Phillip’s review of Maigret Bides His Time (English and French Edition) > Likes and Comments
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Sorry, but you have your dates wrong. The 1st American edition was 1940. (I own it.)
Hi Peter, the 1940 book is called "The Patience of Maigret" but is actually two earlier titles, "A Face for a Clue" (1931) and "A Battle of Nerves" (also 1931). The title was made up by the publisher. I have a copy also. It is interesting to see how Maigret has developed in the intervening 30 year period between those books and the later one I reviewed.
There is also a 1940 edition of Maigret Bides His Time.
My comment was solely directed to the first sentence of your review:
I, too, find interest in Georges Simenon's development as an author and Maigret's development as a character. This was partly due to his switching from writing in his native French to writing in the language of his adopted country, English, following his emigration during the Nazi years over censorship issues.
I didn't know Simenon wrote in English. How to you think it affected his style? Was he influenced by American crime writers? As for La Patience de Maigret, my Penguin edition says ©1965, but nothing would surprise me in such a prolific author than some confusion over copyrights.
USA copyright laws a little strange. Each new translation of a work can be copyrighted by the translator, resulting in multiple copyright dates. (The purpose of a copyright is to protect the results of intellectual endeavor, so it kinda makes sense.) Copyright renewals are sometimes listed as well. You open some books and see something like Copyright © 1940,1957, 1974.
Also, is your Penguin from USA or UK? UK has its own copyright, so that may be the date for that. It is very unlikely to be the original French copyright.
My understanding is, from reading his biography, that he wrote some of his work in English during his American period (somewhere around 1945-1955) when he was in Maine. I don't think he was much influenced by the American crime writers, in general, but he was clearly influenced by his American surroundings. (Maigret, etc., are too cerebral and instinct [or gut] driven, as compared to rough-and-tumble, for him to be much influenced by most American writers. Possible exceptions are Rex Stout and S.S. Van Dine.)
My French edition states clearly "written in 1965".
Also, war events are clearly from 1940 and the action is set in 1960
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Peter
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Jul 05, 2013 03:49PM
Sorry, but you have your dates wrong. The 1st American edition was 1940. (I own it.)
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Hi Peter, the 1940 book is called "The Patience of Maigret" but is actually two earlier titles, "A Face for a Clue" (1931) and "A Battle of Nerves" (also 1931). The title was made up by the publisher. I have a copy also. It is interesting to see how Maigret has developed in the intervening 30 year period between those books and the later one I reviewed.
There is also a 1940 edition of Maigret Bides His Time.My comment was solely directed to the first sentence of your review:
The Patience of Maigret was first published as La Patience de Maigret in 1965. (italics mine)I'm not sure of the date of the first (originally published in French) edition, but it may have been earlier yet. The war years' incident you mention must have been contemporaneous with the original edition.
I, too, find interest in Georges Simenon's development as an author and Maigret's development as a character. This was partly due to his switching from writing in his native French to writing in the language of his adopted country, English, following his emigration during the Nazi years over censorship issues.
I didn't know Simenon wrote in English. How to you think it affected his style? Was he influenced by American crime writers? As for La Patience de Maigret, my Penguin edition says ©1965, but nothing would surprise me in such a prolific author than some confusion over copyrights.
USA copyright laws a little strange. Each new translation of a work can be copyrighted by the translator, resulting in multiple copyright dates. (The purpose of a copyright is to protect the results of intellectual endeavor, so it kinda makes sense.) Copyright renewals are sometimes listed as well. You open some books and see something like Copyright © 1940,1957, 1974.Also, is your Penguin from USA or UK? UK has its own copyright, so that may be the date for that. It is very unlikely to be the original French copyright.
My understanding is, from reading his biography, that he wrote some of his work in English during his American period (somewhere around 1945-1955) when he was in Maine. I don't think he was much influenced by the American crime writers, in general, but he was clearly influenced by his American surroundings. (Maigret, etc., are too cerebral and instinct [or gut] driven, as compared to rough-and-tumble, for him to be much influenced by most American writers. Possible exceptions are Rex Stout and S.S. Van Dine.)
My French edition states clearly "written in 1965".Also, war events are clearly from 1940 and the action is set in 1960
