''Maigret on the Defensive'' (French: ''Maigret se défend'') is a 1964

detective novel Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as s ...

by the

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

writer

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 ...

featuring his character

Jules Maigret Jules Maigret (), or simply Maigret, is a fictional French police detective, a '' commissaire'' ("commissioner") of the Paris ''Brigade Criminelle'' ('' Direction Régionale de la Police Judiciaire de Paris:36, Quai des Orfèvres''), created b ...

. The novel was first published in English in 1966 by Hamish Hamilton Ltd., translated by

Alastair Hamilton Alastair Andrew Hamish Hamilton FBA (born 20 May 1941) is an English historian. Education The only son of the publisher Hamish Hamilton and his second wife Yvonne Vicino Pallavicino, Hamilton was educated at Eton College and read Modern La ...

. In 2019, this novel was reissued in English by

Penguin Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...

under the title ''Maigret Defends Himself'' (), newly translated by

Howard Curtis Howard Curtis (born 1949) is a British translator of French language, French, Italian language, Italian and Spanish language, Spanish fiction. He won the 2013 Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation for his translation from Italian o ...

Plot

Maigret responds to a call from a young woman in the middle of the night, but he then finds himself accused of raping her. He is forced to clear his name, and search for what had really taken place that night.

Adaptations

The story has been adapted several times for film and television. In 1993 it was made into an episode of an ITV ''Maigret'' series starring

Michael Gambon Sir Michael John Gambon (; born 19 October 1940) is an Irish-English actor. Regarded as one of Ireland and Britain's most distinguished actors, he is known for his work on stage and screen. Gambon started his acting career with Laurence Olivi ...

.''Maigret on the Defensive''
at

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

References

1964 Belgian novels Maigret novels Presses de la Cité books {{1960s-crime-novel-stub