Bøker av Georges Simenon

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray 'Try to imagine a guest, a wealthy woman, staying at the Majestic with her husband, her son, a nurse and a governess . . . In a suite that costs more than a thousand francs a day . . . At six in the morning, she's strangled, not in her room, but in the basement locker room'Below stairs at a glamorous hotel on the Champs- lys es, the workers' lives are worlds away from the luxury enjoyed by the wealthy guests. When their worlds meet, Maigret discovers a tragic story of ambition, blackmail and unrequited love.This novel has been published in a previous translation as Maigret and the Hotel Majestic.'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

"Maigret is shocked to find himself accused of a crime, and must fight to prove his innocence and save his reputation."--Back cover.

'Maigret moved slowly, edging his bulky frame through the throng in Rue Saint-Antoine, which burst into life every morning, the sunshine streaming down from a clear sky on to the little barrows piled high with fruit and vegetables'In these three tales of deception, set in and around Paris, Simenon's celebrated detective uncovers chilling truths about the depths of the human instinct for self-preservation.

Is Carl Andersen innocent of murder, or a very good liar?Detective Chief Inspector Maigret has been interrogating the enigmatic Danish aristocrat for seventeen hours. A diamond merchant was found dead, shot at point-blank range, in the garage of Andersen's mansion, yet he will not confess to the crime. To get to the truth, Maigret must delve into the secrets of Three Widows Crossroads, the isolated neighbourhood where he lives with his mysterious, reclusive sister Else - and where, it seems, everyone has something to hide.

Read the authors discussing their approaches to the craft of writing, the origins of their characters¿ names, and the critical reception of their novels.

La police n'en finirait pas, si elle devait tout prendre au sérieux. Par exemple, les craintes de cette vieille dame, à l'évidence un peu dérangée, qui prétend ètre suivie et ajoute que des objets bougent chez elle... Pourtant, Léontine de Caramé est bel et bien retrouvée assassinée dans son appartement.Maigret doit-il soupçonner Angèle, qui ne fréquentait guère sa vieille tante que dans l'espoir de toucher l'héritage ? Y a-t-il un lien entre cette affaire et le subit départ pour Toulon du Grand Marcel, barman bien connu de la police et amant d'Angèle ?Il n'y avait pas d'argent chez Léontine lorsqu'elle a été tuée. Mais les tiroirs des vieilles dames renferment parfois des secrets autrement surprenants...

C'est sans réel plaisir que Maigret voit ressurgir Léon Florentin, son ancien condisciple au lycée Banville, à Moulins, qu'il n'a jamais particulièrement estimé. Quant à l'affaire que lui apporte celui-ci, elle n'est guère ragoûtante non plus : l'assassinat d'une certaine Joséphine Papet, dite Josée, maîtresse de Florentin et de plusieurs autres messieurs d'âge mûr qui lui procurent de quoi vivre, au nombre desquels un haut fonctionnaire, un industriel de Rouen, un Bordelais négociant en vins... Florentin est-il antiquaire, comme il le prétend ? Que font dans son logis du boulevard Rochechouard les économies de Josée ? Faut-il croire qu'il a réellement voulu se suicider en se jetant dans la Seine ? Il y a vraiment des gens qui vous font douter de tout... Entre Montmartre et Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, Maigret débrouille un à un les fils d'une énigme où la respectabilité dissimule la médiocrité, voire le sordide.

Une seule collection de lecture pour tous niveaux !Structure du livre: Une collection de lecture en français pour se divertir, s'enrichir, perfectionner ses connaissances des grands classiques de la littérature française.Cette collection est accessible dès le niveau débutant, elle est organisée en quatre niveaux: A1, A2, B1, B2.Un dossier pédagogique à la fin de l'oeuvre est renforcé par des activités de compréhension, des fiches thématiques et des corrigés intégrés.La définition des mots et des expressions difficiles figure en bas de page.Descriptif: Depuis six mois, cinq femmes ont été tuées à Montmartre. Maigret, le célèbre inspecteur à la pipe, parviendra-t-il à découvrir l'assassin?Composants: Le CD audio contient la totalité du texte enregistré.Un dossier pédagogique propose des activités pour contrôler la lecture et l'écoute du texte, réemployer le vocabulaire ainsi que des fiches pour aller plus loin.

Vendredi 7 novembre. Concarneau est désert. L'horloge lumineuse de la vieille ville, qu'on aperçoit au-dessus des remparts, marque onze heures moins cinq.C'est le plein de la marée et une tempète du sud-ouest fait s'entrechoquer les barques dans le port. Le vent s'engouffre dans les rues, où l'on voit parfois des bouts de papier filer à toute allure au ras du sol.Quai de l'Aiguillon, il n'y a pas une lumière. Tout est fermé. Tout le monde dort. Seules les trois fenètres de l'hôtel de l'Amiral, à l'angle de la place et du quai, sont encore éclairées...

