Mark already confirmed Nestor Burma, French PI created by Leo
Malet, one of the founders of modern HB/noir in France. Not
much of the series was translated.
You must understand that it is far more difficult
to make a French PI believable as the official status of a PI
in that country makes the detective very controlled in his
actions, spheres and inquiries. This explains that there are
not so many; however under the American influence, some
authors did create "classic" PIs acting in France, often not
very believable for a French reader, and not always of great
interest.
So, to go around the difficulty, French authors
will from time to time use private detectives, without real
status: sorts of occasional free-lances.
=Quite recently, Patrick Raynal created a HB PI,
having an office and doing regularly investigations for
clients: Corbucci. A very good Gallicised tribute to the
genre (there are 3 books until now, the first one being a
collection of shorts). I don't think any were
translated.
=Jean-Patrick Manchette (a very influential
author - the best of his generation), in two of his novels,
created a totally atypical PI: Eug讥 Tarpon. They are not
translated.
The first one (1973: "Morgue pleine" = the morgue
is full) was adapted for film, and is probably until now the
best adaptation of Manchette's work for film: POLAR (France -
1983)
=ADG - another important HB/noir author, having
had influences on the authors that followed- used a trick in
a series: his "detective" is in fact a journalist working in
the deepest of deep provincial France. Name: Serguie
Djerbiskine, nicknamed Machin, because nobody can remember
his name or pronounce it. Atypical, anarchist but not
leftist, obese, this character is an achievement. Plus irony
and black humor. Not translated.
=Jean Mazarin: quite a prolific author, but with
some real achievements. He created a series with a PI living
in south of France: Francklin Puntacavallo. I do not think it
was ever translated.
There are others, but often of minor
interest.
Hope this helps.
E.Borgers
POLAR NOIR
http://www.geocities.com/polarnoir
ninposamurai <
ninposamurai@yahoo.com> a 飲it : Hi. How many
hard-boiled French detectives,are there? There's not
many,PI'S,that i know of. Thank You! Sincerely, Jeff
Brown
---------------------------------
D飯uvrez une nouvelle fa篮 d'obtenir des r鰯nses ࠴outes
vos questions ! Profitez des connaissances, des opinions et
des exp鲩ences des internautes sur Yahoo!
Questions/R鰯nses.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 23 Mar 2007 EDT