Une confidence de Maigret

Commissaire Maigret first appeared in four popular novels published by the author under the pseudonyms Georges Sim or Christian Brulls. These novels are excluded from the official “Maigret” cycle because Simenon established — notably in 1975, a period when he fiercely suppressed any work predating 1931 — a distinction between his illegitimate output (works published under pseudonyms) and his recognized output (works published under his own name).

The “official cycle” comprises 75 novels, 4 collections of short stories and 28 short stories (published in periodicals); 50 of these novels were published by Presses de la Cité, whose formats went through four different presentations. Beginning with Maigret voyage (published in December 1957), the presentation became standardized, with a uniform colored background against which the author’s silhouette appears in profile, wearing a hat and smoking a pipe, from which — extending onto the front cover — rings of smoke escape containing the author’s name and the title. All titles in this series were issued as numbered first editions printed on fine paper, with the deluxe and ordinary printings sharing the same achevé d’imprimer.