Maigret Meets a Milord | Literary Precedents

Maigret Meets a Milord Literary Precedents

The detective novel has its origins in the Romantic period in the work of Honore de Balzac. The dark, mysterious truth was to be discovered by a superior being, bandit or policeman, living outside the norms of society. In the post-Romantic period, the detective novel of Edgar Allan Poe gave precedence to reason over the forces of darkness, and Arthur Conan Doyle enhanced the power of the intellect by adding the advances of modern science. After World War I, however, the findings of Freud gave greater importance to the irrational forces of the unconscious. Simenon's Maigret represents this latest change in emphasis.