher due to him not being one of their own. The solution seems to centre on children in the school class, one of whom is the prime witness against the teacher. But are they telling the truth or are they lying for some mysterious reason of their own?
See cover image at https://www.trussel.com/maig/covers/ecole3.jpg
The cover of the original French language edition of "Maigret à l'école" as published by Presses de la Cité, France 1954. Image sourced from Maigret of the Month.
During a 2022 mini-binge I read a couple of dozen of the (mostly early) Maigret novellas and then about a half-dozen of Simenon's non-Maigret romans durs (French: hard novels). I'm reading a few more of the Maigrets in 2023 as I found a bunch of them in cutout sales at my local Book City stores.
In a rarity for completists, this is Maigret #44 in both the recent Penguin Classics Series of new translations (2013-2019) of the Inspector Maigret novels and in the previous standard Maigret Series Listopia as listed on Goodreads.
See photo at https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2017/12/maigret-rowan...
Rowan Atkinson as Inspector Maigret in the most recent television adaptation of Maigret which only aired for 4 episodes in 2016-17. Playing against his standard comic stereotypes, Atkinson was actually quite excellent in the role. Image sourced from an article at Radio Times, which says that a possible future Maigret reboot series is in the works.
Footnote, Trivia and Links
* The earlier English translation (Hamish Hamilton 1957) by Daphne Woodward & its later reprints also gave the title as Maigret Goes to School.
There is extensive background and a detailed plot description (spoilers obviously) about Maigret Goes to School at Maigret of the Month.
Maigret Goes to School has been adapted three times for television:
The first adaptation was as Series 1 Episode 13 (1971) of the long-running French language series Les enquêtes du commissaire Maigret (1967-1990) starring Jean Richard as Inspector Maigret.
The second adaptation was as Series 1 Episode 3 (1992) of the English language television series of Maigret (1992-1993) starring Michel Gambon as Inspector Maigret.
The third adaptation was as Series 12 Episode 1 (2002) of the French language reboot series of Maigret (1991-2005) starring Bruno Cremer 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
45. Maigret Goes to School by Georges Simenon. The Inspector is visited by a schoolmaster who believes he's about to be formally accused of murdering his village postmistress, who was found in her home with a bullet through the eye. He's right.
It seems that the only reason the schoolmaster is arrested is because one of his pupils placed him in a location to have committed the crime, while the man says he's been accused because he's a hated newcomer to the village. Maigret doesn't know what to think about the crime, but a little excursion to the country for oysters and wine sounds good, and he might look into the murder.
It seems that the only reason the schoolmaster is arrested is because one of his pupils placed him in a location to have committed the crime, while the man says he's been accused because he's a hated newcomer to the village. Maigret doesn't know what to think about the crime, but a little excursion to the country for oysters and wine sounds good, and he might look into the murder.
Been meaning to read Georges Simenon for a long time. Kept stumbling on these slim volumes at the library for the simple reason that they were housed on a shelf at eye level just at the end of a stack where one would turn in order to get to the exit. Then, one day, they were gone, presumably moved elsewhere, because the whole shelf had changed its makeup. Like any good mystery, they thus needed to be sussed out.
I asked about and was essentially told I could read the novels -- of which there are, like, 75, not counting short stories -- in any order. A list of someone's top-10 favorites led me to this one. It tells the story of a renowned Parisian detective, named Maigret, who travels to rural France to assist in locating the murderer of show more the most despised woman in a small town because he believes that the accused, the least liked man in that same town, is innocent. Per the reputation that preceded it, it's a mystery told as an exceptionally elegant, elegant to the point of banal, procedural. Highly enjoyable, especially for the depiction of small-town animosities, and the even more micro-interactions between individuals, especially between adult and child. And I am amazed that people can drink that much alcohol during the day and get anything accomplished.
I'm not sure that if I read all of Simenon's Maigret books I will remember any of them, but for the time being I will be dipping into the series. show less
I asked about and was essentially told I could read the novels -- of which there are, like, 75, not counting short stories -- in any order. A list of someone's top-10 favorites led me to this one. It tells the story of a renowned Parisian detective, named Maigret, who travels to rural France to assist in locating the murderer of show more the most despised woman in a small town because he believes that the accused, the least liked man in that same town, is innocent. Per the reputation that preceded it, it's a mystery told as an exceptionally elegant, elegant to the point of banal, procedural. Highly enjoyable, especially for the depiction of small-town animosities, and the even more micro-interactions between individuals, especially between adult and child. And I am amazed that people can drink that much alcohol during the day and get anything accomplished.
I'm not sure that if I read all of Simenon's Maigret books I will remember any of them, but for the time being I will be dipping into the series. show less
Reading Maigret is like vaping - or something. It's SO darn addictive! My only regret is that I found him so late in life.... My weekly present to myself is one of his mysteries and I'm never disappointed.
Another good one. I like the books where Margret leaves the city for the country or a village!
My first Maigret. Intriguing.
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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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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Maigret Goes to School
- Original title
- Maigret à l'école, 1953
- Alternate titles*
- Maigret ha un dubbio
- Original publication date
- 1956
- People/Characters
- Jules Maigret; Joseph Gastin
- Important places
- Saint-André-sur-Mer, France; Paris, France; France
- Related movies*
- The Liars (1961 | IMDb); Maigret à l'école (1971 | IMDb); Maigret à l'école (2002 | IMDb); Maigret Goes to School (1992 | IMDb)
- First words
- Hi ha imatges que enregistrem inconscientmet, amb el detall d'una màquina de fotografiar, i que més tard, quan ens tornen a la memòria, ens obliguen a trencar-nos el cap per esbrinar on les hem vistes.
Some images you record unconsciously, with the precision of a camera, and when you find them later in your memory, sometimes you rack your brains to recall where you saw them. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Més tard, no es va adonar que allò que es gronxava en la foscor, a la dreta, eren els pals dels vaixells i, a l'estació, va comprar un bon grapat de diaris de París.
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)A little later, he did not notice that what were swinging back and forth in the darkness, to his right, were the masts of boats, and at the station he bought a whole heap of Paris newspapers. - Blurbers
- Banville, John; Knight, India; Barnes, Julian; Spark, Muriel; Wilson, A. N.; Gray, John (show all 9); Brookner, Anita; Faulkner, William; Gide, André
- Original language*
- Francese
- Disambiguation notice*
- In the French original, Maigret à l'école (1954).
Published variously in English as:
(i) Maigret Goes To School (trans. Daphne Woodward) (1957);
(ii) Maigret Goes To Sc... (show all)hool (trans. Linda Coverdale) (2017).
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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