SIMENON SIMENON. LE MEDECIN DE CAMPAGNE ET LE FLIC DE VILLE
Convergences et divergences entre le petit Docteur Dollent et le Commissaire Maigret.
SIMENON SIMENON. I MEDICO DI CAMPAGNA E IL POLIZIOTTO DI CITTA'
Analogie e differenze tra il petit Docteur Dollent e il commissario Maigret
The
captain of a luxury liner begs our Little Doctor to solve a crime and
lets him name his own price. Even Anna, his ever-critical housekeeper,
respects this commission. One will enjoy how Simenon gives us his
version of a ‘locked room mystery’ in which a man is murdered aboard a
quarantined cruise ship no one can board or leave. Popaul, a wealthy
white commercial forester, has cruised from Africa to Bordeaux side by
side with Victor Hugo, a black employee from the lowest class. (The
chosen title Popaul and his Negro could have been Popaul and his Slave.
Racial denigration is prominent in this story.)
Ostentatious
Popaul throws a big party for all the passengers, only to suddenly rush
off to his stateroom. Minutes later, a steward finds him, shot in the
back, dead on the cabin floor, and Miss Ladilier, one of Popaul’s
admirers despite her father’s warnings, is standing beside the body, gun
in hand. Hugo is nowhere to be found. Once Dollent learns that Popaul
had left Africa for good and taken his fortune with him, he projects the
victim was guarding his wallet while his man was guarding the luggage.
The wallet is missing and the suitcases contain no riches, so who has
the money now? Our detective studies the passenger list and cockily
predicts a solution in 24 hours.
Apprehended on the mainland,
Hugo says he was in the cabin’s bathroom and came out to find his boss
dead. In a panic, he jumped through a porthole and swam ashore.
Believing this claim of innocence and deducing the lost wallet holds the
key to the case, Dollent digs deeper. Suspecting premeditated murder
rather than passionate manslaughter, the doctor/detective engineers a
scheme that lures the killer out.
Not only does this tale involve
more wrinkles and intrigues than the preceding seven cases in The
Little Doctor collection, but it also expands Little Doctor Dollent’s
character—inviting more comparisons with Chief Inspector Maigret. First
of all, although Dollent drinks alcohol throughout the case, he is
definitely not like Maigret since he specifically states: “I must say,
Captain, I never drink… …except during my investigations, for then there
is always one reason or another to swallow something.” Second, Dollent
enjoys sitting in the liner’s lap of luxury, schmoozing with high
society, sipping fine whiskey, smoking fancy cigars, and dining
first-class whereas
Maigret never was and would never be comfortable in similar settings.
Finally, the doctor/detective delights in the way he can gently and
subtly “juggle people’s destinies.” Does this sound like our well-known
“Mender of Destinies” or not?
David P Simmons
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