#georgessimenon — Public Fediverse posts

#MurderEveryMonday Nationality in the title

For today’s #MurderEveryMonday created by Kate Jackson, I decided to share L’Ombre Chinoise translated into Portuguese as The Chinese Shadow. This is number 71 from Colecção Vampiro, a book collection that started in 1949. It was a difficult to find book because it is sought after by different people: those that want to complete the collection, those that want to get George Simenon books (this is an Inspector Maigret), those that are mainly interested in the art covers by the surrealist Cândido Costa Pinto, but also those that collect Alexandre O’Neill works since this title was translated by him.

I do like Simenon’s books and writing. There is a conversation between Simenon and Ian Fleming from 1967 about the writing process, where Simenon says his publisher “has not the right to change a comma—not even to suggest to change a comma” and I think this craftsmanship he puts into the writing, the care he puts into a sentence or a word, shows in the final result. If you want to check the conversation, you can do so here.

#MurderEveryMonday “the man” or “the woman” in the title

Today’s #MurderEveryMonday theme is “the men” or “the woman” in the title. I went through the Portuguese collection Vampiro to find all the titles. We have more men than women. I’m considering the titles in Portuguese, and when different I will write the original title. Also all the titles in Portuguese have “the man” (o homem) or “the woman” (a mulher) as you can see from the photos, but when translating the Portuguese titles into English we must change the order of the words, so it makes sense.

• The powerful man – Michael Spillane (original title: The Deep)
• The man in the bed number 10 – Mary R. Rinehart (original title: The man in lower 10) – read it and liked it
• The sinister man – Edgar Wallace – read and liked it
• Maigret and the man from the bench – Georges Simenon (Maigret et L’Homme du banc) – favourite cover by the artist Lima de Freitas, not sure if I read this one, but usually like Simenon and recommend
• The shadow man – Dashiell Hammett (original title: The thin man)
• Maigret and the man with two women – Georges Simenon (original title: Liberty Bar)
• Maigret and the solitary men – Georges Simenon (original title: Maigret et L’Homme tout seul)

The man in the brown suit and The man in lower 10 were the first titles I remember could do for today’s hashtag. This book by Agatha Christie is not her usually murder mystery, but it is more on the side of adventure novels and I also like she borrowed from her trip with the British Empire Expedition.

There is less “the woman” in the collection.

• Maigret and the vanished woman – Georges Simenon (original title: Chez les flamands)
• The quiet woman – Harry Carmichael (I have read this author as Hartley Howard and liked it, I’m curious about this one. Real name: Leopold Ognall)
• The phantom woman – William Irish (original title: The phantom lady. Read this one a long time ago and liked it)
• The woman that was not missed – Dorothy Simpson (original title: Dead and gone. Can’t remember if I ever read Simpson, although the name rings a bell).

Back to your covers. If you want to participate in #MurderEveryMonday check Kate’s post here.

#AgathaChristie #BookLook #books #classicCrime #ColecçãoVampiro #CrimeFiction #GeorgesSimenon #MurderEveryMonday #readings