, translator = , image = File:PietrLeLetton.jpg , caption = First edition , author =

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 ...

, illustrator = , cover_artist = , country =

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, language = French , series =

Inspector 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 ...

, genre = Detective fiction , publisher = A. Fayard , release_date = 1931 , english_release_date = , media_type = Print , pages = , isbn = , preceded_by = N/A , followed_by = The Crime at Lock 14 ''The Strange Case of Peter the Lett'' (french: Pietr-le-Letton) is a

1931 Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir I ...

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

. It is the first novel to feature

who would later appear in more than a hundred stories by Simenon and who has become a legendary figure in the annals of detective fiction.

Plot summary

Maigret is notified through

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cri ...

that Peter the Lett, an international fraudster and leader of the notorious Baltic Gang, is travelling to Paris. Furnished only with a description he and a squad from the Police Judiciaire plan to intercept him at the Gare du Nord. However, after seeing a man who matches the description Maigret is called to a carriage of the train to find a body, also matching the description he has. Tracking the first man to a hotel he is identified as Oswald Oppenheim, a businessman in town to meet an American, Mortimer Levington and his wife. Meanwhile, forensic examination of the body leads Maigret to the sea-side town of

Fécamp Fécamp () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in north-western France. Geography Fécamp is situated in the valley of the river Valmont, at the heart of the Pays de Caux, on the Alabaster Coast. It is aroun ...

, and to the family of Norwegian sea-captain, Olaf Swaan, another man who matches Peter's description. While staking out the house, he follows another, identical, man, an itinerant Russian, later named as Fyodor Yurevich. Maigret follows him back to Paris, to a flop-house in the

Marais district The Marais (Le Marais ; "the marsh") is a historic district in Paris, France. Having once been an aristocratic district, it is home to many buildings of historic and architectural importance. It spreads across parts of the 3rd and 4th ar ...

where he is found to live with a prostitute, Anna Gorskin. So who is Peter? A vagrant, a seaman, a businessman, a corpse? Is he Russian, Norwegian, American or Latvian? Maigret's persistence is needed to unravel the mystery and track down the real Peter.Simenon, tr. Bellos

Maigret's method

In this story, we are introduced to aspects of M's detective method. Simenon tells us that, like any other policeman, Maigret “worked with the amazing tools that men like

Bertillon Bertillon is a French surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Alphonse Bertillon (1853–1914), French police officer and biometrics researcher * Jacques Bertillon Jacques Bertillon (11 November 1851 – 4 July 1922) was a French ...

, Reiss and Locard have given the police;

anthropometry Anthropometry () refers to the measurement of the human individual. An early tool of physical anthropology, it has been used for identification, for the purposes of understanding human physical variation, in paleoanthropology and in various at ...

, the principle of the trace and so on”. But that beyond that he sought “the crack in the wall” where the tiniest flaw in a man's camouflage is allowed to slip, giving Maigret a firm grasp on his real nature (p 38). Later Simenon describes the moment when Peter's character “cracked wide open”; having observed that Peter was not merely playing a role, but “living quite different lives in alternation”, Maigret caught, in a bar-room mirror “a quiver in Pietr's lips, and an almost imperceptible contraction of his nostrils”. At that moment Maigret saw “now the guest of the Majestic, now Anna Gorskin's tormented lover” (p94-96).

Maigret's description

Simenon recalled when asked about the conception of his character, that he was sitting on his boat and imagined "a large, powerfully built gentleman I thought would make a passable inspector. As the day wore on I added other features; a pipe, a bowler hat, a thick overcoat with a velvet collar, and, as it was cold and damp, I put a cast-iron stove in his office".

Other titles

The book has been translated three times into English: In 1933, by Anthony Abbott as ''The Strange Case of Peter the Lett''; in 1963 by Daphne Woodward as ''Maigret and the Enigmatic Lett''; and in 2013 by

David Bellos David Bellos (born 1945) is an English-born translator and biographer. Bellos is Meredith Howland Pyne Professor of French Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature at Princeton University in the United States. He was director of Princeton ...

as ''Pietr the Latvian''.

Adaptations

The story has been adapted for television three times: In English in 1963 (with

Rupert Davies Rupert Davies FRSA (22 May 191622 November 1976) was a British actor. He is best remembered for playing the title role in the BBC's 1960s television adaptation of '' Maigret'', based on Georges Simenon's novels. Life and career Military s ...

in the main role); in Dutch in 1967 (

Jan Teulings Johannes Marinus Antonius (Jan) Teulings (29 May 1905 – 22 September 1989) was a Dutch actor. He appeared in more than thirty films from 1936 to 1987. Filmography References External links * 1905 births 1989 deaths Dutch film d ...

); and in French in 1972 ( Jean Richard).Film history
at trussel.com.; retrieved 15 May 2016

Notes

References

''Pietr the Latvian'' 1931; translated D Bellos 2013 Penguin Classics, London

External links

Maigret
at trussel.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Strange Case of Peter the Lett 1931 novels Maigret novels Novels set in France Novels set in the 20th century