Maigret
Encyclopedia : M : MA : MAI : Maigret
Jules Maigret, known as (Commissaire) Maigret to most people, including his wife, is a fictional police detective, created by writer Georges Simenon.
Some of his trademark features are his pipes, his mixed approach to detecting (at times relying on pure intuition, at times on method) and his tendency to pop into small cafes or bars to have several alcoholic beverages.
The Commissaire was supposedly born 1884 in Saint-Fiacre, although different birth dates can be concluded from different books. He is married to Louise, but she is almost exclusively referred to as Madame Maigret in the books. They have no children.
As with most protagonists in detective fiction, he is usually successful. His sidekicks are not portraited as mindless puppets only there to contrast with the brilliance of Maigret as is often the case; instead, that role is reserved for the public prosecutor of more frequently the Juge d'instruction or Examining Magistrate.
Seventy-five novels and twenty-eight shorter stories about Maigret were published between 1931 and 1972, starting with Pietr-le-Leton (The Case of Peter the Lett) and concluding with Maigret et Monsieur Charles (Maigret and Monsieur Charles).
Television adaptations
-->There have been numerous incarnations of Maigret on the small screen all around the world. He has been portrayed by French, British, Irish, Austrian, Dutch, German and Japanese actors.
Arguably, the most celebrated French version of Maigret is Bruno Cremer, who has played him in more than 40 adaptations, though Jean Richard had an earlier long-running series playing the character on French television.
The most familiar British version of the Chief Inspector was played by Rupert Davies. He starred in more than 50 adaptations for BBC TV in the 1960s. His portrayal won two of the highest accolades: his versions were dubbed into French and played across the channel; and Simenon himself presented Davies with a novel inscribed to his "perfect Maigret".
The British television channel ITV produced an adaptation of Maigret in 1992, in which Michael Gambon starred as Maigret. A less successful earlier version on ITV cast Richard Harris in the lead role, with a somewhat idiosyncratic reading of the character.
External links
- [ITV website]
- [Simenon's Maigret] (bibliography, statistics, online texts, links)
- [Maigret (television series)] at the Internet Movie Database
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.