
Lock No. 1
Inspector Maigret
Georges Simenon(Author)
Penguin Classics (Publisher)
Published on 2. April 2015
Book
Paperback/Softback
176 pages
978-0-14-139610-1 (ISBN)
Description
'The father of contemporary European detective fiction' Ann Cleeves
Cars drove past along with the trucks and trams, but by now Maigret had realised that they were not important. Whatever roared by like this along the road was not part of the landscape. ... What really counted was the lock, the hooting of the tugs, the stone crusher, the barges and the cranes, the two pilots' bars and especially the tall house where he could make out Ducrau's red chair framed by a window.
Penguin is publishing the entire series of Maigret novels in new translations. This novel has been published in a previous translation as The Lock at Charenton.
'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray
'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian
'A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness' Independent
Cars drove past along with the trucks and trams, but by now Maigret had realised that they were not important. Whatever roared by like this along the road was not part of the landscape. ... What really counted was the lock, the hooting of the tugs, the stone crusher, the barges and the cranes, the two pilots' bars and especially the tall house where he could make out Ducrau's red chair framed by a window.
Penguin is publishing the entire series of Maigret novels in new translations. This novel has been published in a previous translation as The Lock at Charenton.
'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray
'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian
'A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness' Independent
Reviews / Votes
One of the greatest writers of the 20th century . . . no other writer can set up a scene as sharply and with such economy as Simenon does . . . the conjuring of a world, a place, a time, a set of characters - above all, an atmosphere -- John Banville * Financial Times * Gem-hard soul-probes . . . not just the world's bestselling detective series, but an imperishable literary legend . . . he exposes secrets and crimes not by forensic wizardry, but by the melded powers of therapist, philosopher and confessor -- Boyd Tonkin * The Times * Terrific...the 75 Inspector Maigret books are almost uniformly wonderful. They are not crime or even detective fiction as ordinarily understood...they are about human foibles, moral failings and compromises, set in an evocatively atmospheric Paris -- David Mills * Sunday Times * A great writer of detail, of atmosphere -- Leila Slimani * Financial Times * A genius ... Simenon broke all the rules -- Jake Kerridge * Daily Telegraph * The novels brim with atmosphere, insight and intelligence . . . quite unlike anything else written before or since -- India Knight * The Times * Exceptional... Simenon's writing still seems fresh...one of the great pleasures is the summoning of France's many landscapes and accompanying social milieux . . . There is also, and it's a chief glory of the books, a whole range of different Parises, from the shiny rich to the hypocritical bourgeois middle to the struggling, furious world of the poor, desperate and professionally criminal -- John Lanchester * Times Literary Supplement * I never read contemporary fiction-with one exception: the works of Simenon -- T.S. Eliot One of the most important writers of our century -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez An astute observer of human nature, writing in a spare and vivid style -- Amor TowlesMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Penguin Books Ltd
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 128 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
142 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-14-139610-1 (9780141396101)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
04/2015
1st Edition
Penguin Books Ltd
€8.99
Available for download
Persons
Georges Simenon (Author)
Georges Simenon was born in Liege, Belgium in 1903. An intrepid traveller with a profound interest in people, Simenon strove on and off the page to understand, rather than to judge, the human condition in all its shades. His novels include the Inspector Maigret series and a richly varied body of wider work united by its evocative power, its economy of means, and its penetrating psychological insight. He is among the most widely read writers in the global canon. He died in 1989 in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he had lived for the latter part of his life.
David Coward (Translator)
David Coward is Emeritus Professor of French at the University of Leeds and has translated many books from French for Penguin Classics.
Georges Simenon was born in Liege, Belgium in 1903. An intrepid traveller with a profound interest in people, Simenon strove on and off the page to understand, rather than to judge, the human condition in all its shades. His novels include the Inspector Maigret series and a richly varied body of wider work united by its evocative power, its economy of means, and its penetrating psychological insight. He is among the most widely read writers in the global canon. He died in 1989 in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he had lived for the latter part of his life.
David Coward (Translator)
David Coward is Emeritus Professor of French at the University of Leeds and has translated many books from French for Penguin Classics.