Sunday

by Georges Simenon, Nigel Ryan (Translator)

A Sunday in May—a Sunday like any other at the popular inn on the Riviera, except that this is the day Emile, the chef and proprietor, is preparing to murder his wife. He has rehearsed for a year. Ada, his mistress, is waiting on tables. His wife is ready for lunch before writing checks for the customers. Emile is in the kitchen. Everything is set.

Simenon builds the suspense with his incomparable mastery of character, bringing a silent struggle between husband and wife to a ruthless and uite unexpected culmination.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Crime, France, Noir, Belgian, Novels

126 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (1903 – 1989) was a Belgian writer. A prolific author who published nearly 500 novels and numerous short works, Simenon is best known as the creator of the fictional detective Jules Maigret.
Although he never resided in Belgium after 1922, he remained a Belgian citizen throughout his life.

Simenon was one of the most prolific writers of the twentieth century, capable of writing 60 to 80 pages per day. His oeuvre includes nearly 200 novels, over 150 novellas, several autobiographical works, numerous articles, and scores of pulp novels written under more than two dozen pseudonyms. Altogether, about 550 million copies of his works have been printed.

He is best known, however, for his 75 novels and 28 short stories featuring Commissaire Maigret. The first novel in the series, Pietr-le-Letton, appeared in 1931; the last one, Maigret et M. Charles, was published in 1972. The Maigret novels were translated into all major languages and several of them were turned into films and radio plays. Two television series (1960-63 and 1992-93) have been made in Great Britain.

During his "American" period, Simenon reached the height of his creative powers, and several novels of those years were inspired by the context in which they were written (Trois chambres à Manhattan (1946), Maigret à New York (1947), Maigret se fâche (1947)).

Simenon also wrote a large number of "psychological novels", such as La neige était sale (1948) or Le fils (1957), as well as several autobiographical works, in particular Je me souviens (1945), Pedigree (1948), Mémoires intimes (1981).

In 1966, Simenon was given the MWA's highest honor, the Grand Master Award.

In 2005 he was nominated for the title of De Grootste Belg (The Greatest Belgian). In the Flemish version he ended 77th place. In the Walloon version he ended 10th place.

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great psychological story. Set near Cannes with Emile a chef married to Berthe. He is battling with her and control of their restaurant and hotel. His master plan to eliminate Berthe with Ada a maid her replacement is the crux of the story.

It all goes wrong for him with Berthe one step ahead.

At the end of this story was an interview by Carvel Collins and Simenon. He asks Simenon his process. The author writes a novel in 11 days and how he dislikes Hollywood moral endings. It is interesting how Simenon in his revision edits by cutting out adjectives and adverbs. How he comes back to themes in his stories such as the problem of communication between two people. He recommends The Brothers Rico which I need to find and read. Fascinating interview.

[Daphna · Rating 4 out of 5]

In general, Simenon’s Noir protagonists seem at first to be normative persons going about their lives. Having read quite a few of his romans durs, it’s evident that they also all have ingrained within their psyche Shakespeare’s famous “fatal flaw” just waiting to be triggered. Emile is no different.

He marries Berthe at a young age in what is, at least as far as he is concerned, a marriage of convenience through which he becomes the de facto proprietor and manager of the inn and restaurant acquired by her parents. He does not love her nor is he attracted to her, but he likes the life he has forged for himself and satisfies his physical needs with random women.

Ever since their marriage Emile feels that he is constantly being observed and regulated by Berthe as if he were at the end of a short leash that she is holding. She was the one setting the ground rules for every aspect of their lives, intimate and public, and he gradually formulates the thought that he is her captive and that she is the enemy.

Once the triggering incident occurs, a seed is planted that will germinate and grow in his mind pushing him to break out of his captivity. The pace of the novel quickens and it becomes a thriller as we follow Emile’s meticulous planning.

Throughout the novel Berthe is exposed to us solely through Emile’s perspective. She has no voice of her own. And yet we become very conscious of her, always on the edges of his story, but with a presence that cannot be ignored. We perceive an intelligent woman, with agency and with a very good understanding of her husband, his flaws and motivations.

And this is where I stop so as not to inadvertently share any spoilers, and what a shame that the blurbs give away so much.

[Andy Weston · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of Simenon’s psychological thrillers, a bit lighter than much of his other stuff, but still one of his very best. Émile is the owner and chef of La Bastide, a restaurant in the Riviera. He came almost by accident into his life there, starting out as a cook in his family village. He has the chance to relocate and marries the owner's daughter Berthe and takes over management of the place. Soon though Émile becomes bored, and begins to resent his wife.  He longs for freedom and inevitably begins to imagine life without Berthe.
The writing is typically Simenon, spare and evocative. Typically also, we know what is in Émile’s mind, but the mystery is in how he is going to get there.
The freshly prepared cassoulet and bouillabaisse of La Bastide on hot summer days makes the south of France adds wonderfully to the seductive atmosphere.

