Home | Books By Year | Books from 1938
The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By (novel)
Buy The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By (novel) now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the book. And once you've experienced the book, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By', first published in English in 1938, is a crime thriller by Georges Simenon about a man's rapid descent into criminality and madness following sudden financial ruination. A film adaptation was released in 1952.
Plot summary
Kees Popinga, a quiet, respectable Dutchman working as head clerk in Groningen becomes increasingly unhinged after discovering that his cynical employer has looted and ruined his firm and confides in him that he will fake a suicide in order to escape punishment. Accepting a large sum of money from his erstwhile employer, Popinga sets out for Amsterdam, hoping to ingratiate himself with his employer's mistress, Pamela: but she mockingly laughs in his face, infuriating him. Popinga assaults her and accidentally kills her. He then hurriedly leaves town, eventually making his way to Paris. There, every day, he buys the various newspapers which carry the story of the murder. Although Chief Inspector Lucas of the Police Judiciare confidently predicts that Popinga will be arrested at any moment, Popinga successfully evades them. He begins sending letters to the police and to the newspapers, playing a sort of cat and mouse game. Soon the man becomes more and more delusional, seeing himself as a master criminal and certain that the woman he has become involved with, a prostitute named Jeanne Rozier, is genuinely interested in him, rather than in her pimp/boyfriend, Louis. For a time, Popinga joins Louis's gang of car thieves and hides out with them. But his reputation as a dangerous murderer wanted by the French police, frightens them, and he takes off on his own. He wanders the streets of Paris and its outskirts, staying in cheap hotels with prostitutes by night, until a pickpocket steals his wallet containing all the money he has left. Just as he is attempting suicide, he is captured by the French police. The French authorities send him back to Holland where he is put in a mental institution.
Film adaptation
The book was adapted for the screen in 1952 as 'The Man Who Watched Trains Go By', starring Claude Rains and Mrta Torn and directed by Harold French. The story was changed to make Kees Popinga into a more sympathetic character.
References
*http://catalogue.bl.uk/|The British Library
*http://www.thereadingroom.com/books/details/the-man-who-watched-the-trains-go-by-georges-simenon/1976203
*http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-man-who-watched-trains-go-by-georges-simenon/1007037047?ean=9781590171493
Category:1938 novels
Category:Novels by Georges Simenon
Category:Belgian crime novels
Category:Belgian novels adapted into films
Category:French-language novels
Buy The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By (novel) now from Amazon
<-- Return to books from 1938