SIMENON SIMENON. WHO IS MAIGRET'S CONFIDANT?

Sherlock Holmes and Watson; Hercule Poirot and Hastings. And for Maigret? 

SIMENON SIMENON. CHI È IL CONFIDENTE DI MAIGRET? 

Sherlock Holmes e Watson; Hercule Poirot e Hastings. E per Maigret? 

SIMENON SIMENON. QUI EST LE CONFIDENT DE MAIGRET ? 

Sherlock Holmes et Watson; Hercule Poirot et Hastings. Et pour Maigret ?

Does Maigret have a confidant? To answer this question, you have to examine what is the role that Watson and Hastings are playing for Holmes and Poirot. In fact, these stooges of the hero have several roles: first a role of confidant, who allows the hero to think out loud, for example to make a brilliant demonstration of his power of deduction, which is in contrast with the confidant, who is often shown as lost on the wrong track. Then the confidant is also a friend, a close relationship the hero maintains, because he is, as in the case of Holmes and Poirot, a single who has no narrow family unit in which he can flourish. And finally the confidant is also the one who tells the investigations led by his detective friend, a kind of bard for the hero. So, is there also a confidant, a friend, a bard for Maigret? 

In fact we can say that Maigret was luckier than his predecessors, because Simenon endowed him with a larger relational range. The different roles that Watson and Hastings assume are distributed among several characters in the Maigret novels.  

Does Maigret explain his intellectual approach and his reasoning? In fact we know that he is reluctant to explicit his "method" and his way to lead an investigation. Yet it doesn't prevent him from expressing his feelings, to talk about his difficulties in an investigation, and so he also needs a confidant, who can be one of his collaborators, or Dr Pardon, and above all Mme Maigret. Maigret's confidants are close relationship for him: a "doctor friend" such as Dr Pardon, with whom he can talk about medical topics; his closest collaborators who are almost his "children"; and first of all his wife, because Maigret, unlike his predecessors, is married; Holmes and Poirot stay to themselves, because their singularity and exceptionality can not be shared, whereas Maigret lives in the everyday and the ordinary.  

Does Maigret have his bard? Of course, he has one: it's Simenon himself who assumes this role. Whereas Agatha Christie often ironically describes Hercule Poirot, with a certain distance, we can note an evolution in Simenon's relationship with his hero. The author created a character he wanted to be at the same time commonplace and outstanding. In the beginning Maigret was a massive, enormous man in his forties, such as seen by a young novelist under thirty, who sometimes looked at his character with an amused eye. Then time passed and Simenon got more and more close to his hero, endowed him with his own tastes and ways to look at life. Thus he really was the bard of his character, and he didn't need to invent a Watson for Maigret, since he was responsible for telling his hero's exploits for more than 40 years... 

And finally does Maigret have his admirer, someone who never tires of discovering and being surprised at the exceptional personality of this character? Well, the answer is yes: this admirer is in fact the reader. And what if everyone among us were Maigret's Watson or Hastings? And what if, after all, Maigret's best friend were the reader?... 

by Simenon-Simenon