[Paul R · Rating 4 out of 5]

The genius of Georges Simenon...”a disturber of other people’s peace of mind”. Simenon makes every word count. I highly recommend “Sunday”, “The Widower” and “Dirty Snow”. All highly disturbing and unsettling, but brilliant.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gets off to a clumsy start, not at all aided by Nigel Ryan's awkward translation, but picks up momentum to become a pretty strong Simenon crime novel.

[Stef Smulders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written, to the point, every word counts. Convincing psychology of the main character. Dark and malicious like a Hitchcock movie.

[Bev · Rating 2 out of 5]

Georges Simenon was an expert at setting and atmosphere. In Sunday (1958), he provides a perfect set-up for the isolated and trapped husband to a woman whose family has owned a popular inn on the Riveria. Initially, Emile is ready to be "bought" in order to be his own boss and run the inn and the kitchen the way he wants. If marriage to Berthe is what it takes then he doesn't mind. He even has a bit of affection at first. But he rapidly becomes disenchanted with her and begins an affair with one of the staff. When Berthe becomes very ill with a gastrointestinal malady, he starts planning how he might dispose of his wife without suspicion falling on him. He sets his due date as a Sunday in May and he's very pleased with how calm and cool he's been--how Berthe couldn't possibly know what's coming. But Berthe has a few surprises of her own.

Granted, this is very atmospheric and exhibits Simenon's skill with claustrophobic relationships. But, to be honest, Simenon's style just doesn't do a whole lot for me. The stories are so character- and atmosphere-drive that there is very little mystery and detection going on--which is what I'm looking for in a crime novel. Not that I don't want the characters to have depth; I do, but I don't want the investigation of their motivations and personalities to overwhelm the mystery aspect. I have tried Simenon several times and I have been unable to give him more than 3.5 stars. I think perhaps his style is better suited to others (obviously--because Sunday has a whole slew of 4 and 5 stars here on Goodreads). I'm afraid can't give this one more than ★★.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.

[Rick Skwiot · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently read this novel, "Sunday," paired with Simenon's "The Little Man from Archangel" in a 1966 Harcourt, Brace edition. Each novel has its own provincial French setting, each its own examination of marriage and adultery, and each its own claustrophobic horror. I never tire of Simenon, even after reading and rereading perhaps 100 of his compact novels over the years, including his Inspector Maigret series. Luckily, he wrote some 200 novels, so I can read on. His crisp, pointillistic style never betrays the presence of an authorial voice, never breaks the dream of his taut stories.

[Tony Bertram · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dry non Maigret but with the same characteristic spare writing. None of the understanding and kindness that Maigret shows for human frailty. These are unlovable people shown in the bright glare of the Provençal sun.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

From BBC radio 4:
A tense and vivid story, set in 1957, which takes place on a single day, in and around a modest auberge in the untamed wooded hills above Nice.
Ãmile is married to a domineering older wife, Berthe. It is her family that owns the little hotel 'La Bastide'. Although Ãmile is the chef, he feels like a servant. In an attempt to assert himself he starts an affair with one of the maids. But he continues to be humiliated by Berthe, just as he feels mocked by the pleasure-laden air of the Riviera. His hatred of his wife festers. Finally he hatches a plot to poison her - and now the day of reckoning has arrived...
A dramatisation by Ronald Frame of Georges Simenon's novel 'Dimanche', first published in 1959.

Ãmile ..... Grant O'Rourke
Berthe ..... Emma Currie
Ada ..... Melody Grove
Nancy ..... Francesca Dymond
Doctor ..... Michael Mackenzie
Waiter ..... Simon Tait
Mme Harnaud ..... Joanna Tope
Dramatised by Ronald Frame
Produced by Patrick Rayner

https://archive.org/details/SundayByG...

[Bill FromPA · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Provencal chef / innkeeper plans the murder of his wife – the setup is given in the first chapter and the execution of the murder plot in the last chapter. The rest of the novel is the back-story to this decision; Simenon therefore spends most of the book telling about the life of Emile, the chef who is his main character, his marriage and career and their disappointments and frustrations. It seems to me that the novel’s setup and denouement conflicts with the story presented in those interior chapters. Emile’s life and circumstances are presented almost like a clinical report on the progress of a disease and the circumstances that lead to his formulating a murder plan have a sense of a destiny working itself out, or perhaps of a chemical experiment with a highly predictable result. The murder plot itself and the twist at the end reminded me of the kind of stories that used to be presented as half hour dramas on the Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV show, so that the first and last chapters seem imported from a less serious literary tradition, one which uses tales of murder to entertain the reader, while the substance of the novel is a more serious examination of the way Emile’s behavior is shaped by his desires and his inability to fulfill them in the life he has led, or been led into.

