round shapes in the field

Since a few decades I sometimes get enthustiastic about the late fifties and early sisties Maigret books by George Simenon and Dick Bruna. Zwarte Beertjes I mean, and specially the oldest versions, when Dick Bruna really tried to make powerful cover illustrations. When Zwarte Beertjes still had the old logo: a remarkably white Zwart Beertje (the Dutch name of the publishing house means little black bears).

Peter Bekkers, the other author, has built a bookcase right across our toilet on the first floor, and on the toiletside I filled this bookcase with the Maigrets, that had been hidden in a moving box for about five years or more. So lately I often use the toilet on the first floor, rerereading the Maigrets (I possess seventy of them). Terrebly wrong (sexist) books, of course.

Simenon is said to be  a great psychologist. This is Simenon's psychology: a hard working lower class man meets a sensual ('ronde vormen': round shapes) woman. The woman is quickly bored, trapped in a marriage, and, sensual as she is, meets in several Paris hotels her criminal lovers ('jongens van de vlakte': boys from the field). Maigret understands this. The innocent covers by children's book illustrator Dick Bruna are totally unfit. That is the genius of the late fifties and early sisties Maigret books (the oldest versions, anyway).