Qui a tiré un coup de revolver, en pleine nuit, dans l'hôtel particulier de la puissante famille Gendreau-Balthazar, rue Chaptal ?Tout jeune secrétaire du commissariat du quartier Saint-Georges, Jules Maigret se voit confier une enquête officieuse - car on n'attaque pas de front ces gens de la haute société, aux relations influentes. Maigret va habilement débrouiller l'écheveau des secrets de la famille Gendreau. En particulier les ambitions d'Hector, fondateur de la dynastie : assurer à sa descendance un nom à particule. Comment la vanité mêlée aux intérêts d'argent peut déboucher sur le meurtre, c'est ce que nous découvrirons au terme de l'enquête. Enquête inutile. Maigret apprendra que les riches méritent des égards auxquels d'autres classes sociales n'ont pas droit...

A masterful tale of murder and intrigue in a small French town, from the celebrated author of the Maigret seriesNot only had the rain in the dark streets, with a halo around each light and reflections on the ground, always given him a certain thrill, it also made it easier for him to move around.It has been raining for twenty days in La Rochelle - ever since the first murder. Since then, five more bodies have been found. In the cafes, over card games, a quiet terror of the killer in their midst spreads through the little town. But unknown to anyone, Kachoudas, a poor, timid tailor, has discovered, quite by accident, who the murderer is. As a twisted cat and mouse game begins, Simenon's chilling novel takes us into the darkness of the criminal mind. 'Dark, disturbing ... Simenon discovered something fundamental about the soul' Guardian

A gripping new translation of the iconic short story collection featuring Simenon's celebrated literary detective'The truth was, Maigret knew nothing! Maigret felt. Maigret was sure he was right, would have bet his life on it. But in vain he'd turned the problem over a hundred times in his head, in vain he'd had every taxi driver in Paris questioned' A sumptuous mansion hiding terrible crimes, a distressed young woman's cry for help, a gunshot on a rainy Dieppe street, a runaway couple with a secret: these seventeen Inspector Maigret short stories, written and published in journals during the Second World War, show Simenon's celebrated detective uncovering the darkness beneath ordinary lives.'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

'There were some weeks that were painful, nerve-racking. At the office or at home, in the middle of a meal, he would suddenly find his forehead bathed in sweat, a tightness in his chest, and at those times, feeling everyone's eyes on him was unbearable.'During a chance meeting on the train from Venice to Paris, a stranger asks Justin Calmar to deliver a briefcase for him to an address in Switzerland. Soon this ordinary family man will become hopelessly, fatally, ensnared in a world of guilt, lies and paranoia.Originally published in 1965, shortly after Simenon moved into the new home he had built in Épalinges, Switzerland, this chilling novel is a powerful exploration of the fragility of the human psyche.

'You'll get used to things, you'll see. But you have to watch very carefully what you say and what you do.'Adil Bey is an outsider. Newly arrived as Turkish consul at a run-down Soviet port on the Black Sea, he receives only suspicion and hostility from the locals. His one intimacy is a growing, wary relationship with his Russian secretary Sonia, who he watches silently in her room opposite his apartment. But this is Stalin's world before the war, and nothing is as it seems. Georges Simenon's most starkly political work, The People Opposite is a tour de force of slow-burn tension.'Irresistible... read him at your peril, avoid him at your loss' Sunday Times

'Quite simply a masterpiece' John Banville'I've just found a stranger in my house. In a bed on the second floor. He was dying when I got there. You're going to have to deal with it'Hector Loursat has been a drunken recluse since his wife left him eighteen years ago. Shut away in his dilapidated mansion in the small town of Moulins, he barely speaks to his daughter. But when the sound of a gunshot penetrates the padded walls of his study one night, and he discovers a body, Loursat is forced to act. No longer able to ignore the world, he determines to get to the truth of what happened, and save an innocent life.

'A brilliant portrait of betrayal, hypocrisy, love and loss' Chicago Tribune 'She tried to laugh, but was sobbing at the same time. She attempted to stand up and fell over, but she didn't shatter like the glass'Alone and adrift after losing everything in a divorce, Betty finds her life sliding dangerously out of control. When an older woman, Laure, discovers her drunk in a Paris restaurant and nurses her back to health, she is given another chance. But Betty is damaged, consumed by darkness. As the truth about her past, and her nature, emerges, it threatens to consume Laure too.Originally published in 1961, this gripping psychological thriller caused a sensation and inspired a film adaptation by Claude Chabrol. 'Dark, disturbing ... Simenon discovered something fundamental about the soul' Guardian