The Bar on the Seine [Paperback]

That he doth work with his adulterate money on the Seine." Dante. The Divine Comedy

"The Bar of the Seine" begins with a curious conversation between Inspector Maigret and a prisoner, Lenoir, sitting in a cell on death-row in a Parisian jail. Lenoir's execution has been set for dawn on the next day and for Maigret, the person responsible for the capture and conviction of the prisoner, this visit is something of a courtesy call. During their conversation Lenoir tells Maigret about an unsolved murder. The only real information he provides is that some unidentified bar on the River Seine would lead Maigret in the right direction. As Maigret takes his leave of Lenoir he does not take the train to meet his wife at their summer vacation spot. Instead, he defers his vacation and sets out to investigate.

Maigret finds the bar in short order and walks into a world where a slice of the Parisian middle-class comes for its rather tawdry summer weekends. Drinking, cards, boating on the Seine and indiscriminate bed-hopping are the order of the day. There has also been a murder and, as befits a story planted so firmly in the detective genre, Maigret brushes aside all distractions to solve the mystery handed to him by a condemned man.

Georges Simenon was the author of over 100 Inspector Maigret mystery stories. They were immensely popular in the 1930s through the 1960s. Inspector Maigret stories also appeared in film and TV version. Penguin Books has begun to reissue a set of Maigret mysteries. "The Bar on the Seine", one of Simenon's earlier Maigret stories, is a good place to start.

Simenon's writing is sparse and to the point. This is a short book, 154 rather small pages, and can be read in one or two sittings. But despite its brevity this reader felt engaged not only by the characters (Maigret in particular) but the settings. Simenon doesn't tell you what to think of any particular character nor does he engage in lengthy discussions on his protagonists' morality or character. He simply paints a very evocative picture and leaves the analysis for the reader.

Simenon's Maigret stories, although faithful to the detective story formula of his time, manages to hold up better over time for me than others. I think that what sets Simenon's Maigret stories apart from those of his contemporaries is the character of Maigret and down to earth settings of the stories. Maigret is not a character that is revealed to the reader immediately. Simenon doesn't set about to provide you with a character map to Maigret's personality in any one book. Rather, he grows on you over time. He has an innate disdain for higher authority that is appealing. Simenon's settings and other characters also add a dash to his Maigret mysteries. These are not parlor room mysteries where the reader has to determine which upper-class member of the gentry (or the butler) committed murder most foul in the library.

Anyone interested in a good story, simply told should enjoy Bar on the Seine. L. Fleisig

The Bar on the Seine is translated by David Watson from a 1931 book called La Guingette a Deux Sous. It has previously been translated in 1940 by Geoffrey Sainsbury, and published variously in English as Guingette by the Seine, A Spot by the Seine, and Maigret and the Tavern by the Seine.

Maigret visits a gangster who is about to be executed, and the man hints that he knew of a murderer, from 6 years before, who frequented a bar called La Guingette a Deux Sous. Maigret has little luck finding this, until he stumbles across a man who mentions his plan to visit this tavern -- a man who, Maigret learns, is also arranging as assignation with his mistress. Maigret finds his way to the tavern, where he finds the man (a successful coal merchant) with his wife, and also the man's mistress and her husband, a struggling haberdasher, and a varied cast of characters, including a talkative heavy-drinking Englishman, and several more folks. It seems the mistress is a rackety woman who has had affairs with several of the regulars at this tavern -- and that her husband has used this knowledge to blackmail some of her lovers. So it is perhaps not a surprise when the sorry blackmailer is shot -- and when his wife's latest lover, the coal merchant, is found with a gun.

The man escapes, and Maigret tries to track him down. Meanwhile the Englishman strikes up a relationship of sorts with Maigret, while at the same time all but flaunting his attempts to help the escaped coal merchant. And Maigret learns some of the details of the haberdasher's arrangements, including his involvement with a moneylender who disappeared, significantly, six years before -- just when the gangster Maigret had talked to had hinted at knowledge of a murder. Maigret is very dissatisfied with the obvious shape of the case -- something is going on. Which of course he discovers. What works -- quite brilliantly -- in this book, one of the earliest Maigrets, is the eventually displayed, quite convincing, quite sad, character of the actual murderer. Some of the early Maigrets seem uncharacteristic of the series to me -- Maigret is at times almost an action hero -- but in this case the story reads very much like later Maigret, with the main interest being the psychology of the murderer and other related figures.

"The Bar on the Seine" is an early Inspector Maigret mystery and a very tale story indeed! The story itself--the investigation of a six-year old murder that leads to a second killing as Maigret skeptically begins a look at the earlier crime--is well told and keeps the reader turning pages until the end. But along the way, the details of daily life in Paris and the social interactions of Parisians are presented in such specific detail and so convincingly that it is like reading a newspaper of the period.

"The Bar" is a wonderful small novel and a terrific read. This book is part of a Penguin reprint of some of the Maigret stories (of which there are 75 novels and many stories). I will be among many who will attempt to read them all.

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