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The Blue Room Paperback – January 1, 2002

by Georges Simenon (Author)

4.2 469 ratings

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Vain, womanising Tony and passionate, manipulative Andree met eight times in eleven months in the blue room at the Hotel des Voyageurs for afternoons of abandoned love. For Tony the conversation that last time was just the casual, almost banal, talk of lovers. But for Andree it was something else. And it led inevitably to an appalling double murder, and a nightmare, which Tony couldn't escape.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ orion mass market paperback (november 21, 2002) (January 1, 2002)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 144 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0752853805
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0752853802
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.3 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.08 x 0.59 x 7.8 inches

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4.2 469 ratings

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Georges Simenon

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Georges Simenon is one of the most addictive and bestselling European authors of the 20th Century. His work consists of 391 titles, and he is best known as the creator of the fictional detective series consisting of 75 books featuring Inspector Maigret, translated into more than 50 languages and sold in more than 50 countries. There are over 800 million Simenon books sold worldwide and he is the most translated French speaking author of the 20th century and the second most translated author of all time in Italy after Shakespeare.

'A writer who, more than any other crime novelist, combined a high literary reputation with popular appeal' P.D. James

'My readings? I read Tout Simenon, and when I'm done, I start all over again' Claude Chabrol

Discover the Simenon community:

@SimenonUK

http://georgessimenon.co.uk/

http://simenon.com/

http://www.inspectormaigret.com/

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Bleak House

An exquisite, masterful novel

Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2021

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This is the third time I’ve read this novel. It is stunning. It is a crime novel elevated to high literary artistry. We begin the story in a hotel room with Tony and his illicit girlfriend, Andree. They are having a conversation about leaving their spouses to be together all the time. On the third page we find that Tony is reminiscing as he is being questioned by a magistrate. The story then goes back and forth in time. We know that Tony has been arrested and is being questioned, but we don’t know why. And we won’t know the answer until the final pages of the book. Simenon is artful in his handling of these scenes which are juxtaposed against each other. The reader never loses his or her grasp as to the differentiations of the timeline. This is really exquisite.

Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2016

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It is a thriller about a man that who becomes lover of a women that went to the school with him. He is married but not happy with it. The whole thing goes wrong and there are consequences. Just read it, because is very well written.

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Karen with a Kindle

Good story, laid out strangely

Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2021

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This was my first Simenon, and I couldn't help but notice similarities between the main character of this story and Camus' The Outsider. Tony seemed on auto-pilot or in a daze a lot of the time, both with the mistress and with the wife. He seemed quite emotionless, to not have a lot of highs and lows. I got the sense that he took life as it came without a lot of direction or enthusiasm one way or another, as though decisions were meaningless because what was going to happen was beyond his control. I could almost hear the Camus character's voice in Tony, saying "I suppose so, but I don't really care."

I can't say it was unpredictable, since we know from the very first what happened. It wasn't a long book, and normally I would have finished this off in an evening. But the reason I didn't is because of the one of the things that annoyed me about the book, which was jumping around chronologically. We start out during the last day of their relatively short (only eight meetings in 11 months) affair. Then he's in prison and we see him speaking to the psychologist about it, then back to the meeting with Andrée in the hotel. Then he is being examined by the magistrate. And the story line jumped like that between the encounter with the mistress, to time with the family, to a prison psychologist, to the day when the affair began, to the magistrate, etc. And while were jumping between these scenes, we were also privy to his thoughts at those times. And it was only closer to the end with his arrest and court appearance where it seemed to move more chronologically.

Perhaps this was by design, because with each move back and forth in the story, we learned something more about the events that brought him here and about Tony himself, and his jumbled and often confused thought process and self-examination. As he says "How different life is when one is living it from when one picks through it later on."

I couldn't muster up much sympathy for him, although I found him interesting in his peculiarity. I found him strangely without deep passion or emotion. The reasons for some of his actions, such as lying about the letters he got, made no sense to me. He says at one time that until this affair, he had never had any other serious ones. Then in several other places, he talks about numerous other affairs he'd had, which he makes no apologies or excuses for, and rationalizes as "all men are like that". He seemed to have no real attachment for any of them, even for Andrée outside of the moment. His proclamation of love was in an offhand "sure, why not" response to the words she put in his mouth. He seemed to have no real love for his wife -- he married her because she'd be a good housewife. He'd had no interest in Andrée when he knew her before -- and when he finally did, it seemed to be less passion than an impulsive "seemed like a good idea at the time" reaction. Even then, his passion seemed to just completely evaporate on the day when he spotted Andrée's husband from the window of their room. From then on, as he ignored and avoided her, any passion for her he may have had (certainly not love) was replaced by mistrust and the feeling that this was a bad mistake. He seemed absolutely uncommitted to anything in life, with the possible exception of his daughter.

