In honor of Bastille Day, a little reminder that France has had its own important contributions to crime fiction. One of the earliest and certainly most colorful figures was Eugène François Vidocq (1775-1857) who started out as a thief and police informer and eventually became the first head of the Sûreté (the French police Force). He also had a rather gigantic ego, as evidenced by his autobiograpy which was titled Vidocq; Personal Memoirs of the First Great Detective.
In reality the first French fictional investigator is probably Monsieur Lecoq who made his first appearance in the book The Widow Lerouge (1864) by Emile Gaboriau, who also wrote several mysteries using Lecoq or another protagonist (Pére Tabaret, formerly a pawnbroker's clerk) who was an amateur detective. Although inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, Gaboriau's lasting influence may have been the fact he in turn inspired Arthur Conan Doyle in creating Sherlock Holmes.
Probably the first French-speaking novelist to portray a cop who is fairly ordinary was Georges Simenon (1903-1989) who is not French by birth, but Belgian, although his famous fictional Inspector Maigret worked the streets of Paris. Possibly the most prolific mystery writer of all time (although that may be a topic for another blog), Simenon published 200 novels, 150 novellas, autobiographical works, articles, and numerous pulp novels written under more than two dozen pseudonyms. A total of 75 novels and 28 short stories featured Maigret.
The 20th century had other French writers in the mystery and crime fiction genres, especially after the suspense novel began to grow in France around the middle part of the century. Authors like Boileau-Narcejac (the pen name of 2 co-writers, actually) had several novels turned into very famous films, such as Vertigo by Hitchcock or Les Diaboliques by Clouzot.
Sébastien Japrisot (1931-2003) was an author, screenwriter and film director, whose crime fiction works include Trap for Cinderella, The Sleeping-Car Murders, One Deadly Summer, and A Very Long Engagement, several of which have been translated into English, in case your French isn't particularly proficient (and, with apologies to my high school French teacher, that would include me).
Jean-Christophe Grangé is even more contemeporary and has a huge following in France, with at least two of his novels available in English: The Flight of the Storks (2001) and The Crimson Rivers (2001).
As with any topic or subgenre in crime fiction, the list of mysteries and crime fiction titled either written by French authors or set in France is fairly extensive, so if you'd like to settle down with a good glass of chablis and some Brie, check out the resource lists on the Tulsa Library List, WhereDunnit and Reader's Advice web sites of books that are mostly set in France (such as Cara Black's Aimee Leduc series). For a brief historical overview of French authors, G.J. Demko's Landscapes of Crime may be helpful, or a book like Detective Fiction by Charles J. Rzepka.
FYI, the term "roman noir" originates in the use of black book covers used early for published mysteries in France, but as Demko points out, the title fits French literary tastes well in that the French are attracted to issues about the dark side of society in their fiction.
Many thanks for honoring France and French mysteries. Some of this stuff is new to me.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Peter | July 14, 2008 at 07:30 PM