André Gide considered Georges Simenon to be one of the finest novelists of the century. He even went so far in 1939 as to state (as quoted in Cahiers de la Petite Dame, volume 4, 1977, p. 263) that he was "le plus grand peut-être et le plus vraiment romancier" (the greatest, the one who is most truly a novelist). This judgment is shared and even surpassed by those admirers who consider him the best novelist of all time. Yet to innumerable readers in France and throughout the world he is little more than a prolific author of detective novels. Although apparently contradictory, these two views--one coming from a demanding critic--can be reconciled if one realizes that in detective fiction plot is supreme, making it appeal to those who read for the story alone, and yet, since a measure of craftsmanship and considerable invention, sometimes great ingenuity, are required...