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The Man Who Watched The Trains Go By (novel)
''The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By'', first published in English in 1938, is a crime thriller by Georges Simenon about a man's rapid descent into criminality and madness following sudden financial ruination. A film adaptation was released in 1952. Plot summary Kees Popinga, a quiet, respectable Dutchman working as head clerk in Groningen becomes increasingly unhinged after discovering that his cynical employer has looted and ruined his firm and confides in him that he will fake a suicide in order to escape punishment. Accepting a large sum of money from his erstwhile employer, Popinga sets out for Amsterdam, hoping to ingratiate himself with his employer's mistress, Pamela: but she mockingly laughs in his face, infuriating him. Popinga assaults her and accidentally kills her. He then hurriedly leaves town, eventually making his way to Paris. There, every day, he buys the various newspapers which carry the story of the murder. Although Chief Inspector Lucas of the Police Judicia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Georges Simenon
Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (; 13 February 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a Belgian writer. He published nearly 500 novels and numerous short works, and was the creator of the fictional detective Jules Maigret. Early life and education Simenon was born at 26 (now number 24) to Désiré Simenon and his wife Henriette Brüll. Désiré Simenon worked in an accounting office at an insurance company and had married Henriette in April 1902. Although Simenon was born on Friday 13 February 1903, superstition resulted in his birth being registered as having been on the 12th. This story of his birth is recounted at the beginning of his novel '' Pedigree''. The Simenon family traces its origins back to Belgian Limburg. Simenon could trace his line back to peasants living in the area since as early as 1580. His mother had origins from Limburg, the Netherlands and Germany while his father was of Walloon origin.Becker, Lucille Frackman. "Georges Simenon (1903-1989)." In: Amoia, Al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crime Fiction
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, often a murder. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as historical fiction or science fiction, but the boundaries are indistinct. Crime fiction has multiple subgenres, including detective fiction (such as the whodunit), courtroom drama, hard-boiled fiction, and legal thrillers. Most crime drama focuses on crime investigation and does not feature the courtroom. Suspense and mystery are key elements that are nearly ubiquitous to the genre. History The '' One Thousand and One Nights'' (''Arabian Nights'') contains the earliest known examples of crime fiction. One example of a story of this genre is the medieval Arabic tale of "The Three Apples", one of the tales narrated by Scheherazade in the ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1938 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1938. Events *January **The John Dos Passos trilogy ''U.S.A.'' is published, containing his novels '' The 42nd Parallel'' (1930), ''1919'' (1932), and ''The Big Money'' (1936). ** Samuel Beckett is stabbed in the chest in Paris and nearly killed. *February 21 – The gay American writer and composer Paul Bowles marries the lesbian American writer Jane Auer at a Reformed Church in Manhattan. * March 7 – Samuel Beckett's first completed novel '' Murphy'' is published in London. *July 11 – The first live drama adaptation in Orson Welles' ''The Mercury Theatre on the Air'' series on CBS Radio in the United States is broadcast: Bram Stoker's '' Dracula''. *August – Muslims protest in London against passages they see as disrespectful to their religion in H. G. Wells' '' A Short History of the World'' (1922). *September 13 – The first production in Britain of a play by Bertolt Brecht, '' Mrs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hardcover
A hardcover, hard cover, or hardback (also known as hardbound, and sometimes as case-bound) book is one bound with rigid protective covers (typically of binder's board or heavy paperboard covered with buckram or other cloth, heavy paper, or occasionally leather). It has a flexible, sewn spine which allows the book to lie flat on a surface when opened. Modern hardcovers may have the pages glued onto the spine in much the same way as paperbacks. Following the ISBN sequence numbers, books of this type may be identified by the abbreviation Hbk. Hardcover books are often printed on acid-free paper, and they are much more durable than paperbacks, which have flexible, easily damaged paper covers. Hardcover books are marginally more costly to manufacture. Hardcovers are frequently protected by artistic dust jackets, but a "jacketless" alternative has increased in popularity: these "paper-over-board" or "jacketless" hardcover bindings forgo the dust jacket in favor of printing the cove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paperback
A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with adhesive, glue rather than stitch (textile arts), stitches or Staple (fastener), staples. In contrast, hardcover (hardback) books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth, leather, paper, or plastic. Inexpensive books bound in paper have existed since at least the 19th century in such forms as pamphlets, yellow-backs, yellowbacks, dime novels, and airport novels. Modern paperbacks can be differentiated from one another by size. In the United States, there are "mass-market paperbacks" and larger, more durable "trade paperbacks". In the United Kingdom, there are A-format, B-format, and the largest C-format sizes. Paperback editions of books are issued when a publisher decides to release a book in a low-cost format. Lower-quality paper, glued (rather than stapled or sewn) bindings, and the lack of a hard cover may contribute to the lower cost of paperbacks. Paperb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Groningen
Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of the country; as of December 2021, it had 235,287 inhabitants, making it the sixth largest city/municipality of the Netherlands and the second largest outside the Randstad. Groningen was established more than 950 years ago and gained city rights in 1245. Due to its relatively isolated location from the then successive Dutch centres of power (Utrecht, The Hague, Brussels), Groningen was historically reliant on itself and nearby regions. As a Hanseatic city, it was part of the North German trade network, but later it mainly became a regional market centre. At the height of its power in the 15th century, Groningen could be considered an independent city-state and it remained autonomous until the French era. Today Groningen is a university ci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Man Who Watched Trains Go By
''The Man Who Watched Trains Go By'' (1952) is a crime drama film, based on the 1938 novel by Georges Simenon and directed by Harold French. It has an all-European cast, including Claude Rains in the lead role of Kees Popinga, who is infatuated with Michele Rozier (Märta Torén). The film was released in the United States in 1953 under the title ''The Paris Express''. Plot In the Dutch city of Groningen, Kees Popinga (Claude Rains) has worked for 18 years as chief clerk and bookkeeper for a 300-year-old trading company, now run by Julius de Koster Jr. (Herbert Lom). Kees's life is comfortable but stodgy; he loves trains but has never traveled farther than Amsterdam. One day a man named Merkemans (Felix Aylmer), who had managed a company that went bankrupt due to another man's embezzlement, pleads with de Koster for a job. De Koster refuses because his own firm has too impeccable a reputation to be connected with such a scandal, and Merkemans had had the responsibility to prev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Claude Rains
William Claude Rains (10 November 188930 May 1967) was a British actor whose career spanned almost seven decades. After his American film debut as Dr. Jack Griffin in ''The Invisible Man'' (1933), he appeared in such highly regarded films as ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' (1938), '' Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'' (1939), '' The Wolf Man'' (1941), ''Casablanca'' and ''Kings Row'' (both 1942), '' Notorious'' (1946), ''Lawrence of Arabia'' (1962), and ''The Greatest Story Ever Told'' (1965). He was a Tony Award-winning actor and was a four-time nominee for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Rains was considered to be "one of the screen's great character stars" From McFarlane's ''Encyclopedia of British Film'', London: Methuen/BFI, 2003, p.545 who was, according to the ''All-Movie Guide'', "at his best when playing cultured villains". During his lengthy career, he was greatly admired by many of his acting colleagues, such as Bette Davis, Vincent Sherman, Ronald Neame, Al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Märta Torén
Märta Torén (21 May 1925 – 19 February 1957) was a Swedish stage and film actress of the 1940s and 1950s. Torén's father was a Swedish military officer, and for three years, during World War II, she was a secretary in the Swedish war office. After studying at the Stockholm Royal Dramatic Theater's Royal Dramatic Training Academy, Torén began her career on the stage and from 1947 she appeared in films. She appeared on the cover of the June 13 issue of ''Life Magazine'' in 1949. Torén appeared in 11 American film productions during her brief career. One of her roles was opposite Humphrey Bogart in ''Sirocco'' (1951), and she also co-starred with Dana Andrews in ''Assignment – Paris! ''Assignment – Paris!'' is a 1952 American Cold War film noir directed by Robert Parrish and starring Dana Andrews, Märta Torén, George Sanders and Audrey Totter. Premise Paris-based ''New York Herald Tribune'' reporter Jimmy Race (Andrews) i ...'' (1952). On Sunday February 17, 1957 s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harold French
Harold French (23 April 1897 – 19 October 1997) was an English film director, screenwriter and actor. Biography After training at the Italia Conti School, he made his acting debut age 12, in a production of ''The Winter's Tale''. As an actor, most of his roles occurred between 1912 and 1936, not gaining as much attention as later he would as a director. He worked as a screenwriter on three of the four films produced by Marcel Hellman's and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.'s production company ''Criterion Film Productions'' in the late 1930s, before switching to film direction in 1937, often with Marcel Hellman as producer. From 1940 to 1955, he had several box-office successes as director. This successful period was clouded by the 1941 death of his wife Phyllis in a Luftwaffe bombing raid. Although he did some TV work after 1955, he appears to have retired from directing and acting after 1963. He directed the hit West End play ''Out of Bounds'' starring Michael Redgrave in 1962 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1938 Belgian Novels
Events January * January 1 ** The Constitution of Estonia#Third Constitution (de facto 1938–1940, de jure 1938–1992), new constitution of Estonia enters into force, which many consider to be the ending of the Era of Silence and the authoritarian regime. ** state-owned enterprise, State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France (SNCF) and the Netherlands (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS). * January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Safinaz Zulficar, who becomes Farida of Egypt, Queen Farida, in Cairo. * January 27 – The Honeymoon Bridge (Niagara Falls), Honeymoon Bridge at Niagara Falls, New York, collapses as a result of an ice jam. February * February 4 ** Adolf Hitler abolishes the War Ministry and creates the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (High Command of the Armed Forces), giving him direct control of the German military. In addition, he dismisses political and military leaders considered unsympathetic to his philosophy or policies. Gene ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
