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The Greatness of Simenon
Georges Simenon, born 1903 in Liege, Belgium, has suffered from a false reputation, being considered by many as no more than an author of crime fiction and as having been too prolific for his own good. For this reason he has not been given his due by many literary critics. He was however admired and revered by many great writers and artists. Most famously Andre Gide described him as “the greatest of all, the most genuine novelist we have had in literature.” His works were praised by people as diverse a Jean Cocteau, T. S. Eliot, Henry Miller, Somerset Maugham and John Le Carre. He also had close relations with the film world, and was friends with Federico Fellini and Jean Renoir, who made the first film of a Simenon novel.
He developed a simple, clear prose style, with which he nevertheless created works of extraordinary psychological perception and provided compelling evocations of milieu and atmosphere. He probed the depths of lust, envy, resentment and lifelong obsession, but revealed without passing judgement.
His own life was as fascinating as his works. He was reputed to have moved house 37 times in his life, and he once claimed in an interview to have made love to 10,000 women. The last 23 years he spent as a recluse, with only one companion, and wrote 21 volumes of memoirs.
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