Talk:Georges Simenon

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WikiProject Echo has identified Georges Simenon as a foreign language featured article. You may be able to improve this article with information from the French language Wikipedia.

• This article is too obsessed with numbers, with, for such a thin bio, a strange insistence on the subject's sex life.

• • I disagree. There is a little over one line that focuses on his sex life, and nine lines involving the rest of his life. So yes, I agree, the bio is thin, but if you would like to make it thick, the talk page is not the place for it.--Methegreat 01:18, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

• • • Sex was the most important thing in his life, besides writing, so it's not strange it features the subject's bio prominently.

Contents 1 Bibliography 2 Cleanup 3 Cleanup and overhaul 4 New Section Added

[edit] Bibliography

I'm wondering, should we maybe make a list of his books? And yes, there are way too many, but we could at least try to do the maigrets, because it doesn't name any of his books, just says how many there are. If so, I can help with the effort.--Methegreat 01:11, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

The French Wikipedia has the complete list, we could copy it and add the English translations. Karl Stas 17:25, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

The problem is that some, if not most of his best books are not Maigrets (La neige etait sale, Les inconnus dans la maison, La Veuve Couderc, Le Chat, etc.). A good selection of books could be the one in the two volumes of Bibliothèque de la Pléiade (2003). The list of the Pléiade novels is the following: Le Charretier de la « Providence » - L'Affaire Saint-Fiacre - Les Fiançailles de Mr. Hire - Le Coup de lune - La Maison du canal - L'Homme qui regardait passer les trains - Le Bourgmestre de Furnes - Les Inconnus dans la maison - La Veuve Couderc - Lettre à mon juge - La Neige était sale - Les Mémoires de Maigret - La Mort de Belle - Maigret et l'homme du banc - L'Horloger d'Everton - Le Président - Le Train - Maigret et les braves gens - Les Anneaux de Bicêtre - Le Petit Saint - Le Chat Hektor 22:14, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Cleanup

I think there is much to be improved in this article. I wrote the first version, using information I basically "googled" together. Sadly, the article has hardly expanded or improved since. The facts should be checked and the style could use some polishing too. Karl Stas 17:25, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

The New York Review of Books has been reissuing a number of his novels in traslation over the past year or so. If you go to their website [1] you can see what they've put out so far. If I'm not mistaken, they're the only American english-language editions in print (I'm not sure about British editions). Thanks.--Staple 03:52, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

oops. Looks like the Maigret books are also in print here, with a different publisher...--Staple 20:43, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

• Penguin Classics UK has a number of books in print by Simenon, at least 15, maybe more. They include: The Bar on the Seine, The Man Who Watched Trains Go By, Maigret and the Idle Burglar, The Strangers in the House, The Friend of Madame Maigret, Maigret and the Ghost, My Friend Maigret, Monsieur Monde Vanishes, The Hotel Majestic, Maigret in Court, The Yellow Dog, The Man on the Boulevard, A Man's Head, Lock 14, and The Little Man from Archangel (italicized books are my preferred editions). The site is http://www.penguinclassics.co.uk/ . You can also go to http://www.amazon.co.uk/ . As a side note, I will say that I find it odd that only the original french titles of Simenon's books are mentioned on this wikipedia page... since this is the english language version of wikipedia, might it be more helpful to just use the english translations of those titles? or at least have the english language titles in addition to/alongside the french? --Johnny Panic 09:43, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cleanup and overhaul

I've just begun cleaning up and greatly expanding the article. I'm borrowing liberally from the excellent French-language Wikipedia page on Simenon. I recently read Simenon's Mémoires Intimes and hopefully remember some of it.

Another thing that needs to be looked into is just how many copies of Simenon's books were printed. This page said 1.4 billion but the French Wikipedia page said only 550 million.

--Gregory Arkadin 21:15, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New Section Added

I went ahead and added a Selected Bibliography section. Seems a bit sloppy at this point, but at least it's something, I suppose. Perhaps the section should be divided into 2 sub-sections: UK editions, and American editions, or something to that effect. If any one thinks they have a better way of doing it... Johnny Panic 11:41, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

Wouldn't "Novelist" be more accurate than merely "writer"?

Michael Donovan, 11 September 2006.