Pietr the Latvian: Inspector Maigret #1 - Softcover

Simenon, Georges

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141392738 ISBN 13: 9780141392738

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2013

Synopsis

The first novel which appeared in Georges Simenon's famous Maigret series, in a gripping new translation by David Bellos.

Not that he looked like a cartoon policeman. He didn't have a moustache and he didn't wear heavy boots. His clothes were well cut and made of fairly light worsted. He shaved every day and looked after his hands.
But his frame was proletarian. He was a big, bony man. His firm muscles filled out his jacket and quickly pulled all his trousers out of shape.

He had a way of imposing himself just by standing there. His assertive presence had often irked many of his own colleagues.

In Simenon's first novel featuring Maigret, the laconic detective is taken from grimy bars to luxury hotels as he traces the true identity of Pietr the Latvian.

This novel has been published in previous translations as The Case of Peter the Lett and Maigret and the Enigmatic Lett.

'Compelling, remorseless, brilliant' John Gray

'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century' Guardian

About this title

Review:

Praise for Georges Simenon:

"One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequaled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories." --The Guardian

"These Maigret books are as timeless as Paris itself." --The Washington Post

"Maigret ranks with Holmes and Poirot in the pantheon of fictional detective immortals." --People

"I love reading Simenon. He makes me think of Chekhov." --William Faulkner

"The greatest of all, the most genuine novelist we have had in literature." --André Gide

"A supreme writer . . . Unforgettable vividness." --The Independent (London)

"Superb . . . The most addictive of writers . . . A unique teller of tales." --The Observer (London)

"Compelling, remorseless, brilliant." --John Gray

"A truly wonderful writer . . . Marvelously readable--lucid, simple, absolutely in tune with the world he creates." --Muriel Spark

"A novelist who entered his fictional world as if he were a part of it."lle --Peter Ackroyd

"Extraordinary masterpieces of the twentieth century." --John Banville

About the Author:

Georges Simenon (Author)
Georges Simenon was born in Liège, Belgium, in 1903. He is best known in Britain as the author of the Maigret novels and his prolific output of over 400 novels and short stories have made him a household name in continental Europe. He died in 1989 in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he had lived for the latter part of his life.

David Bellos (Translator)
David Bellos is Meredith Howland Pyne Professor of French Literature at Princeton University, where he also teaches Comparative Literature. He is the author of many books and articles on nineteenth-century fiction, alongside biographies of three icons of French culture in the twentieth century: Georges Perec, Jacques Tati and Romain Gary. He is also a well-known translator and the author of Is That a Fish in Your Ear? The Amazing Adventure of Translation. David Bellos was recently awarded the rank of officier in the Ordre National des Arts et des Lettres for his services to French culture.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0141392738
• ISBN 13: 9780141392738
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176