Series
Publication
Livre de Poche (2003), 191 p.
Original publication date
1956
Collections
Genres
Subjects
Description
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 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.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Disquiet
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
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 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 More
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 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
LibraryThing member sblock
My first Maigret. Intriguing.
LibraryThing member minfo
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.
Language
Original language
French
ISBN
9782253142461
Physical description
191 p.; 4.3 inches
Other editions
Maigret Goes to School by Georges Simenon (Paperback)
Pages
191