The London Lounge

Every day Louis Thouret leaves his home and wife to go to work at the firm of Kaplan et Zanin in the black suit, black tie and black shoes he wears every day. One evening, he does not return home. His body is found lifeless in an alley off the Boulevard St.-Martin, with one astonishing clue: he is wearing beautiful brown shoes and a colored tie that his wife has never seen and swears cannot possibly be his.

This is the proposition Georges Simenon offers readers in his Maigret et l’homme au banc , Maigret and the man on the park bench (1953.) It tells the story of a man whose firm goes bust and out of shame refuses to tell his wife. So he gets up everyday, dresses for work, leaves the house and returns in the evening as normal. But during the day, instead of working at the now defunct firm, Louis Thouret leads a double life. Maigret tracks the man with the wonderful brown shoes and gaily coloured tie, who spends his days on a park bench, to a small boarding room where he finds the black shoes and black tie. He also finds Antoinette Machere, Thouret’s girlfriend who used to work at the firm.

You see Thouret leaves his home everyday and goes to the boarding room to change his shoes and tie and begin anew his daily double life whose finances are met by burglary along with his accomplice Fred, the clown. He meets his end in an alley during a heist under circumstances that you will have to read to discover..

Simenon renders, as usual, a compelling psychological profile, a man longing for freedom and individuality in an oppressive society. The symbol of this freedom is the shucking off of the black shoes and tie that represent the shackles of his daily conformity. Thouret talks about wanting a pair of brown shoes his entire life. But he fears losing his wife, job and friends if he ever dared wear them. So he waits for decades, until the moment of passage into the double lifestyle to make his dream a reality. Seeking freedom at all costs, even for half a day, Thouret must turn to crime and finds death in the process.

It occurs to me to think of this novel when I listen to remarks made by men faced with such calamitous and perilous decisions as to wear a strip of cotton or silk around the neck, or a double breasted suit, a lively patterned sportscoat, or a Dinner Jacket etc. The decades of cowering and the irresistible drive for self expression and passionate romantic pleasure, finally drive Thouret to the sartorial equivalent of “Give me liberty or give me death.”

Get free young men, and get free now!

Cheers

M Alden

There was a similar Sherlock Holmes story about a man who became a beggar because it paid better than working at the bank. Without telling his respectable suburban wife.

There's also a Twilight Zone episode concerning a man whose life was stalked by a perfect double. Finally, in a desperate attempt to differentiate himself from the twin, who was interfering with his affairs, he broke decades of habit and bought a wild tie, making sure that his secretary knew of the switch. A well-schooled double would never have the imagination to think of that touch. Unfortunately, it proved to be his undoing, as the double convinced the police that he (the twin) was the original and that the actual original was the fake, having slipped up only on the question of the tie.

Interesting posts. (To my surprise (and chagrin), I've never read the novel or the story and never saw the episode!)

Lack of compulsion to conform (except to save another's life or reasonable self-esteem) is, I think, a hallmark of most Loungers -- thank goodness! Yet we do restrain ourselves somewhat in matters sartorial: I, for example, might feel most comfortable in a mid-Byzantine dalmatica . . . made up in a richly-embroidered, heavy silk . . . hmmm . . . perhaps I should have a talk with a tailor . . . .

Wasn’t this title also incorrectly translated/published as and the Man on the Boulevard? I only mention this for those who may be new to the series and starting their search. Think the most prolific translator was Ellenbogen (sp?) but if someone is close to their library, please correct me if this is false.

JAS

Wasn’t this title also incorrectly translated/published as and the Man on the Boulevard?

Yes. "Bench" is correct as Monsieur Thouret spends his days on a park bench watching the comings and goings of his next burglary victims.

I, for example, might feel most comfortable in a mid-Byzantine dalmatica . . . made up in a richly-embroidered, heavy silk . . .

RWS, life is short, get that dalmatica now.

Well, call me old fashioned, but the first story is an excellent cautionary fable on the dangers of wearing brown shoes in town and - of dipping the nib in the office ink.
NJS