Les Nolépitois. Nouvelle

This short story was written in Echandens in December 1962. It appeared only once, serialized in issues no. 901 and 902 of the magazine Elle, dated 29 March and 5 April 1963. No manuscript exists: like many of Simenon’s postwar writings, the story was typed directly. The original typescript has been lost, and no copy survives, either in the Fonds familial Simenon or the Fonds Simenon in Liège. Our document is the only facsimile of that typescript, with extensive corrections. It is unrecorded by Menguy and absent from every bibliography devoted to Simenon, including that of Yves Martina, the most complete to date.

It includes an unpublished dedication leaf addressed to his wife Denise, who “one morning told me a dream of pure poetry […]. No one, except her and me, will ever know the true story of Nolépitois and the Nolépitoise…”

A single edition of this story was produced in 1999, in 26 copies, “aux dépens d’un amateur” [Michel Schepens], based on the text as published in Elle magazine; the prefatory dedication does not appear in it.

We include the two issues of Elle magazine (no. 901 and 902) in which the story was published.

Provenance: the library of Bernard de Fallois — almost certainly a gift from Simenon, who gave him several other typescripts and rare editions.

Menguy, 216 (for the edition published in Elle); Martina, p. 1585 and following.