[Aaron Martz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another propulsive study of an obsessive male. Like Hitchcock's innocent man wrongly accused, Simenon specialized in detailing the inner workings of the compulsively sexual, obsessive male who destroys his own life in an attempt at attaining the affections of a particular woman. This book shares a lot with The Blue Room, including a plot to murder his spouse with arsenic. It also shares, along with The Mahe Circle and The Hand, a protagonist who feels as if he has been forced into his life rather than carving it out for himself. In this case, the man is a chef who marries into a resort hotel, and ends up becoming obsessed with his maid, who is once again described, as in The Mahe Circle, as being a rather plain looking woman. So he plans to murder his wife, inherit the resort, and live happily ever after with the maid, or rather as close as you can get to happiness in a Simenon book, which isn't very close at all. Things don't go as planned, of course, and the conclusion is viciously satisfying. The book is deliciously propulsive for its closing chapters, almost gleeful in its maliciousness, as the protagonist plans in great detail a event we know is doomed, somehow, to fail, and like all good thrillers, its conclusion leaves you profoundly upset while at the same time with a smile on your face.

[Melinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simenon has a talent for taking a fraudulent and dysfunctional marriage and turning it upside down in a sinisterly dark manner. He takes the reader on the emotional and mental rollercoaster of his dark characters. He has a gift for noir that’s psychologically taunting.

Emile’s character is fully developed, we learn of inner most feelings and thoughts, back story, whereas Berthe’s character development is subdued but her deeper layers are revealed in scattered pieces towards the very end. I like the ambiguity Simenon created with Berthe’s feelings of Emile – love, possession or merely saving face. Their agreement to carry on to save embarrassment is unilateral frustrating Emile further.

The ending demonstrates Berthe’s true colors, backing up Simenon’s decision to keep her character under wraps until she bursts through the finish line, her stealth move leaving Emile in the dust. Nice major twist closes the character gap, as always Simenon never fails to surprise and deliver an edge to his inscrutable cast and narrative, the ending always immensely gratifying.

[JJ Larsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A shocking novel and one of Simenon's best. A young chef is "bought" by the family who owns the restaurant where he works. He marries the daughter of the family, and in the the beginning he is happy with his life. He doesn't love his wife but accepting how things are. He is the boss at the restaurant now and people from the village likes him. But little by little he feels that his wife is controlling him and his life too much. When he starts a relationship with one of the girls working in the place, things are getting tough for real. In the end he feels that he has to get rid of his wife. Not by divorcing her, but by killing her. He starts planning a murder, and at last the day comes where it's going to happen...

Quite a few things make this novel a masterpiece. The characters, the atmosphere, the excitement. I can only recommend it!

[HansBlog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deutsche Rezension aus HansBlog.de:

Aus Zufall geriet Emil in jungen Jahren als Koch in ein südfranzösisches Gasthaus, heiratete wie erwartet die kühle Tochter des Hauses, wurde damit Inhaber und unerfüllter Ehemann. Er tröstete sich mit der geheimnisvollen Küchenhilfe Ada, "ein wenig wie ein Tier…, zugleich sein Hund und sein Sklave". Schließlich aber will Emil etwas Wesentliches ändern.
Diese Geschichte erzählt George Simenon (1903 - 1989) nicht chronologisch. Die Haupthandlung des Buchs spielt an einem einzigen Sonntag und fokussiert auf Emil. Immer wieder gibt es lange Rückblenden auf ihn und andere Beteiligte. Und immer wieder deutet Simenon überdramatisch Bevorstehendes an: "Noch drei Stunden, dann war alles entschieden".
Was jedoch geschehen soll und ob Emil dann überhaupt der Hauptakteur ist, das verrät Simenon in der ersten Buchhälfte nicht, auch wenn er Vermutungen nahelegt. Dieses dräuende Andeuten in der ersten Buchhälfte erscheint aufdringlich und abgeschmackt. Vielleicht hätte Simemon das sogar selbst gemerkt, wenn er seine eigenen Romane nur korrekturlesen und/oder einen Lektor dranlassen würde.
Andererseits liefert Simenon in den Rückblenden viel reizvolles Lokalkolorit aus dem ländlichen Frankreich, vor allem Südfrankreich, und wie fast immer gehören dazu auch viele lebensechte Details, glaubwürdige Figuren und keine unglaubwürdigen Zufälle. Besser als Leipzigerschulemurks also allemal.
Und vor allem im letzten Drittel, wenn erzählte Jetztzeit und Rückblenden zusammenfließen, erhält der Roman einige Spannung – und ein überraschendes Ende.
Freie Assoziationen
Eine karge Haupthandlung, die sich über wenige Stunden oder Tage erstreckt, aber mit langen Rückblenden durchsetzt ist, liefert Simenon auch im Roman Betty. Beide Romane zeigen auch folgenträchtiges außereheliches Treiben auf ehelichem Grund.
Das überraschende Ende erinnert inhaltlich und dramaturgisch etwas an Simenons Der Zug.

