The Cat

Publisher Penguin Classics have to be applauded for keeping the prolific Belgian author Georges Simenon in print, as well as commissioning new translations of his older works; the most recent of which is The Cat, first published in French [as Le Chat] in 1967.

Though most renowned for his Detective Jules Maigret, who investigated crimes concealed behind the vagaries of human nature, puffing at his trade mark pipe - it is perhaps his novels termed “Romans durs” (his ‘Hard Novels’) which are the most interesting. The Cat, being one of his most intriguing ‘Roman durs’. Simenon embarked the writing of these psychological thrillers in an attempt to secure a Nobel Prize for literature (which he sadly never received).

The plot of The Cat is simple enough. Elderly Parisian Emile Bouin and his wife Marguerite share a house in which they appear at war with each other. They communicate by exchanging hand-written notes as neither wishes to talk following the poisoning of Emile’s beloved Joseph – the pet that gives the novel its title and the focus of their emotional disharmony.

Both had been happily married before, but became lonely widowers in their seventies. As they were neighbours in a cul-de-sac, they married [out of convenience] with Emile moving into Marguerite’s house with his beloved Cat, Joseph. That’s when the problems start between Emile’s new wife and her own pet, a silent Parrot named Coco. Though they appear to have grown to hate each other, the narrative weaves symptoms of marital strife into a black comedy of errors. It appears that Emile is from a ‘working man’ background, which Marguerite considers coarse as she does of his former [and late] wife Angele. She on the other hand considers herself refined [perhaps petite bourgeois]. Her former [and late] husband was a concert violinist and music teacher; and her late father a business owner of a renowned biscuit factory.

In parallel to their marital strife, a new block of flats is being erected opposite. As construction work intensifies in their cul-de-sac, their relationship fractures until Emile moves out of their home. The question posed as this slim volumes closes is whether they can live with or without each other?

A short examination into human nature and how a domestic situation distorts with age and circumstance – Simenon’s novel is at times funny, and at other times tragic – but at all times – engaging and insightful.

What I enjoy about the author’s work is his economy in telling a story where the plot unspools as the characters unravel and in-concert.  

Perhaps not for everyone, but I found The Cat beautiful.  

Notes from the Editor

Translated into English by Ros Schwartz

More information about Georges Simenon from Barry Forshaw is available from his insightful book “SIMENON: The Man, The Books, The Films”