A delightful tale of Christmas in the Maigret household. Try as he might, Jules Maigret can't stay in bed on the holiday, but he does pretend to be asleep when Madame Maigret slips out to pick up hot croissants from the shop nearby. Both were hoping to "spend a quiet morning cocooned in their apartment" on Boul. Richard-Lenoir. It wasn't to be. Before the first cup of coffee has been fully consumed, there's a knock on the door. Two women from across the street need his help. At first glance, it doesn't seem to be a professional matter, but something odd happened in the Martin apartment. Pere Noel / Father Christmas may have actually visited the bedroom of 7 year-old Colette Martin. The word "delightful" fits her too! A month or so ago, she injured her leg and is currently confined to bed, but she does have a new doll. Can her story of this visit be true? Could Maigret please come to see Colette and offer us all an explanation? Librarian's note #1: this story has two English titles, "A Maigret Christmas," and "Maigret's Christmas." Librarian's note #2: this entry is for the individual story noted in librarian's note #1. Entries for collections of short stories by the author, including those in which the title story is the feature, can be found elsewhere on Goodreads. All Maigret short stories can be found by searching Goodreads for "a Jules Maigret Short Story."
Author
Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (1903 – 1989) was a Belgian writer. A prolific author who published nearly 500 novels and numerous short works, Simenon is best known as the creator of the fictional detective Jules Maigret. Although he never resided in Belgium after 1922, he remained a Belgian citizen throughout his life. Simenon was one of the most prolific writers of the twentieth century, capable of writing 60 to 80 pages per day. His oeuvre includes nearly 200 novels, over 150 novellas, several autobiographical works, numerous articles, and scores of pulp novels written under more than two dozen pseudonyms. Altogether, about 550 million copies of his works have been printed. He is best known, however, for his 75 novels and 28 short stories featuring Commissaire Maigret. The first novel in the series, Pietr-le-Letton, appeared in 1931; the last one, Maigret et M. Charles, was published in 1972. The Maigret novels were translated into all major languages and several of them were turned into films and radio plays. Two television series (1960-63 and 1992-93) have been made in Great Britain. During his "American" period, Simenon reached the height of his creative powers, and several novels of those years were inspired by the context in which they were written (Trois chambres à Manhattan (1946), Maigret à New York (1947), Maigret se fâche (1947)). Simenon also wrote a large number of "psychological novels", such as La neige était sale (1948) or Le fils (1957), as well as several autobiographical works, in particular Je me souviens (1945), Pedigree (1948), Mémoires intimes (1981). In 1966, Simenon was given the MWA's highest honor, the Grand Master Award. In 2005 he was nominated for the title of De Grootste Belg (The Greatest Belgian). In the Flemish version he ended 77th place. In the Walloon version he ended 10th place.
