Commissioner Maigret resumes service ... 90 years after his first appearance in a novel by the Belgian writer Georges Simenon, disappeared almost 30 years ago. On the occasion of this double anniversary, the editions Omnibus (Editis group) have taken the initiative to reissue (30,000 copies) All Maigret , that is to say, 103 novels and news gathered in ten volumes with illustrated covers by Loustal.
Movie, audio books ...
In the cinema, the director Patrice Leconte will direct this autumn Daniel Auteuil who will play the role of the curator in a film inspired by the novel Maigret and the young girl . New audio books by Maigret are also announced. "At Simenon, everything is good," says academician Goncourt Pierre Assouline. "We should gird our work with a banner entitled 'The human condition' and so be it if it is already taken". His colleague from the Goncourt academy Philippe Claudel adds: "There are no little novels of Simenon, just as there are no small thoughts of Pascal".
Pierre Assouline, author of a biography of Georges Simenon ( Simenon , Folio) and Philippe Claudel each write a preface to one of the volumes of Omnibus's anthology alongside other writers, including the French Academician Dominique Fernandez, the director Bertrand Tavernier and the actor Bruno Solo.
A dazzling ascent
The name of Maigret first appeared in 1929 under the pen of Simenon (who then signed under the pseudonym of Georges-Martin Georges) in the romantic novel A shadow in the night , but it was under the guise of ... of a doctor. Doctor or commissioner? In his biography of Simenon, Pierre Assouline notes that Commissioner Maigret will later recognize a failed doctor. In fact, Jules Maigret, the policeman that millions of readers know, appeared for the first time in his qualities in 1930 in Night Train (signed Christian Brulls, another pseudonym Simenon). But he still has only a minor place in the novel.
The first "official" Maigret is Pietr-le-Letton , the first book that Simenon signs with his name. It is published in 1931 but Simenon will later report having written it in September 1929 during a stay in the Netherlands. Since 1931, 600 million books of Simenon have passed in the world because Maigret goes far beyond the space of the French-speaking world. Between 1931 and 1934, nineteen Maigret are published (the last will be in 1972). In addition, some 70 films and more than 400 TV movies were taken from the 75 novels and 28 new ones with Maigret, not counting the films or telefilms adapted from Simenon's novels without the curator.