The New Black Mask (No 6)

Georges Simenon: An Interview

Simenon (he long ago reached the level of eminence that renders honorifics superfluous) was born in Liège, Belgium, in 1903, and writes in French. His most famous creation, Inspector Maigret, first appeared in 1931; but the many Maigret stories account for a relatively small portion of the bountiful Simenon canon. His work is superbly readable because — among other qualities — of its economy and pace. He has pared his prose to its essentials. Beyond readability, he provides accurate observation of behavior: what his characters do is what they are.

Simenon agreed to answer questions for New Black Mask in writing, explaining: “I am in the habit of writing ‘short.’ But I am incapable of long dissertations.”

NBM: Certain critics insist that every great novelist has his own narrative “voice,” and that this voice provides the defining quality of his prose. If you agree with this claim, please describe your prose voice. Is it consistent or does it vary with the different types of your novels?

Simenon: Naturally, every novelist has his own style. I have always tried to make mine as simple as possible, with a minimum of adjectives and adverbs, a minimum of abstract words which have a different resonance for each reader. I use a maximum of mots matière.

The rhythm alone varies according to the subject, sometimes from one chapter to another.

NBM: Are your characters’ lives determined by forces — hereditary and environmental — over which they have no control? Or do you allow them the chance to alter their destinies?

Simenon: Very few people are capable of changing their destinies, but heredity, environment, and even climatic conditions play an important part in human behavior. A discussion between husband and wife on a lovely spring day will not have the same violence as in oppressive and thundery weather.

NBM: You have said that the purpose of your revisions is to remove the “literary” sentences. Yet you admire William Faulkner’s work. Isn’t he a highly literary writer?

Simenon: Faulkner was not considered as such when he started, so much so that he had to work in Hollywood to make a living, and if he was largely published and acclaimed in France, he had to discuss no end with his American publishers.

“Style is the reflection of man,” and Faulkner was a most complicated person. Fortunately for us.

NBM: Most of your worldwide readers know your work only in translation and so have read Simenon filtered through someone else. What rules would you like your translators to obey?

Simenon: To safeguard my simplicity. Which is difficult, as for instance in Italian.

NBM: Are there elements in your work that are untranslatable?

Simenon: It depends on the languages... and on the translators.

NBM: What qualities should your ideal reader possess?

Simenon: To read without trying to analyze.

NBM: When you were writing a novel, were you consciously aware of technique — or did the material shape your technique?

Simenon: I have always searched after simplicity. Boileau wrote: When you want to say it rains, say: “It rains.”

NBM: Did you see your characters’ faces as you wrote about them? Did you deliberately collect or save the faces that you observed?

Simenon: I have collected, or rather, unconsciously recorded, living characters which I used, sometimes years later.

NBM: As the most widely read living author, do you feel that your work has “universal qualities”? If so, what are the qualities that cut across the borders, languages, and cultures?

Simenon: Simplicity? Sincerity? I just don’t know.

NBM: If you were beginning your career in 1985 what kinds of novels would you try to write?

Simenon: I don’t know. Probably the same.