Georges Simenon’s romans durs

This post was intended as a private note, but I just thought it might be of interest to regular or sporadic readers of this blog.

Georges Simenon (1903–1989) was born in Liège, Belgium. He went to work as a reporter at the age of fifteen and in 1923 moved to Paris, where under various pseudonyms he became a highly successful and prolific author of pulp fiction while leading a dazzling social life. In the early 1930s, Simenon emerged as a writer under his own name, gaining renown for his detective stories featuring Inspector Maigret. He also began to write his psychological novels, or romans durs—books in which he displays a sympathetic awareness of the emotional and spiritual pain underlying the routines of daily life. Having written nearly two hundred books under his own name and become the best-selling author in the world, Simenon retired as a novelist in 1973, devoting himself instead to dictating several volumes of memoirs. (New York Review Books).

The books on the lists are: The Man Who Watched Trains Go By; The Strangers in the House; Dirty Snow; Three Bedrooms in Manhattan; Monsieur Monde Vanishes; Red Lights; The Engagement; The Widow; Tropic Moon; Pedigree, and Act of Passion.

To read more about Simenon’s romans durs:

A Measure of the Master: Georges Simenon’s romans durs by John McIntyre.

The Escape Artist: John Banville on Georges Simenon 

Discovering Georges Simenon by Michael Berger

Georges Simenon romans durs (in French)