With the officials after his arrest, his answers seemed so tentative and confused (a lot of "I don't know" answers), he seemed to be emotionally shut down. He couldn't explain his behavior enough to defend himself, he couldn't explain the "coincidences" pointed out by the magistrate that made him look guilty. To me as a reader, he DID appear guilty. He seemed to have given up any interest in defending himself, and was just willing to let the chips fall where they may. The last line was chilling, but not unexpected. He should have seen this coming.

I think I would have enjoyed this more had it been laid out more chronologically. The plot was interesting, if predictable and certainly not unique; and the characters were interesting, if unlikable. It was just difficult to keep jumping back and forth over the timeline of the story.

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Terry M. Mcleod

One of his best!

Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2024

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While I haven't gotten into Simenon's novels about the detective Maigret, I have read - and enjoyed - several to many of his "psychological" novels over the years. This is definitely one of his best and I highly recommend it as a good place to start if you are new to the author Andre Gide called, "The greatest of all"!

Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2019

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I'm a bit of a broken record on Simenon.I feel compelled to point out every time I read him that it's amazing that such a prolific writer was able to turn out so many good books and this is one.I'd say Simenon specializes in traps and cages often of ones own devise.Here the protoganist is completely destroyed by the actions of a woman he's had an affair with.He's not an especially good or likeable person and he certainly got himself into to this mess but you feel sorry for him because he could never have imagined life getting this crazy.The book is set in a France that i gather still existed in the early sixties- rural and very provincial but viable and even robust.I think things have changed a bit and not for the good.

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Howard Mandel

Highly recommended to Simenon fans

Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2016

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This is the subtlest and most penetrating of the several Simenon "novel durs" I've read. Often the author is completely outside his characters, leaving the reader to imagine all the interior motivations, but here we're in the mind of the not very self-reflective protagonist, and his thoughts, denials, unstated desires are fascinating while tragic. The narrative strategy is also daring -- the crime isn't revealed until the very end, and there is understated ambiguity in its perpetration. Meanwhile, every description is crystal clear, the author is scrupulously fair to the reader and to his characters, the setting is portrayed deftly and convincingly, minor characters are sketched astutely, too. The story is haunting (I don't mean of the supernatural modality) and entirely relatable, even though the reader may not be guilty of anything at all. Highly recommended to Simenon fans, and a good place to start if you've never read him.

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Top reviews from other countries

Arupratan

Superb

Reviewed in India on September 11, 2018

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Superbly written novella by the creator of Inspector Maigret. This is not a hard core whodunnit but certain narrative tension are there which makes it a compelling read. Simenon is no doubt one of the greatest chronicler of human nature of twentieth century.

Bill Siegfried

An Existential Masterpiece!

Reviewed in Germany on June 22, 2016

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This must be one of Simenon's finest achievements as the reader can only watch in horror as the protagonist is trapped by the all too human flaws in his character.

Officer Dibble

Afternoon delight

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 9, 2016

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Tony and Andree live a double life between 'tumultuous ardent hours' in a room in the Hotel des Voyageurs and their very ordinary provincial, bourgeos families. The intensity of the passion is dangerous and both must face up to which part of their lives is real and viable. Frank, adult, existential. Oddly reminiscent of 'The Postman Always Rings Twice' if you haven't read Simenon before and are looking for a comparison with this particular novel.

One day I'll get round to reading Maigret but for now I'll continue with Simenon's other novels and based on what I've read of these, Simenon sits at the top table of 20th Century authors. This is an oustanding novel which somehow managed to exceed already sky-high expectations.

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TigerTiger

Not a Maigret book. A whodunnit (initially a whodunwhat) with a difference.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 25, 2018

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Chosen for a book group, I wanted something short and punchy. We haven’t discussed it yet, but I think this achieved the aim.

jayantianil

Four Stars

Reviewed in India on September 29, 2015

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