Simenon, Georges

(zhôrzh sēmənôN´), 1903–89, Belgian novelist. One of the most prolific of modern authors, he is best known for the detective stories featuring Inspector Maigret. He also wrote more than a hundred pyschological novels, which he called romans durs (hard novels), such as The Stain on the Snow (1938) and The Cat (1976).

See his Intimate Memoirs (1981, tr. 1984); study by L. Becker (1977); biographies by F. Bresler (1985) and P. Assouline (1998).