The Pitards
  • Published: 31 August 2017
  • ISBN: 9780241299906
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 160

The Pitards

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EBook
31 Aug 2017
Paperback
7 Mar 2019
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A superb new translation by David Bellos of Simenon's haunting, little-known masterpiece

After many years spent at sea, Captain Lannec finally manages to buy his own vessel, but not without the financial help of his in-laws, the Pitards. In return, his wife insists on accompanying him on the ship's first voyage and her presence on board makes him feel increasingly uneasy, especially after the threatening anonymous note he received before setting sail from Rouen.

First published in 1935, The Pitards was one of the first novels Simenon wrote when he shelved his famous Maigret series in order to strike out in a new direction and make a name for himself as a literary writer rather than a creator of genre fiction. This captivating evocation of life at sea revolves around the claustrophobia of class snobbery and the tense unravelling of relationships conducted at close quarters, powerful themes that Simenon would return to throughout his writing career.
  • Published: 31 August 2017
  • ISBN: 9780241299906
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 160
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About the author

Georges Simenon

Georges Simenon was born in Liège, Belgium, in 1903. He is best known in Britain as the author of the Maigret novels and his prolific output of over 400 novels and short stories have made him a household name in continental Europe. He died in 1989 in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he had lived for the latter part of his life.

Also by Georges Simenon

The Widow Couderc
The Hatter's Ghosts
The New Investigations of Inspector Maigret
The Venice Train
The People Opposite
The Strangers in the House
Betty
See all

Praise for The Pitards

One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century...Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by the brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories.

Guardian

Fierce, bleak and compellingly written . . . with pitiless landscapes of hopeless longing, random cruelty and galloping fate warmed only by the twilit lyricism of doomed desire. These are novels of eye-opening, spine-tingling control and intensity.

Boyd Tonkin, The Independent

The romans durs are extraordinary: tough, bleak, offhandedly violent, suffused with guilt and bitterness, redolent of place . . . utterly unsentimental, frightening in the pitilessness of their gaze, yet wonderfully entertaining.

John Banville

A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness.

Independent

One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequaled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories

Guardian

Fierce, bleak and compellingly written . . . with pitiless landscapes of hopeless longing, random cruelty and galloping fate warmed only by the twilit lyricism of doomed desire. These are novels of eye-opening, spine-tingling control and intensity.

Boyd Tonkin, The Independent

The romans durs are extraordinary: tough, bleak, offhandedly violent, suffused with guilt and bitterness, redolent of place . . . utterly unsentimental, frightening in the pitilessness of their gaze, yet wonderfully entertaining

John Banville