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Maigret and Mystery Tramp
Review of the Penguin Classics paperback (November 2019) of a new translation* by Howard Curtis of the French language original Maigret et L'Homme Tout Seul (1971)

Maigret and the Loner is characteristic of several of the late Chief Inspector Maigret novellas that I've now read. These often show a side of the inspector being more sympathetic to the criminals once he has unraveled the reasons behind their crimes. These are cases where a retribution has been enacted decades after an event which went unprosecuted or even undiscovered at the time. Maigret himself is slowing down somewhat and is being more careful with his alcohol intake and 'counts his beers' daily. The Maigret time-frame is stretched out, he is 55 years old here, but this original 1971 book is already over 40 years since his debut in Petr the Latvian (1930). So Maigret time passes slower than real world time, but retirement is now close. This is the 3rd last book of the long running series.

This case involves a considerable amount of time in identifying a murder victim, a solitary tramp who avoided most others but apparently lived rough for 20 years after abandoning his marriage and family. Maigret's efforts concentrate on uncovering the past history of the man which eventually leads to a solution.


The cover of the original French language edition of "Maigret and the Loner" as published by Presses de la Cité, France 1971. Image sourced from .

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 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 Simenon reading survey.

In a rarity for completists, this is Maigret #73 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 Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ.

Trivia and Links
* The earlier English translations also gave the title as Maigret and the Loner.

There is extensive background and a detailed plot description (spoilers obviously) about Maigret and the Loner at .

Maigret and the Loner has been adapted for television twice: The first adaptation was in a 1978 Japanese language television episode of (Inspector Megure of Tokyo) (1976-1978) starring Kinya Aikawa as Inspector Megure. This series reimagines the Maigret stories taking place in then current day 1970s Japan.
The second adaptation was in a 1982 French language television episode of the long-running series (1967-1990) starring Jean Richard as Inspector Maigret.

There is an article about the Penguin Classics re-translations of the Inspector Maigret novels at by Paddy Kehoe, RTE, August 17, 2019.