Les Fiançailles de M. Hire
First edition | |
Author | Georges Simenon |
---|---|
Original title | Les Fiançailles de M. Hire |
Translator | Anna Moschovakis |
Language | French |
Genre | Mystery Novel |
Publisher | Éditions Fayard |
Publication date | 1933 |
Media type | |
Pages | 135 (NYRB) |
Les Fiançailles de M. Hire (Monsieur Hire's Engagement) is a short novel by Belgian writer Georges Simenon. It is one of the author's first self-described roman durs or "hard novels" to distinguish it from his romans populaires or "popular novels," which are primarily mysteries that usually feature his famous Inspector Maigret character.[1]
The novel is divided into eleven chapters, and is written using the third-person narrative mode.
Plot
Monsieur Hire, a small-time crook of Jewish origin, lives a lonely isolated life without female companionship (apart from his visits to the brothel). Unpopular with his neighbors, he becomes the ideal suspect for the murder of a young prostitute whose corpse is found in a vacant lot near his home. The police place him under 24-hour surveillance and wait for him to do anything suspicious.
Once a week, Hire is the unlikely star of a Parisian bowling club, where people think he works for the police. Apart from his passion for bowling, Hire is a peeping Tom and obsessed with the voyeuristic observation of his neighbor Alice. During his nocturnal observations, he is able to identify the perpetrator of the crime who is none other than Alice's boyfriend. Believing that Alice loves him, he does not denounce her boyfriend in order to protect her. At the moment of his arrest, with a lynch mob pursuing him, Hire takes refuge on the roof of a building but falls to his death and dies in the arms of firefighters.[2]
English language editions
Les Fiançailles de M. Hire has been translated into English twice: once by Daphne Woodward as Mr. Hire's Engagement for Hamish Hamilton in 1956, and a second time by Anna Moschovakis as The Engagement for New York Review Books in 2007.[2] The former version also appeared as The Sacrifice, comprising Mr. Hire's Engagement and Young Cardinaud as well as in one of the Simenon Omnibuses; the latter edition contains an afterword by John N. Gray.
Film and television versions
The book has been filmed four times: Panic (Panique) by Julien Duvivier in 1946, starring Michel Simon and Viviane Romance;[3] in Spanish language as Barrio by Ladislao Vajda in 1947[4] and Portuguese as Viela (Rua Sem Sol),[5] both in 1947; and as Monsieur Hire by Patrice Leconte in 1989, starring Michel Blanc and Sandrine Bonnaire.[6]
It was also dramatised for television by Donal Giltinan as 'The Suspect', one of 13 episodes in the 1966 BBC series drawn from Simenon's non-Maigret stories, Thirteen Against Fate with Marius Goring as Monsieur Hire. It was broadcast on BBC-1 on 4 September 1966.[7]
References
- ^ Simenon, Georges; Rush, Norman (2005). Tropic Moon. New York: NYRB. pp. vii. ISBN 159017111X.
- ^ a b Simenon, Georges (2007). The engagement. Anna Moschovakis, John Gray. New York: New York Review Books. ISBN 978-1-59017-228-5. OCLC 76183748.
- ^ Duvivier, Julien (1947-11-26), Panique (Crime, Drama), Filmsonor, retrieved 2021-10-17
- ^ Vajda, Ladislao (1947-11-24), Barrio (Crime, Drama), Ediciones Cinematográficas Faro, Doperfilme, retrieved 2021-10-17
- ^ Vajda, Ladislao (1947-09-19), Viela, Rua Sem Sol (Crime, Drama), Doperfilme, retrieved 2021-10-17
- ^ Leconte, Patrice, Monsieur Hire (Crime, Drama, Romance), Cinéa, Hachette Première, FR3 Films Production, retrieved 2021-10-17
- ^ https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0/20?q=Thirteen+Against+Fate%3A+The+Suspect#top
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novels
- The Strange Case of Peter the Lett (1931)
- The Crime at Lock 14 (1931)
- The Death of Monsieur Gallet (1931)
- The Crime of Inspector Maigret (1931)
- A Battle of Nerves (1931)
- Maigret and the Yellow Dog (1931)
- Maigret at the Crossroads (1931)
- The Sailors' Rendezvous (1931)
- Maigret at the Gai-Moulin (1931)
- Guinguette by the Seine (1931)
- The Shadow in the Courtyard (1932)
- Maigret Goes Home (1932)
- The Flemish Shop (1932)
- Death of a Harbour Master (1932)
- The Madman of Bergerac (1932)
- Maigret in Exile (1940)
- Maigret and the Hotel Majestic (1942)
- Maigret and the Spinster (1942)
- To Any Lengths (1944)
- Maigret and the Toy Village (1944)
- Maigret in Retirement (1947)
- Maigret in New York (1947)
- A Summer Holiday (1948)
- Maigret's Dead Man (1948)
- Maigret's First Case (1948)
- My Friend Maigret (1949)
- Maigret and the Coroner (1949)
- Maigret and the Old Lady (1950)
- Madame Maigret's Own Case (1950)
- Maigret's Memoirs (1950)
- Inspector Maigret and the Strangled Stripper (1950)
- Maigret and the Burglar's Wife (1951)
- Maigret, Lognon and the Gangsters (1951)
- Maigret's Revolver (1952)
- Maigret and the Man on the Boulevard (1953)
- Maigret's Mistake (1953)
- Maigret Goes to School (1954)
- Maigret and the Headless Corpse (1955)
- Maigret Sets a Trap (1955)
- Maigret's Failure (1956)
- Maigret Has Scruples (1958)
- Maigret and the Lazy Burglar (1961)
- Maigret and the Saturday Caller (1962)
- Maigret and the Dosser (1963)
- Maigret on the Defensive (1964)
- The Patience of Maigret (1965)
- Maigret Hesitates (1968)
- Maigret and the Killer (1969)
- Maigret and the Mad Woman (1970)
- Maigret and the Loner (1971)
- Maigret and Monsieur Charles (1972)
- Les Fiançailles de M. Hire (1933)
- The Night Club (1933)
- Tropic Moon (1933)
- Chit of a Girl (1938)
- The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By (1938)
- Le Bourgmestre de Furnes (1939)
- The Strangers in the House (1940)
- Strange Inheritance (1941)
- La Veuve Couderc (1942)
- Young Cardinaud (1942)
- Act of Passion (1946)
- The Mahé Circle (1946)
- The Couple from Poitiers (1946)
- Pedigree (1948)
- The Bottom of the Bottle (1949)
- Belle (1952)
- Red Lights (1953)
- The Watchmaker of Everton (1954)
- The Little Man from Archangel (1956)
- The Cat (1967)
- The Man on the Bench in the Barn (1968)
- The Prison (1968)
- The Disappearance of Odile (1971)
- The Glass Cage (1971)
- The Man Who Wasn't Maigret (1992 biography)