[Brian Hicks · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a nasty little book. SPOILER ALERT - I'm going to tell the ending. And, since I am giving such a glowing review you are going to go right out and read it, right?

I like Simenon, at least the later stuff, with Inspector Maigret. This was published in 1958. It is very sort and I thought it would be fun read. The whole thing is basically a guy planning to murder his wife and justifying this to himself. I suppose it is interesting in that this is not the usual murder mystery or detective story setup. No mystery here.
I kept reading because clearly something was going to go wrong and I was hoping that the mistress, who knew about the plot but who was virtually a deaf-mute, was going to foil him in the end - much to his surprise because he just assumed she would go along with it. But no. The plot fails, but in the wrong way - the harmless, likeable mistress gets poisoned. And the asshole is not going to be caught. Somehow, in 1958, having this harmless person die constitutes him getting his comeuppance.
Nasty little book...

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the first book I read at the beginning of the virus spreading its dark tentacles throughout Europe on my return to Oxford and it feels prescient of the things to come. Not in the content itself but in the feeling of impending claustrophobia and doom descending. A dark psychologial study in a mind of one cornered anti-hero on the beautiful French Riviera with tragic consequences for those around by one of the celebrated masters of crime fiction. A book to read on a Sunday...

[NoID · Rating 5 out of 5]

Est-ce vraiment très moral de projeter de tuer son mari ou son épouse ? Nul besoin de réponse, pourtant, dans nombre de ses romans, Simenon s’amuse de situations où l’on pourrait se dire que… ma foi… le ou la pauvre avait bien des raisons pour.

C’est amoral, certes, mais bon !

Mais ici, il ne s’arrête pas là et plonge encore plus profondément dans le sordide.

Un roman dur comme une master class !

https://www.noid.ch/dimanche/

[Lili Bammens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Een van de mindere "romans durs" van Simenon voor mij.

[s. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quelle homme dégoûtant..

[Cornelis Broekhof · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simenon in topvorm!

[Francis Defourny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un des meilleurs sur la nature humaine... et la lâcheté de l'homme.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a clever Simenon murder mystery, although certainly not in the top tier of his canon. A man named Emile has married into a family that owns a hotel, La Bastide, but his marriage to Berthe is not a happy one. Emile soon becomes involved in an affair with a housemaid, Ada, and carries on with it for quite a while before Berthe detects it. Berthe essentially holds Emile hostage -- he must give up Ada if he wants to maintain his stake in the hotel, and he is also required to carry on as if there is nothing amiss with the marriage so that appearances are maintained.

One afternoon Berthe becomes severely ill with food poisoning, and the local physician indicates that Berthe is particularly susceptible to this type of illness because of a poorly functioning liver. Emile hits upon the idea of poisoning his wife with with arsenic so that he can finally be free of her and have Ada for his own. He plots for almost a year and designates one Sunday as the day that the murder will take place. But of course, as in all Simenon novels, things never turn out quite as planned, and Emile becomes more of a prisoner than ever before.

This is an enjoyable book, with good character delineation of both Emile and Berthe. The plot twist at the end, however, is almost too predictable, and it robs the work of depth. But it's diverting and worth the two evenings I spent reading it.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is like a long boozy lunch followed by a hot afternoon's drunken fornicating with someone you don't like. It's kind of great and sort of unfortunate. I felt like I needed a shower (or maybe just a sponge bath) after this and then I felt like doing it again. Kinda grubby, kinda hot. I just didn't feel like spooning afterwards.

[Paul Servini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well paced story, kept me on edge until the very end.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book about an innkeeper planning to murder his wife. The wife notices everyhting, and at the end turns the tables on her husband.

[Mikee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes you just have to kill someone. A delicious twist at the end gives pause.

[Sammcnair · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the ending was a surprise, and not a happy one, it seemed just. Glad that improper behavior didn't merit a reward.

[Michelle Warren]

Awesome book, I listened to it as an audiobook