Un Noël de Maigret (En Français Facile) (Lectures CLE en Français Facile) -

Georges Simenon

Cle International

2004

66 páginas

2h 12m

ISBN-13: 9782090319842

This, one of the longer short stories, was the last work that Simenon wrote whilst living at Carmel-by-the-sea in California. It was written on the 20th of May 1950 and was the twenty-eighth and last of the Maigret short stories.

When it was published by Presses de la Cité in book form it was accompanied by two other longer short stories – Sept Petites Croix dans un carnet (A Matter of Life and Death / Seven Little Crosses in a notebook) and Le Petit Restaurant des Ternes (The Small Restaurant in the Ternes district – not translated). These latter two short stories do not involve Maigret, but all three are linked by the fact that they are set during Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, with each location being in Paris.

This short story is divided up into five chapters and at the beginning of the first there is an insight into the start of the Maigrets’ Christmas morning at their home in the Boulevard Richard-Lenoir, with Madame Maigret pottering about, making coffee and slipping out of the apartment to buy croissants at a nearby shop. Maigret takes his time over his coffee and pipe, still in his dressing gown, and at times gazing out of the window.

This scene of quiet domesticity is interrupted when he observes two women who live on the opposite side of the Boulevard making for the door of his apartment.

Part of the map of Paris showing the Boulevard Richard-Lenoir (the Maigrets live at N°132 – as stated in the novel Maigret et son Mort), the Rue Amelot (where Madame Maigret buys some croissants) and the Boulevard Voltaire (where Maigret and Lucas visit a bar for a drink of beer). (Atlas Paris par arrondissements, Michelin 15, 1989).

The elder of the two, Mademoiselle Doncoeur and her younger, but reluctant, neighbour Madame Martin require his advice and possible help. The latter’s niece, Colette, who is confined to bed as the result of an accident, witnesses, in the early hours of Christmas morning, Father Christmas in her room with a torch. He presents her with an expensive doll, indicates for her to be quiet, and proceeds to lift up a floorboard before eventually leaving.

Treating it more or less as a private investigation, Maigret remains throughout in and around his home, after telephoning Lucas who is on duty with Torrence and Janvier at the Quai des Orfèvres. His home becomes like his office where he requests, on this occasion, various people to visit, or be brought to, him.

From an odd, but simple, “Christmas” event witnessed by the young girl Colette, over the five chapters Simenon builds up and opens out the investigation, with Maigret more or less remaining in the same area, piecing together the strands during this Christmas day. Now and again there is a touch of emotion, of maternal instinct from Madame Maigret, as she observes some of the activities that ultimately involve Colette’s future.

With the simplicity of the initial idea and the build up of the storyline, Un Noël de Maigret is both an intriguing and a satisfying narration.

There are two translations of this short story. The first translation is by Lawrence G. Blochman and was first published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (US edition), volume 23, N°122, in January 1954. It is slightly abridged and freer in translation compared to Simenon’s original and the same text has been reprinted a number of times by various publishers.

The second translation is by Jean Stewart and was first published by Hamish Hamilton in the United Kingdom in 1976 in the hardback collection entitled “Maigret’s Christmas”. Jean Stewart’s translation follows Simenon’s French text closely without any abridging or additions.